APRIL 26 — Covid-19 is having an unprecedented impact on humanity. I was trained to see everything with a scientific mind.

Many theories have been propounded as to the origin and cause of this fatal infection – from espionage to human greed.

However, reading the various reports, to my mind, the most plausible explanation seems to be the price "modern” man is paying for wantonly and carelessly breaching the human to animal barrier ; by not confining ourselves to animals domesticated for human consumption for centuries, we have exposed ourselves to viruses that the human body has no defenses against - the consumption of wild animals like pangolins and bats being examples.

In support of this, researchers have also highlighted other zoonotic diseases – where diseases are spread from animals to man.

The plaque in Europe (rats and ticks), Nipah virus in Malaysia (Pigs), SARS (possibly Bats and Civet Cats) and MERS (Dromedary Camels) in Middle East.

A 2014 report suggests that there are more than 200,000 viruses resident in wild animals that the human body has not been exposed to. Some of these viruses adapt and coexist in their animal hosts in a "live and let live” relationship but once they get into humans this relationship no longer holds and illness which may be fatal, results.

Sometimes the virus mutates (changes occur in its genetic code) which causes it to become more potent. There is an excellent article explaining Covid-19 published in the Sydney Morning Herald on 29^th March 2020, by Liam Mannix titled "The Perfect Virus”.

These viruses having found a new host that cannot eradicate them, multiplied rapidly and spread very fast. We were lackadaisical especially at the beginning (and Donald Trump surprisingly still is, even now) and did not take the infection seriously enough.

Modern day international travel facilitated the pandemic. Prevention is the best way to eradicate the pandemic - community lockdown, social distancing, hand hygiene and wearing masks are important measures. Not being selfish and being absolutely honest about your symptoms and contacts, with front line doctors will save your lifes and that of others.

As his holiness the Pope said "We should not live in fear”. Many patients are fearful of coming to hospitals because of the fear of contracting the virus – because of this patients with heart attacks, strokes and similar emergencies miss out on the huge benefits of early treatment.

All hospitals have taken great pains to screen patients and separate those with infections from those with non infectious illnesses. I have thus been counselling patients who contact me, to not delay getting early treatment for emergencies.

The human race is very resourceful. History has seen us survive many cataclysmic events. I join the optimists in being confident that we will overcome this pandemic.

One of my God fearing patients had another take on the pandemic. He said we had incurred God’s wrath because the human race has become very depraved – not only have we pilfered and  cheated one another, we have raped Mother Nature -  and it is this latter sin in particular, that we are paying the price for.

Whether you believe in God or not, we all have to agree that man’s wanton and selfish clearing of the jungles, building dams and flooding vast tracts of land, killing and displacing wild animals from their natural habitat amongst other callous activities, has disrupted our harmony with nature.

And nature has fought back! Our forefathers were brilliant people. Though not schooled in modern day science, their keen observations resulted in formulating rules to ensure living harmoniously with nature. I have always respected the wisdom of our forefathers.

Thus, I was captivated when a day after the Herald article, I read an excellent letter in the Star written by Professor Emerita Wazir Jahan Karim. She wrote about the beliefs of an Indigenous tribe the Ma’ Betise’ who lived near the mangrove swamps in our country.

To ensure harmonious coexistence with nature, their forefathers divided animals, plants and trees into two groups. One that humans can consume for survival and the other that humans are forbidden to kill or destroy.

The pangolins I referred to above belong to this latter group. The Ma’ Betise’ had particular fondness for the pangolin because it has human like qualities - it produces one offspring at a time and milk feeds the babies.

The Ma’ Betise’ and some other cultures, consider the placenta after birth as the dead twin and respectfully bury it.

Likewise the pangolin wraps itself around the placenta after birth protecting it against marauding enemies. Killing a pangolin is unthinkable to the Ma’ Betise’ and it was predicted that if killed, it would release a mystical force that will go around the world and kill humans – Professor Wazir’s letter thus fascinated me especially given one of the current theories for Covid-19 being viruses resident in pangolins that crosses the human - animal barrier when people killed these gentle creatures.

Much has been written about the lessons humans will learn from the COVID pandemic. The most important of these must be our acknowledgement of the wrongs we have done to Mother Nature and our determination to set this right – it may well decide the fate of the Human race. 

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail