Special to USAfrica magazine (Houston) and USAfricaonline.com, first Africa-owned, US-based newspaper published on the Internet.
Ken Okorie, an attorney, is a columnist and member of the Editorial Board of USAfrica
It was December 12, 2019 when patients in Wuhan in the Hubei Province of China developed shortness of breath and fever. The unusual disease was described as a strain of the Corona virus and named Wuhan Flu. In a matter of weeks it transmuted to all corners of the world, and became a pandemic, branded Covid-19. 6.5 million deaths later (about a million of them in the United States) Covid-19 remains a mystery, a poorly understood, unanswered, deadly question. Why?
Few occurrences in recent human experience have altered the state and course of life, as has Covid-19. It changed everything in how humans interact with one another, including where and how we work. Traditions and social gatherings, like major holidays, sporting events, and political rallies became dreaded forums from whence the virus metastasized and spread. Covid-19 obscured not only our way of life but also how we physically present. Wearing mask, previously a phenomenon in the Orient became a universal fashion trend. Presidents and peasants alike were all forced into partial facial hibernation under masks. It was easy to run into, but not recognize, a neighbor or known face that was partially covered. From school boards to parliaments, political wars raged over who, when and how to wear masks or get vaccinated. Efforts of public officials and compliant citizens desperate to arrest spread of the viruscollided with mostly fanatic, often unreasonable,claims of personal freedom and liberty. Ridiculousrivalry ensued as to whether science or policy makers should have the last word in human conduct and social behavior. Unruly mask resisters fought flight attendants and became added risk to the flying public. Adherents on both sides paid the ultimate price, including several leading anti-vaxxer disinformers. Several of their followers became victims, regretting (albeit too late) allowing themselves to be fooled or deceived.
On a broader sphere, Covid-19 remains the deadly enemy no eye sees, no hand touches, and no ear hears. Yet its devastation is ever so clear, even the blind sees it. The infection is an enemy no one knowshow to escape, thus sustaining a frightening proposition that Covid-19 will likely attack every living human at some point or the other. It is a matter of when, not if. Despite this ugly profile, the source or origin of the Wuhan flu, this global scourge, remains obscured. If known, it is unexplained. Why?
As an early patient in March 2020, I recall doctors and nurses at St Luke’s Hospital saying to me: “We are all learning”. At that stage not much was known about the disease, much less about a cure. I was simply quarantined within the walls of a hospital room, hopelessly wondering who was to help whom since patients and caregivers alike were at a loss! My sole reason for even getting a chance of a cure was my insightful, determined, persistent wife. You see, when I first went to St Luke’s, I was turned down and sent with explanation there was nothing they could do for me. But Star, my wife, saw my condition upon returnand was ballistic. Her phone call must have quakedthe hospital into a tailspin because they begged her to bring me back. She did.
To his credit, President Donald Trump, on whose watch the strange outbreak occurred, showed uncharacteristic leadership that yielded vaccines in record time. This has helped to arrest and managethe disease. Had the rest of Trump’s presidency been similarly positive, he could easily top the list among great leaders of history. Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and the other pharmaceuticals that took the challenge deserve kudos. Theirs is proof that science and technology do work.
Covid-19 statistics are staggering. Worldwide, 229 territories attacked, over 6 million lives claimed, and over 450 million infected altogether. 370 million of the infected fully recovered. United States bore the brunt with nearly a million dead, 60 million infected, of which 55.5 million recovered.
Approaching 2.5 years since the initial outbreak in Wuhan, Covid-19 has become a classic case of those who know not speaking, and those who don’t not asking the hard questions. The entire community of humanity remains largely in a puzzled dark!
In officially released language, a National Security task force mandated by President Joseph Biden to analyze the origins of Covid-19 merely “coalesced around two likely scenarios” without a definitive conclusion. Its report did not improve on theories advanced from the onset. One pointed to a laboratory accident while the other suspected human contact with infected animal. Remarkably, neither scenario had better than low or moderate confidence level; sufficient information was not adduced to assess better likelihood of one over the other.
The undisputed proposition is that the critical elements to unravel this puzzle remain with Wuhan, China. But China is not talking and less willing to share what it knows. Unlike past era when happenings in distant shores were largely remote fairy tales, Covid-19 is proof that today’s world has converged into a global village in which ideologies and national boundaries have essentially mooted and muffled. It took few weeks for the strange fever in Wuhan to become household challenge in all corners of the earth. In its path, Covid-19 has also confirmed that there are problems that cannot be prevented, much less solved, with money. Otherwise, what explanation is there for the phenomenon whereby the richer and technologically advanced countries of Europe and North America have faired far worse under Covid-19 than their counterparts in the economically worse positioned regions in tropical Africa and South America?
Why then is the world not insisting on answers? Why is China allowed to stonewall on a matter this impactful on all of humanity? For that matter, what functionality has the United Nations, its organs, and the host of other international assemblies when a matter this important can go unexplained for so long?
Science and technology have advanced human knowledge to levels unimagined even few decades ago. Archeology, anthropology and other spheres of study are unraveling ancient mysteries. Events of millions of years ago are explained; crimes of all colorations are solved. The deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) or hereditary material in humans and almost all other organisms are documented and understood. Yet Covid-19 remains invincible to human study and understanding? What’s really going on? Could it be a case of innocent ignorance or willful acquiescence? Is the world merely choosing to not see, hear or speak evil when it comes to Covid-19? There have been suggestions, albeit denied, that certain agencies of the United States government funded or supported some of the research in Wuhan where Covid-19 first erupted. Washington usually takes a strong lead searching for facts in circumstances like this. Why is finding the source and origin of Covid-19 so different?
