To The Nations

The continuous mortification of mankind by the novel Corona Virus makes everyone feel hesitant to draw conclusions at this time. It is also hasty to put the blame at the doorstep of the World Health Organisation and other global agencies in charge of monitoring the health systems of the states on this planet.

Everyone was or is at fault. However, the WHO could not establish when the virus was virulent and when it was not initially. No blame game here.

A quick search in the past indicates that there have been a number of outbreaks of the pandemic with serious consequences. This current one is very epic and surprising in the era and age of technology and advancement. It must be the basis for every one state to be ready in its armory in fighting diseases. The fight against sicknesses and diseases is not ending as more serious ones like Corona Virus are being added in the catalogue.

The World is seen as a global village currently. Globalization has many advantages to every country but its negative impacts are deeply felt during the occurrence of pandemics. Economic recessions affect many countries too. The power of globalization should have been realised as a causative agent in the transmission of a virulent virus. China is the number one destination for trade for many countries currently.

Majority of African countries import from China. It is also a destination for many production units. Therefore, the detection of the contagious nature of the virus was a necessity. In the learning curve of the World at large, future instances of outbreaks will demand collaborative efforts to detect and report the infectious nature of diseases.

With globalization, it is very easy to contract diseases and transmit them to other countries as human contact are established easily through trade, tourism, international travels, games etc. In the traditional structure of living, the problem of a neighbour is a problem of the entire village folks. When the house of a neighbour catches fire, the rest of the village folks gather with strength to quench the fire. This is because, the raging fire does not discriminate and can destroy theirs too. The other states and their leaders needed to have offered China a helping hand in their fight. No one did. We are suffering the complacency of the leaders of the states in the World. This is a fact and must not be ignored in the future. The rest of the World had been complacent and believed the spread of the virus was only China’s. It was considered a Chinese problem and not the entire World.

As a warning for future outbreaks and fight against pandemics, the complacency of the leaders of the states in the World must be checked. There have been outbreak of diseases in every decade or two. That is, in every ten (10) or twenty (20) years novel diseases are detected. Can the World boast of properly established research laboratories capable of helping to detect the latent nature of diseases? The rest of the World had been self-satisfied with the efficiency of their health systems. There was no proper and adequate surveillance on the possible transmission of the virus from its origin to other states. In many parts of the world today, it takes several months to detect the emergence of new diseases. Hospitals still use try-and –error method of curing illnesses. There ought to be laboratory equipment to always test and detect diseases in order to prescribe the right medicines. Diseases that are uncommon must be examined thoroughly and be reported for further study by experts. From the current happenings, all countries need not wait on the WHO to declare a disease pandemic before preparing for it. The initially affected country need to release every piece of information quickly to other states to be examined in their laboratories.

The advancement of the welfare of the citizenry of all countries cannot be achieved without proper and functioning health systems. The health systems of the entire World are generally bad. It is true that during pandemics, the number of patients reporting to these facilities is usually great than ordinarily happens. The focus is on other sectors at the detriment of the health sector.

There is the need for a formidable collaborative effort to train more research scientists into medicine and diseases. There is also the need to build more research laboratories to conduct in-depth studies into the core causes of diseases and illnesses in general with traces of some antecedents of the outbreak of pandemics. The existence of such collaboration and laboratories could have provided ample grounds and evidence to tackle the Corona Virus.

To the nations: there must be more absorbed attention that is focused on the development of proper health systems and research laboratories as is done to the development of nuclear energy or power, nuclear bombs, exploration of oil and other minerals. The poor nature of the World health system affect every sector and could be recipe for several months or years of recession.

The report of every novel disease or sickness uncommon in any vicinity needs to be tested and recounted for further research about its characteristics for appropriate caution. In a decade or two, will nations be readily prepared for another outbreak of a disease as devastating as this? The lessons must be learned now and emergency measures are taken to curb future outbreaks.

The outbreak of a disease in any specific geographical location needs to be studied immediately as it occurs to inform all nations of its properties. This is critical because in the age of globalization, countries depend on one another for raw materials in the form of inputs, finished goods etc. The spread of any disease can easily be done in a matter of hours, days, weeks or months.

One of the several negative impacts of globalization is what the World currently experiences. The reasons the nations need to independently build laboratories as they do for factories is explicable. Research Scientists and their work cannot be taken lightly. Health systems are key and need to be built like soldiers are trained for the internal and external security of the state. The security of the health of the people need to be given superior attention. The emergence of novel diseases is a warning to the leaders of the states on the planet. Health Emergency Funds need to be set up for future outbreaks. All nations must plan for epidemics that could explode to biblical proportions.

Emmanuel Kwabena Wucharey

Economics Tutor – Kintampo SHS.