While the country is united on the fight against the spread of the virus, states are worried about livelihood of the underprivileged, forming the largest section of the society. Deaths caused by Covid-19 may be countable. But, there is hardly any dependable statistics of deaths due to hunger, starvation, malnutrition, heatwave, lack of sanitation and shelter in a country where nearly 500 million people live hand-to-mouth. The government of West Bengal, home of nearly eight percent of the country’s population, is naturally worried. The state favours a near-complete lockdown of virus hotspots and identified some 10 of them. But, the focus is: life must go on.

It may be interesting to note that even some of the worst Covid-19 hit countries such as Spain, Italy and Belgium have now decided to relax lockdown rules to benefit their economies and the common man. The world’s most populated country by size and home of the world’s biggest number of poor, India can hardly ignore the plight of nearly 40 percent of its citizens, living mostly on daily wages, while imposing lockdown across the nation. Even the virus-hit city state of Singapore, one of the world’s richest, has gone for only a selective month-long lockdown that allows transport services, food establishments, all markets and supermarkets, clinics, hospitals, utilities and banking services to remain open. Other economic sectors “that are strategic, or form part of a global supply chain" are not closed in Singapore. Germany, the world’s third largest economy, has drawn up a list of steps to help enable a phased return to normal life after its coronavirus lockdown is set to end on April 19. Germany has been under lockdown, with restaurants and most shops closed, since March 22. With the impact of lockdown almost certain to dip Europe's largest country into recession this year, policymakers are anxious to see normal life resumes gradually.

The fact is that Coronavirus — like all other highly killer viruses in the past — is here to stay, maybe in a less virulent form, no matter how drastic measures such as lockdown, self-quarantine, maintaining social distance, etc., are taken to temporarily contain the spread of the virus and loosen its sting. No effective vaccine or drug has yet been discovered to blunt the impact of any of the lethal viruses. Pandemics benefit only the drug industry. It is well established that one’s own immunity and antibody, are the best vaccines and drugs before and after one confronts virus. And, the best immunity and antibody comes from sustained nutrition. Unfortunately, the poor have little access to sustained nutrition.

Hundred years ago, Spanish Flu reportedly killed a record 50 million people across the world. It was estimated that about 500 million people or one-third of the world's population at that time became infected with this virus. Of the number of Spanish Flu deaths estimated worldwide, about 675,000 occurred in the United States. Ironically, even this time, the US recorded the largest number of Coronavirus attacks and casualties. Spanish Flu, which became pandemic, between 1918 and 1920, may have been contained but not conquered. Like Coronavirus, Spanish Flu (now popularly known as H1N1) is also said to find its origin from rats, bats and pigs and originated in China. According to historian Mark Humphries of Canada's Memorial University of Newfoundland, newly unearthed records confirm that one of the side stories of the war — the mobilisation of 96,000 Chinese labourers to work behind the British and French lines on World War I's western front—may have been the source of the pandemic. Even after 100 years, H1N1 continues to be a major threat to life. The 1918 Spanish Flu or Swine Flu pandemic struck across the globe and is tied to a strain of H1N1 influenza ancestral to the ones still virulent today. Few keep a track of H1N1 virus related deaths in the world, today.

During this century, the world witnessed the spread of several deadly viruses killing lakhs of people to become pandemic. Among them are: SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) in 2003; Central African Ebola virus in 2014; MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome), in 2015; Brazil-originated Zika Virus in 2015. In the spring of 2003, China was again struck badly by the sudden outbreak of SARS. Though these viruses are somewhat controlled today, but they continue to exist in various forms, killing people who do not respond to known medical treatment. The technical name of the virus that causes COVID-19 is abbreviated as SARS-CoV-2. Experts say Covid-19 is highly contagious but less fatal than other viruses. According to the US drug regulatory authority’s Centre for Disease Control, over 80 percent of the people infected with Covid-19 experience mild symptoms, 14 percent have severe problems like pneumonia and shortness of breath, and five percent come down with a critical condition like sepsis, multi-organ failure and respiratory failure. While it is nice to see the world is united to fight the new virus, many countries are now in favour of relaxing lockdown pains to strike a balance between life and livelihood. In India, Bengal leads the initiative. (IPA Service)