The third wave and the fightback of Humans against Corona.
The word ‘wave’ has trended so much that people have mostly replaced its first connection with the ocean and handed it over to Corona or Covid-19. Three years, in as many waves and avatars and countless alphabetical mutated forms that seemed to have gotten the regularity of a web series.
The most talked about form of Corona, ironically, was in its smallest size, that started sharing screen space with other headlines around the world. As the Omicron would show the world, the virus was faster, smaller, nimble, easy to spread and ready to show up everywhere, even getting region specific variant names which scientists settled to Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and finally the Omicron. Though ‘variants of interest’ popped up with Mu and Lambda, they were kept out of the honours by the ‘variants of concern’ :)
The race to save had begun: Omicron spread fast in many parts of the world, and since then, also almost got an endemic status in India and many parts of the world. As the community spread reached the peak in many countries, mortalities climbed down drastically, showing more resistance to the new avatar of the attacker. In parts of Europe, they had decided to give it the same status of ‘flu,’ while following the covid safety protocols.
The truth was out and a well-prepared world was ready to combat.
Covid had lost its status of the scary attacker and been reduced to a common flu. Countries, companies, scientists raced to make vaccines that could delay or shield or reduce the danger posed from Corona. So we had the first dose, then the second dose and then before we thought it was all over, came the booster dose. What started with giving special care to seniors first, then people with medical history, then the middle aged was finally threatening to reach the children, who have braved it with a strong immunity.
The world took notice, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi shared a welcome tweet that India had achieved a milestone of a 1 Billion covid vaccinations in 10 months. No mean feat this, being a country with a population of 1.3 billion or almost an 18% share of the world population. This, even when some vaccine makers or their parent countries were busy trying to create legislations to reserve first-user rights on their manufactured vaccines. India went ahead and created its own vaccine that it has now also shared with the world. India is also at the forefront to make the vaccine available without patent to everyone, but it is yet to be seen how that pans out with global manufacturers.
A battle-ready world: While different sections of the world population had their own share of challenges to take care, some emotional, some infrastructure reality-check, some situational, some logistical, some population-centric, the little ones across the world had now gotten used to learning from their homes. Institutions and their brave teachers had reoriented themselves to a new way of teaching that bought the classroom home or wherever the student was. At one end, it exposed the vulnerability of those who could not get the right gadgets and were slipping in the learning milestones while at the other end, it also showed how the righteous ones came together like NGOs which worked hard with the Government to fill the gadget, teacher or learning gap in more ways than one.
Physical training got a hit, with students staring at the screens longer. Social conditioning came with new challenges as children were away from their school mates for a longer time. But the teachers have held it all together, and made sure we will soon cross the tide. Today, as schools get set to open up, we are sure that the missing years will just be lost like a forgotten nightmare.
From mask to double-mask, lunch boxes giving space to sanitisers, social distancing becoming the new norm to not get into anyone’s hair, humans fought back the war with Corona in more ways than one. Now, the overstaying guest called Corona has also lost respect and many more are willing to brave it, live it and carry on with their life while taking all precautions. So if you were to enter an office, a mall or a swimming pool you had to flash your two certifications of the vaccine. In India, a government app made it easy for vaccination certificated to be accessible and digitally ready at all times to flash the permissions.
A wiser world shall overcome: Soon, businesses will catch up, children will get back into sports again, learning levels will be back, health will become a priority in a systematic way, entertainment and hospitality will spring back to life, albeit with a rider, and we will start breathing again with full mindfulness. The near and dear ones people lost to the virus will always have a special place in everyone’s hearts.
The fact that all through this vicious cycle of Corona we had the army of health workers, sanitation workers, essential vendors, security providers, inspired citizens and many heroes in many more forms as ‘Corona Warriors’ who have always stood there to protect and support each other. We hope the world now understands more empathy and the value of human life.
