Right now on the planet, the besieger Coronavirus, also dubbed Covid-19 is still up like a lion from his thicket. The destroyer of the nation’s peace is still out there; he’s peregrinating from place to place, turning land into waste, it wants to ruin our cities. Its techniques are horrendous and dangerous, so much that it’s overwhelming the minds of the world governments. We can hear it bellows blow fiercely in China, heaping oppression upon oppression in New York, pulling out Italy like a sheep for the slaughter, and setting Africa apart for the day of slaughter. Covid-19 has rendered our health professionals into a scarecrow in a cucumber field, making them out of strategies. Our wounds are becoming grievous, our cords are almost broken, that our governments are forced into locking everything; our places of worships are surceased, our markets close down, our businesses desolated, borders cut off, aircrafts grounded, and many other imperatives postponed because the virus deals treacherously with us. Our adversary, coronavirus prowls around day and night, roaring like a lion, seeking someone to devour, it’s a matter of our concern.
Everyone on earth should all be familiar with the word coronavirus, perhaps it should be one of the world’s most talked over a phrase, if not the most discussed word daily. The everyday talks of a virus that was identified in December 2019 in Wuhan, has extended it pangs of unkindness around the world. Research showed that the coronavirus came from a larger family of Coronaviruses that are known to cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases, that this virus caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2 which invades the respiratory tract via the nose. After an incubation period of about 3 days, they cause the symptoms of a common cold, including nasal obstruction, sneezing, runny nose, and occasionally cough. The virus then resolves in a few days, during which virus is shed in nasal secretions. Putatively, the virus is not a routine virus or any other quotidian fever, it’s a sickening virus that has brought the whole world into the pandemic state.
It’s also quite intriguing and pathetic that this same virus didn’t but come with some odd beliefs, propaganda, and conspiracy theories surrounding the global coronavirus pandemic which have all beguiled the internet and the minds of people. Opinions and controversial thinkings coming out from world leaders, religious leaders, celebrities, and many more respected personalities across the globe. It’s consuming and engrossing that the set of beliefs and idea hasn’t been a result of scientific tables or identified school of research, perhaps some of them are just cognitional thoughts which are influencing and hoodwinking the minds of residents of this planet. Thus, some of these opinions shall be examined.
One of the most common conspiracy theories that have been dished and tattled since the beginning of COVID-19 hitting the space has been the idea that the Covid-19 is a man-made bioweapon that either escaped a Wuhan research lab or was released intentionally. It was opined that the Chinese city of Wuhan, which hosts a virology institute located near the wet market where researchers have been studying bat coronaviruses for a long time released the virus. The claim which suggested that the bats must have created the virus, escaped from the lab then spreading it out on the people. Again, another notion that is not distanced from the previous claim was that the Covid-19 virus was created as a biological weapon which was the part of the Chinese master plan to take control of the world by using this virus as a deadly weapon. Even according to Pew Research, “nearly three-in-10 Americans believe that COVID-19 was made in a lab,” either intentionally or accidentally, 23 percent believing it was developed intentionally, with only 6 percent believing it was accidental.
Furthermore, another side of the verdict which is mostly prevailing amidst Africans is the belief that coronavirus doesn’t exist, we have heard several sentimental talks from popular Nigerian musician, Azeez Fashola, who had claimed the virus is non-existing. Some famous controversial theorists like David Icke and Alex Jones and even many religious leaders had claimed that the virus doesn’t exist but it is a plot by the globalist elite to take away our freedoms. A complementary and prominent claim also included the 5G theories which take it backings religiously and somehow scientifically. They opined that the virus spreads using the electromagnetic spectrum, they tried comparing the scientifical waves with common biological proteins and nucleic acids. Maybe it’s questionable? They claim a connection between waves and viruses, tell me, how possibly will virus travel on mobile networks, when it’s not something spiritual, even World Health Organization (WHO) testified to the impossibility. I can imagine trying to merge two things which do not correlate.
I can go on and on highlighting so many ‘relevant and irrelevant’ conspiracy theories erupting from the space of Europe and down here in Africa; from the theories using Bill gates as a scapegoat, the one claiming the US military imported the virus into China, the theories of genetically modified crops, the theory claiming Covid-19 is just another malaria fever that is not worth the hype, and lot more. Little did I know why Mark Lynas was forced to conclude that the conspiracy theories behave like the viruses themselves, as they are spreading just as rapidly online as Covid-19 does offline. Isn’t this pathetic?
Above all dear readers, either we support or refute the intriguing conspiracy theories of Covid-19, I am saddened telling you that it has not hindered the virus from spreading it twinges like an Australian wildfire, infecting hundreds of thousands, and causing the deaths of thousands. Ostensively, it’s infecting the rich, the richest of the rich, the poor, the poorest of the poor. Maybe you can ask El-Rufai of Kaduna state or Seyi Makinde of Oyo state about its authenticity, you might also ask the family of bereaved Abba Kyari or perhaps ask the Infected GateKeeper at the University College hospital, how true the virus portrays. The Virus is affecting everything, if not everyone.
In the light of this pandemic rave, the fight for the search for vaccines and drugs is ongoing both locally and internationally, albeit posing unusual challenges in the search for remedies, cracking up researchers, forcing them to scrap up some stages of the vaccines, such as the clinical trials. Science and her scientists are becoming clueless and oblivious. They are working hard to develop a vaccine and effective drugs against the disease. In fact, many different vaccines are being developed simultaneously, with one tested in the United Kingdom some days ago, and few others in Asia. Innovative strategies are being used in vaccine development are being used, most especially concerning common and similar viruses.
Consequently, the government of different countries and it’s subordinates are adopting different strategic measures in containing the virus, measures such as the creation of various isolation and epidemic centres all over the countries, restrictions of movement and enhancement of curfew, banning of large and religious gatherings, manufacturing and distribution of face masks and lot more in ensuring that we stop this hair-raising virus. Dear readers, I repeat once again, our adversary, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour, won’t we resist him? The devil here is Covid-19, let’s join hands to together, against all conspiracy theories, ensuring the world returns to her normal state.
Ogungbile Emmanuel Oludotun writes from the University of Ibadan
