COVID-19 in Perspective

Lately, with the CoronaVirus, I find myself in a reminiscent place that of 2009 when I came up with a little idea of recycling partially used hotel soap from hotels in an effort to answer a hygiene question in the war and natural disaster afflicted regions of Africa. This was because I had been one of those victims of war under the reprobate leadership of Idi Amin and others. At the time I didn't envisage that this little idea would actually have any impact especially on the health of my fellow Africans. 

The question is why was this idea so important? Was it just an issue of poverty in Africa? Was it an issue of war or were the diseases that infected us so unique that as human beings we couldn't fight back. Poor sanitation at the time was responsible for an estimated 801,000 children younger than 5 years of age who perished from diarrhea each year, mostly in developing countries.

However, when people are taught basic hand-washing norms, you can significantly mitigate the poor health of these communities by:

·   Reducing the number of people who get sick with diarrhea by about 23-40%

·   Reducing absenteeism due to gastrointestinal illness in schoolchildren by 29-57%.

·   Reducing diarrheal illness in people with weakened immune systems by about 58%.

·   Reducing respiratory illnesses, like colds, in the general population by about 16-21%

Similarly, with Coronavirus when you wash your hands in tandem with other medical subscriptions you can actually fend this naughty little virus of its game plan. 

But as I examined why we have horrible diseases in Africa apart from the simple fact that they are relentless, there were two other major factors as to why diseases were successful against humans in my humble opinion. First was that as individuals we don't heed medical advice like with everything else. The second redoubtable reason is usually poor leadership on all levels of the state government.

Well with the Coronavirus we are seeing those two aspects of human failure; personal account and leadership diligence yet again afford this disease passage to success. Not only has  Coronavirus taken many lives, but we are also losing many jobs that feed our families. This has put a huge dent in our economies which are tanking; all because of a poor response by our leadership and vicariously now in our own failure for reacting late to social distancing and other recommendations by the medical world.

I hope this is a lesson to all of us to really understand the power of having strong leadership as well as a responsible personal account when it comes to calamitous events such as this. The good news is that we always come back and fight through with great success and yet again we shall win at least until the next event shows up. 

The good news is at least this shall not conclude as the black plague of the 14th Century that wiped out close to one hundred million people globally! But this assegai of a weapon, coronavirus, might have a different effect on us as a whole. That would be the impact on the Global Economy similar to what the black plague did to population growth. So as I sit here in my home suffering from an innocuous case of cabin fever,  several thoughts run through my mind. One key thought was maybe the disease isn't here for us but rather here to recalibrate the global economy and our personal priorities into some sense. Whatever the case we shall rise again as humans against the vapid intentions of this disease. So my friends see you on the other side of the pond because Coronavirus too shall pass. In the meantime friends, wash your hands and get some good leadership going and we shall be back into good shape in no time!! Peace, the Soap Guy :)