Spreading unprecedented waves of panic and fear everywhere in record time, the coronavirus took the world by storm. Although the crisis is unfolding at a frenetic pace, it is not yet clear how and with what consequences.
As long as science in East and West fails to discover a vaccine or curative treatments, it may be premature to speak of an end to the danger. Therefore, talking about end-of-crisis scenarios remains a headlong rush, or even a leap into the unknown driven by the climate of closure and isolation imposed on everyone.
Faced with increasingly heavy human losses and the occasional forecasts of the threshold of losses and the end of the crisis, optimism is not in order. The same applies to economic losses, which, in my opinion, are still far from accurate.
One thing we can say for sure is that the effects of the crisis are still being felt. On the contrary, the means to get out of it may be more costly than the hasty closures of economic sectors.
As always, where there are crises, there are winners and losers. Many are rushing to find out who is who. I am sure it will be individuals, businesses and institutions. On the other hand, at the country level, we can say with certainty that everyone is a loser in the coronavirus crisis.
One cannot say that the global economic crisis is anyone’s fortune. All economies are paying a heavy price in this outbreak.
All of humanity’s hopes are now placed on the reports of specialised medical labs that may soon make available to the world population an efficient vaccine.
As news of the widening cycle of the pandemic grows, panic and anxiety are gripping millions of people around the world. As a result, celebrities have fled with their families to the North Pole to avoid contracting the virus.
In any case, the victory of science over this virus could prefigure the victory of one civilization over another and be the result of cooperation between several countries from the same civilization, whether Western or Eastern.
It is hard to dream or expect that victory would be the result of global cooperation amidst mutual accusations of “manufacturing” and spreading the coronavirus. The world community may not form an objective opinion about the spread of the coronavirus. Nor can we expect concrete facts to put an end to the rumors that are everywhere.
What is certain, however, is that the world will become even more aware of the value of scientific research and development. The deadliest threats are no longer those of nuclear weapons, since there is a balance of power, a mutual deterrent and an awareness of the danger of using these formidable tools.
The new threat comes from invisible sources that are difficult to quantify: climate change, viruses, epidemics and biological warfare – the worst-case scenario threatening humanity. WWII created a new world order embodied by the UN, which emerged from the ruins of the League of Nations, which had failed to prevent war.
As the coronavirus pandemic is the most serious test the world has faced in nearly seven decades, the winds of that war will bring new norms and rules for international relations.
We should not necessarily expect the UN to die out and a new organization to take over. There is no conflict between two camps, except in medical labs. Rather, it is one team that will defeat another by overcoming the most serious crises and dramatic conditions. One of the consequences of this global battle against the coronavirus could even be the questioning of traditional concepts in politics and economics, especially globalization.
The world has been concerned about the positive economic outcome of globalization. But it has not been aware of its negative effects in times of crisis and of the cooperation mechanisms needed to ensure that diseases and epidemics are not passed on at the same rate.
After almost a hundred years of Spanish flu, the inter-war epidemic that killed about 50 million people and infected about 500 million people worldwide (a third of the world’s population at the time), thereby killing 10% of those infected, making it the most deadly in history, epidemics are back to being the most serious danger to humanity.
But the hope remains that science will win the battle quickly and that the coronavirus will not last the four years it took the world to win the Spanish flu.
Hopefully, the recent telephone call between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his American counterpart Donald Trump will mark the end of mutual accusations of who on both sides is guilty of the spread of the coronavirus, thus paving the way for serious international cooperation and even concerted efforts to stop this serious pandemic that threatens the whole world.
