Coronavirus COVID-19 essay
The world history includes a number of serious pandemics, which took lives of millions of people. The year 2020 will remained associated with the shocking outbreak of coronavirus. Statistical data vary, but generally it is claimed that there were up to 300.000 cases of this virus with up to 9.000 deaths. Such figures are logically the source of serious panic in all countries of the world, irrespective of their geographical position or economic situation. Initially the outbreak of the virus seemed to be located in China only, however soon it managed to cross the borders of many countries of the world.
Panic is natural reaction to the risks of getting sick and multiple deaths. As time flies more and more theories and rumours are spreading regarding the causes, the sources and the real statistical situation by the virus. In the modern world, when most of people in various parts of the world have access to Internet, spreading of any kind of information could happen quickly and easily. It is enough for one media site to post some information, and the more shocking this information is, the quicker will it be spread.
One of the theories, which are currently widespread in Internet, is that there were predictions about coronavirus made in a novel. This theory started to develop, when users started to share the passages from the book by Dean Koontz – “The Eyes of Darkness”, pointing out that there are predictions of the virus spreading. The heroin of the book is looking for her son, who disappeared from a camping trip and finds out that he is in Wuhan, in China, where there is a serious virus outbreak. The detailed description of the virus, its symptoms and the effects upon human body, as well as concrete geographic location in China made the readers support this theory.
The theory, stating that coronavirus is a kind of new bioweapon is the most popular. There are a lot of Internet resources, which assume that coronavirus is the product of a conspiracy with the aim of creating and testing of the new type of bioweapon. There are even the reports provided, which inform about Chinese scientists, who worked as spies in Canada, they searched in the National Microbiology Lab in order to steal the information about the deadly pathogens. Other researchers are convinced that coronavirus is connected to the sphere of DNA-engineering. In fact there are no concrete proofs for classification of coronavirus as a bioweapon.
Moreover there were a lot of additional theories developed, as various countries were accused of using this bioweapon. Russia was accused by some American officials for using social media with the aim of spreading the information about biological weapon, which was produced in the CIA with the aim to earn advantage in the economic war between the United States and China.
Iranian cleric Seyyed Mohammad Saeedi spoke about the idea of damaging the culture of Iran by Donald Trump via spreading coronavirus. Certainly China is also the source of multiple conspiracy theories regarding coronavirus, as the way to bring the economy of the country down. There are also connections with SARS built, which was also considered biological weapon against China.
A lot of attention was devoted to the version that coronavirus has its origins in seafood market. Irrespective of the fact that there are no scientific proofs of the fact that the source of COVID-19 was really the seafood market, this version was widely reported and discussed in media. The market was closed on 1st January. The version was upgraded with the idea that the virus was spreading from the Institute of Virology, situated in Wuhan. This version is based upon the assumption that this institute includes the high-level classification laboratory for working with the most dangerous viruses. There was even a famous person, who came out with support for this theory – the United Stated senator Tom Cotton. Still all the claims about this version also remain without substantial proofs.
Due to the fact that coronavirus is not the first virus, which threatens lives and health of people in the whole world, there are logical comparisons made with SARS. There are a lot of supporters of the idea that SARS is much more dangerous that coronavirus, which means that all the chaos and panic, which is created currently around COVID-19, are the results of manipulation of the global consciousness and not a real danger for humanity. The death rates for SARS were reported much higher in comparison to the death rates of coronavirus. However, this kind of argumentation, which is based purely upon comparing the death rates of two viruses, seems to be too weak for building serious theories about this version.
A lot of controversies appeared around the situation with animals, as initially it was stated that coronavirus was received from animals, but it was unclear which species could be accused of transmitting it. One of the candidates was the pangolin, an animal living in China. The consequent scientific research of these animals and their viruses did not bring the results, which could be used as proofs of this theory, as there were no genetic matches found between the viruses of pangolins and humans.
Another theory stated that the origins of the virus could be found by bats, which transmitted it to humans via other animals. In reality scientists found some similarities between the viruses of bats and the new virus in China in relation to its genetic sequence. Still this theory continues to lack evidence and sufficient grounds to be accepted as the most plausible of the other coronavirus theories.
Time goes, more versions are developed and discussed, however, there is still not a single theory, which would have the adequate proof base to be accepted. More and more people are reached with coronavirus in different parts of the world, and it is still not clear, when and how this virus will be mitigated and what kind of consequences it will bring to the whole world in healthcare, economic and even cultural spheres.
