Dixya Poudel

At the beginning of August, 2021 when it looked like the month was stretching out to be the usual, I fell ill. It was the dreaded case of the cold. While I was lucky enough that it wasn't the worst case scenario, it still took my time to get better. For days, it was congested nose, fever, chills and severe exhaustion. My fever abated after a few days but I still felt the fatigue to my bones. It reminded me of my childhood when I would take a rest for days due to myriad illnesses.

Falling ill is really one of the dreaded experiences in our lives. No one wants to be sick and yet, we can't help but fall ill. Especially this past one and a half year, most of the world is quite unwell. Luckier ones have the privilege of their good health, however, unfortunate ones have fallen victim to the pandemic. It has tested the resilience of the world even when vaccines have been rolled out. There have been outcries over vaccine politics and the fact that giant companies are bankrolling over the current struggles is deplorable. While the richer nations are either jabbing their citizens or hoarding vaccines, the poorer nations are left to their own fate.
Thankfully, there have been medical and vaccines supplies to underdeveloped nations through programmes such as COVAX and the generosity of developed nations and global organisations. Meanwhile, people continue to contract the deadly virus which keeps sneaking past the vaccination drives. While I was fortunate enough to be spared from the possible case of the pandemic, many don't have the same privilege. Instead, there are fever, dry cough, and shortness of breath while patients of the coronavirus fight for air.

None of us like to fall ill. When we fall ill, our immune system releases antibodies to fight off germs. And medicine has advanced to a degree that we have drugs to fight most cases of infectious diseases. However, once in a while, there is a tragic exception. Coronavirus is one such exception which has ravaged the world with millions of deaths. Even with vaccination gradually picking up its pace, the threat of the pandemic still looms large.
Once a child is born into this world after months in the mother's womb, he or she is vulnerable to a host of illnesses. Germs such as bacteria and viruses are microscopic pathogens in the air or in the fomites always ready to infiltrate the next victim. Thanks to medical miracles, people born in today's age can receive the best of treatments. And yet, what do we make of the current crisis born out of the wrath of a mutating virus?

It has shown the worst case scenarios that we as human beings thought were behind us. The Black Plague or even the Spanish flu was contained by the end but there were immense casualties. Tragically in this twenty-first century, the much revered modern medicine is still struggling frantically to contain the pandemic. We take our health for granted until we fall ill. And we are bound to be unwell at some points in our lives. Today, as a major portion of humanity is unwell, we must keep up the optimism while vaccination drives take up a notch.