P Kharel

Hundreds of thousands of coronavirus-related deaths could have been prevented if only the industrially advanced democracies had been able to take tough decisions in launching jabbing campaigns. Two years on since COVID-19 was first traced, yet the threat and spread of the dreaded disease is far from waning. Ironically, the countries listed as well-governed, very democratic and economically highly prosperous suffered excessively than did their poorer cousins who outnumber the better-off many times.

Death toll from COVID-19 and its variants soars by the day. The gloomy graph shows ups and downs but the total keeps on scaling ever high. Amid this gloomy picture comes the issue of people asserting their right against mandatory jabbing and wearing of facial mask, oblivious of their duties to respecting the rights of others who face grave risks to their lives, as a consequence. Virus vigilance took 800,000 lives in the US and 145,000 in the UK. The world’s “largest democracy”, India, recorded 470 million deaths. Russia, Brazil and a host of others, including super rich European nations, too, accounted for staggering numbers of such deaths.

Chief culprit
Complacency and gross misplaced sense of personal freedom were the chief causes of the spike in the death toll in the rich nations. Lack of resources and ill-prepared infrastructure were among the main causes of aggravation of the problem in many a country. Mass rejection of appeal for restraint, social distancing, agreeing to being jabs and the like, in the name of personal freedom, led to large-scale catastrophe that could have been reduced in its breadth and intensity. Freedom should not trample or risk the freedom of others to live. With the wisdom of hindsight, the attitude changed by December. Tighter restrictions on international travellers were put in place.

In contrast, short supply of vaccines became the difficulty in many countries. Some feverishly begged for early supplies while others became reluctant to avail of the abundant supply of precautionary measures, safety rules and easy access to vaccines. Yet they are the ones that prescribe everything on every issue to the states that are in chronically in acute shortage of resources. On the other hand, in a bid to luring its nationals to submit to the jabs, which millions considered encroachment upon their freedom, the US government even announced the incentive of $100 as well as can of beer for each individual agreeing to submit to being vaccinated.

China was ridiculed, even reviled, when it clamped strict lockdowns two years ago, and with dramatic results in checking the dreaded disease. South Korea, Australia and New Zealand woke up early and recorded positive outcomes. Eventually, the advanced nations realised the gravity of the situation. Now Europe seems to be largely falling in line. Had it been prompt 18 months ago, tens of thousands of coronavirus-related deaths could have been prevented. As death toll kept piling up, the US, began taking steps to control infections.

But, China did not lower its guard. As late as November, its authorities announced a lockdown for an entire city after it recorded a coronavirus-related death. Germany in December placed restrictions on the unvaccinated. After a series of measures barring unvaccinated people from a significant part of public life were recently introduced. Lockdowns in various forms and formats have been regular features in many Western cities, including some in the United States, these past two months. This has meant partial or complete ban on foreign arrivals. Nine million jobs in the US are dependent on travel industry.

Had some poor developing nations or ideological opponents engaged in claiming personal liberties to reject restrictions while the advanced countries went head on in accepting jabs and lockdowns, the latter would have ridiculed the reluctant no end. Voices of concern and proposals for clamping sanctions on the defaulting officials in such countries would have rent the landscape. The “21st century” enlightenment would have been invoked to treat the non-practitioners as outcasts that dared to put to risk the lives of others.

Playing the role of a preceptor is far easier than putting precepts into practice. COVID-19 restrictions in November and after triggered protests all over Europe. Some 35,000 people marched on the streets of Brussels in opposition to the lockdowns. Western media raised the issue of the Narendra Modi government in India, using water cannons to disperse rioters last autumn. Many Europeans questioned Indian democracy against their non-contextual interpretation of people’s right to protest.

Attitude problem
In 2020, Germany recorded 16,000 infected people daily, when there were virtually no vaccinated people. Today, 80 per cent of the people are vaccinated; yet the number of infected quadrupled coinciding with the onset of winter. Flexibility has brought about COVID clarity that encouraged people to make new career choices. Rather than working at office premises, millions of people in industrialised nations now prefer flexible hours and greater freedom in working from home. They are dashing for the exit, leaving their former offices faced with acute shortage of regular hands. Freelancing is getting popular in the enhanced labour order in the US, UK and elsewhere in the West.

Today, even with social distancing, wide spread vaccinations and increase in mask wearing people, the conditions are tough given the surge in infections. With the objective of putting a check on crowding, the new restrictions confront human rights questions. In the economically prosperous societies, popular anguish arises from not being able to go on holidays or to leave their home country at will, joining parties, organising picnics and being on the playground with lusty abandon.

Experts have just warned that the emergence of the Omicron variant is indicative of the world being “closer to the start of the pandemic than the end”. They regret that progress in combatting COVID-19 is getting “squandered”. At the same time, prospect of getting jabbed shook the excessively personal freedom-minded folks no end. There might be many millions extremely reluctant to welcome the ground breaking pills promised to be easily available anytime soon.

(Former chief editor of The Rising Nepal, P. Kharel has been writing for this daily since 1973)