The world has witnessed and been witnessing a danger. Not in the form of missile. Not in the form of war. Not in the form of monster aliens from other planets or animals. But in the form of a small virus. Yes. A small virus which is invisible to a naked eye created havoc across the plant earth.
Getting into the details, the first case of this virus was identified in early December 2019 in Wuhan city of China. Since then the virus has travelled places, cities, countires and continents conquering almost entire planet. Sources say that the virus was found in a wholesale food market in Wuhan where humans consumed bats which had the virus. In just 3 months, the corona virus spread its wings affecting millions of people falling to its prey. It is considered as a contagious disease spread through surface contact as well. WHO declared this as a "Pandemic" and alerted all the nations to take precautions. By early March, most of the countries announced lockdown. A complete shutdown. Everybody has to stay home with no excuses. Stock markets plummeted. Investors were pulling their money from exchanges across the globe. No movement of people. Industries came to a halt. Supplychains froze. Vehicles on roads disappeared. Job market crashed. Unwmployment rate dropped to historical lows. All flight/public transportation cancelled. About 100 countries came to standstill.
Many countries offered its citizens doorstep delivery of their day-to-day requirements. Some offered food and shelter to the homeless. Millions of volunteers and organizations initiated to feed the poor, provide temporary shelters, and helping the needy.People with covid positive cases were being descriminated within the communities. They would not get any kind of social assistance, just boycotting them, not helping them with their daily needs made things worse committing suicides and attempted murders. Someone with covide positive is considered as negative aspect. Handwash with alocohol, having a sanitizing in your pockets, wearing a mask covering your nose is the new trend.
Out of so much chaos and the death rings going on all over the world, planet sensed a change in the climate. Drastically decrease in the pollution levels. Ozone layer covering up. Animals roaming free on roads without any fear. Glaciers standing still and no signs of sea levels rising up. That was the real planet we have been polluting all these centuries. The noise levels on streets were the same during the day and night. It was so pure. From the situation, it was quiet evident that nothing is above nature and nothing is perennial. The only thing we can do as a human being is to have helping hands and save the planet in whatever way we can.
On the ther hand, many companies and many countries came together for this pandemic and started working on the vaccination. The least possibility of getting a new vaccination to the market is 2-3 years. But since this was an exceptional situation, the governments byepassed few of the clinical trial stages and made a vaccine available in a record time of 65 days which did not succeed eventually. Big MNC's like Pfizer, Astrazeneca pumping billions of dollars to the humanity, doctors & scientists working together round the clock for a solution has happened like never before.
This abnormal situation has changed the way the world functions. People call it "the new normal". Getting out without masks is a crime now. Everyone lost trust in meeting people at cafetaria, shaking hands, eating outside. Almost everything has become virtual. Recruitment for new hires are done virtual. Offline meetings got cancelled and shifted to zoom and microsoft teams. Accounting, finance, purchase, logistics, marketing, IT, whereever possible companies went virtual. Schools got shutdown and the students were thrusted to the next higher grade in many countries. In few religious countries like India where physical presence is mandatory, marriages are performed online. Death rituals are done online and Im no different. My kid's craddle ceremony was done in my hometown on his third month and being his father I watched the rituals virtually. Work from home became the new norm. There's an entirely new business products hitting the markets. Masks,covering the nose and the mouth parts of the human body. Then there is face shield, which covers the face made up of transparent thin plastic sheet. There are body shields to avoid any virus attacking our clothes which can futher be transmitted. Hand sanitizers with varying alcohol percentage occupied the store shelves. There are customised masks made up of the person's nose, mouth and chin imprinting onto the masks. Then there are tunnels with 3 meters long and 1 metre wide having a height of 6 ft fixed with the spriklers made available in many of the office entrances though which one has to walk through. The spirinklers sanitizes the person total body when walked.
After alomost more than 18 months, now people in many parts of the world are getting vaccinated. Almost every country has their own vaccination with few of the global pharma companies making the vaccination available at a negligible cost. Yet, people are skeptical about the sideeffects it is causing post vaccination. It ranges from cough, cold, headache and low fever to blood clots, increasing blood pressure and couple deaths.
By and large, vaccination drive by the nations and WHO is making people get into comfort zone and gain confidence and trust in people making a positive impact on the humanity and on the planet.
