Winning the Fight against Covid-19: A Global Responsibility

The recent outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (henceforth COVID-19) has been of serious concern around the globe. The pandemic which originated from a meat market in Wuhan (China) has taken its toll in 175 countries, 30 territories, as well as the International conveyance (Diamond princess) worldwide (As reported by World Health Organization (WHO) by 10:00 CET 1 April 2020). Giving us the hint that the virus attacks human beings and has no regard for boundaries or races. Thus COVID-19 should be treated as global enemy of mankind.

As the world gradually becomes a global village, thanks to the advancements in the areas of transport and communication. These areas have facilitated ease of mobility and access to information around the world. However, it makes the fight against the Covid-19 cumbersome if it's not properly, collectively, controlled. The difficulty lies on the fact that without the combine efforts of countries around the globe, it will be difficult for a country irrespective of its economy or technological advancement to fight an epidemic alone. Recognizing the need for common fight against Covid-19, the international community have shown solidarity with China through their financial and material donations to aid the fight against the outbreak. According to reports published by China belt and road net-, leaders of more than 170 countries and heads of more than 40 international organizations have expressed sympathy and support for China. This shows that China is not alone, and a collective fight against this epidemic will facilitate its eradication within a given time frame.

Nevertheless, China's approach towards curtailing the spread and subsequent measures put in place to combat and eliminate this virus have received applause around the world. These pragmatic approaches as viewed by commentators contributed towards prevention and control of the spread of this epidemic in China. Bruce Aylward, Senior Advisor to the Director-General of the World Health Organization and Head of the Joint Expert Mission. While expressing his satisfaction towards China's pragmatic measures said "In the process of having to respond to and prepare for the epidemic globally, I have had the same prejudice as others that the attitude towards non-drug interventions is ambiguous. A lot of people will say that there is no medicine now, there is no vaccine, so we are helpless. On contrary, China's approach is that since there is no medicine, no vaccine, then we can use whatever we have, how we can adjust, how we can adapt, and how we can save lives". "This Chinese approach has proved successful" he said.

Some of the approaches taken by China includes: Identified and shared samples of the genome with The World Health Organization (WHO), making it easier for medical researchers around the world to participate in finding lasting solution to the outbreak; The Chinese government declared a sit-at-home measures to reduce the risk of spreading the virus; Constructed temporal hospitals in Hubei province within limited time to isolate and treat infected people; Dispatched over 40,000 medical and health professional to assist in treatment, prevention and control of COVID-19.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, an affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, published a report featuring aid programs and mobilization of resources by the business community to assist relief and containment of the virus. Some of the Chinese front-line companies alongside other multinational companies included: Alibaba's health care arm, Baidu, Tencent, Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines global business unit of Sanofi, UBS, Xylem Inc, Fed ex, Coursera, etc. Joined hands with Chinese authorities in the fight against the deadly virus. These companies are providing telemedical services, involved in screening, research and development (R&D), support the urgent needs of Wuhan's Huoshenshan Hospital and offering students access to online courses amid Covid-19 outbreak.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has stressed the need to curtail the spread of Covid-19 from global escalation. In that it encouraged all countries to be prepared for a potential viral pandemic, and urged affected countries to share information and data with them for proper response. By 11th of March, 2020 The WHO declared Coviv-19 outbreak a pandemic. This was due to the rapid increase in the number of cases outside China and a growing number of countries affected by this outbreak. As of 10:00 CET 1 April 2020, The WHO risk assessment ranked the level of this pandemic very high. Globally, there were 823,626 confirmed cases and 72,736 new cases, with the number of deaths reaching 40,598 and 4193 new deaths cases, resulting from this pandemic. Meanwhile in China, the situation seems to be brought under control with risk declining as number of exposure cases declines. When compared to other high risk areas such as US with a total 163,199 confirmed cases and Italy with a total of 105,792 confirmed cases, China's confirmed cases of 82,631 seems to be curtailed given it demographic size of about 1.4 billion people. The fight is not yet over, however, with the day by day record of success especially in curtailing the spread and treatment of patients there is no doubt that a collective fight against this pandemic will see to its end. China lessons and experience on combating this virus should be shared to other affected countries for collective fight against this common enemy of mankind.

As we collectively fight the Covid-19 outbreak, let's be mindful of a more deadly and contagious virus of human origin. The Racism virus. Since racism cannot be blamed on monkeys and bats or others animals, animals can heave a sigh of relief from human finger pointing. Racism has been identified as a threat to healthy, peaceful and prosperous world. It impedes economic growth and development, denies some members the opportunity to participate fully in the scientific and social development of their society and it is toxic to health. It robs us the ability to love, tolerate, and harness the best in others [1-7].

As we recognize this menace, it is therefore our responsibility at this critical time in our history, to use our resources and platforms to promote understanding among people of all races, spread message of love and hope, and ensure the elimination of racial discrimination. Winning the fight against Covid-19 is our shared responsibility and collectively we are bound to win!

References

1. American Public Health Association (APH) (2020) The Impact of Racism on the Health and Well-Being of the Nation.
2. The Washington Post (2019) Racism has devastating effects on children’s health, pediatricians warn.
3. WHO (2020) Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) Situation Report-72.
4. https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/mciCdX5i7qV0obw-9JCoRw
5. U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation Report (2020). Corporate Aid Tracker: COVID-19 Business in Action.
6. WHO (2020) WHO announces COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic.
7. Xinhuanet (2020) Communities, doctors keep up coronavirus fight to safeguard Hubei.