Corona Days

March 18, 2020: 

I was busy with Research works in my college. Every day during my lunch and dinner, I discuss with my sister on the different ideas I have and try to get some kind of feedback and opinion. Corona Breakdown was slowly spreading in different states of India and suddenly made the government announce a lockdown and sent us all home thinking, it is for a few days.

August 1st, 2020:

After four and a half months, now when I am writing this, still the situation is not normal, though we call this as NEW NORMAL. The entire world was greatly affected by this Pandemic novel Corona Virus and the year 2020 is diametrically opposite to what at least we imagined, "India becoming Super Power". 

Work from home (WFH) was at least an existing and known practice. Learn from Home (LFH) and Teach from Home (TFH) are totally new to the majority of the population across the globe, which bought in a multitude of challenges with it. 

Internet charges, Electricity Charges, Need for more than one Laptop/Desktop in a house, absolutely no Physical movement because of prolonged classes and assessment through online mode, etc....all these struggles are not just for the students but even the teachers have found it difficult to cope with. 

Just like how social media throws out hundreds of posts, feeds and stories. COVID19 Lockdown seen a huge increase in the online mode of learning, which also provided an opportunity for cyber attacks. Thousands of Webinars were offered by the colleges, government institutes, private institution and individual freelances during this ~140-day lockdown. Though we can blame COVID19 for the difficulties we have faced, for sure it has made people think about different aspects of life and living. 

Personally, COVID19 gave me a lot of time to complete unattended or forgotten tasks. I was able to focus on taking my hobbies and research to the next level. Happily, I was able to make my mother sit for a webinar on Thanjavur Temple from Engineer's view - a session in Tamil which she actively participated which otherwise wouldn't have happened.

In and Around : Corona (COVID-19)

Prayers to the holy god to save the mankind suffering from Corona !!! 

Corona Virus / COVID-19 / nCOV / Wuhan are the most searched, googled, spoken or heard word from Dec -19, when the deadly virus started breaking out in the city of Wuhan, China. At the time of writing (14th March, 2020), the number of reported cases crossed 1,45,682 around 140 countries with more than 80K cases reported in China alone. With death count worryingly crossed over 5400,  corona virus is declared as pandemic by the World Health Organisation and various national wide emergency alerts. [Source: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/] 

The number of death reported due to corona in India is two, with Maharashtra and Kerala with most cases confirmed positive. 

Origin:

The virus is believed to have originated from Wuhan City, China through Zoonosis (infectious diseases spread from animals to humans through viruses, bacteria or parasites). SARS-CoV-2  is virus responsible for COVID-19. COVID-19 is COrona VIrus Disease - 2019.  This virus strain is closely related to 2003 - SARS outbreak. The scientists believe that Corona infection was from Food market in Wuhan selling live animals illegally and some believe bats are the reason for spreading this to humans through some-other species.

Fig. Corona Virus Virion

Transmission:

Any virus needs a medium to travel from a host to another host which are called Droplets, Corona is  a Airborne Droplet. Study reveals that the Basic Reproduction Number (R₀) for Corona is 1.4 - 3.9, which means number of new infections from one known infection with an assumption that remaining population is susceptible to infection. Though the study and experiences shows that the droplet can stay in air for a short time, but can be viable longer in material objects.

Genetic Data of Corona:

Fig. 2 The Genetic Data [Source : Click Here]

Any virus needs a receptor (entry point to human cell), Angiotensin Converting Enzyme 2 (ACE2) is the receptor in humans for 2019-nCoV.

Affecting Normal Lives:

[Source: Click Here]

[Source: Business Standard]

[Source : The Hindu]

[Source : The Verge] 

Cancellation or Postponement of major Sporting events, movie and audio releases, Academic examinations, malls and functions with mass gatherings. Many countries have cancelled the visa and movement of people across the borders and in countries like India and China even within states and province. Major corporates have asked their employees to work from home. Social Distancing is now the only way to handle this virus from spreading more.

Check here: Major Events Cancelled across the globe due to Corona Outbreak

Conspiracy Theory:

Some conspiracy theorists believe that the corona outbreak was predicted by some of the prophecies revealed earlier. 

The famous prophecy that went viral is the one by Browne, Sylvia in her book "End of Days: Predictions and Prophecies about End of the World". This book was published in 2008. The author claimed herself to a medium (practitioners mediating communication with spirits and humans) with psychic abilities. 

The lines described in the books like this, "In around 2020 a severe pneumonia-like illness will spread throughout the globe, attacking the lungs and the bronchial tubes and resisting all known treatments. Almost more baffling than the illness itself will be the fact that it will suddenly vanish as quickly as it arrived, attack again ten years later, and then disappear completely."

Other famous tweet that went viral was about an american author Dean Koontz book "The Eyes of Darkness", where the following lines that read like, "It was around then that a Chinese scientist named Li Chen defected to the United States, carrying a diskette record of China's most important and dangerous new biological weapon in a decade. They call the stuff "Wuhan-400" because it was developed at their RDNA labs outside of the city of Wuhan, and it was the four-hundredth viable strain of man-made microorganisms created at that research center. 

Wuhan-400 is a perfect weapon. It afflicts only human beings. No other living creature can carry it. And like syphilis, Wuhan-400 can't survive outside a living human body for longer than a minute, which means it can't permanently contaminate objects or entire places the way anthrax and other virulent microorganisms can. And when the host expires, the Wuhan-400 within him perishes a short while later, as soon as the temperature of the corpse drops below eighty-six degrees Fahrenheit. Do you see the advantage of all this? "

The excerpts are from the 1989 re-release of the 1981 book, it is interesting to note that the first edition of the book, the virus was named as "Gorki-400" and it was described as Soviet's most important and dangerous weapon. 

Modern day researchers and non-believers of such prophecies compare the description of Wuhan-400 with COVID-19, and they argue both are different in terms of kill-rate, incubation period and claims Wuhan-400 is just a fictional virus.

Old is Gold:

"Old is Gold" (பழமையே சிறந்தது) is a famous saying for which personally I have experienced and understood different meanings at various stages of my life. This statement by itself is a proverb which we say as பழமொழி in Tamil.

After the Corona Outbreak crossed China border and spread across the globe, a major proverb that was echoed is "Prevention is Better than Cure" (வருமுன் காப்போம்). Medical practitioners are called off from their vacations and are on 24-hour duty fighting against the virus and helping patients to recover.

There is no hope for any medicine to be invented anytime soon for COVID-19, because we need to identify the species from which human got this virus and the genomic data (to understand their genetic behavior, mutation behavior, structure, etc). Even the 2003 SARS till date has no medicine or treatment except supportive care.  The only option available ahead of us is "Prevention".

Vannakam / Namaste

Vannakam/Namaste is a gesture for greeting that is even today widely used in Indian Subcontinent. The gesture is done by pressing both the hands together, palms touching with fingers pointing to top. The position of the hand could either be at chest level or face level or above head level depending on the occasion. Normally done at chest level with a slight bow when we greet a person either with word or wordless just with gesture alone.

Recently high-level meetings at corporate level to between the national leaders to marriage function, people stopped shaking hands to congratulate or greet. Everyone start practicing and use our traditional gesture. This showed the world that our ancestors or forefathers/foremothers lived a scientific way of life, may be that is the reason for their health life style and longer lifespan.

Even the preventive measures for COVID-19 states not just to avoid shaking hands with other person, but even restrict yourselves touching your mouth, nose and eyes to avoid virus spreading. The reason why our parents followed Namaste-way of greeting is now understood at a larger scale.

WHO advisory on Clean Hand:

Source: World Health Organisation

General Note:

There are cases reported of recovery from this virus. If your Immune System is good, it can fight the virus with supportive care from the medical team. Eating healthy food, exercising, meditation, yoga and sleep on time would help us stay healthy & have a good immune system, that could fight any virus.

 At this juncture, I would also like to say the below :

• Please stop forwarding unverified, non scientific messages from unverified and non authentic sources. This would only make this worse and wont help.
• Stop panic. If you have any symptoms as stated by health authorities, please visit the nearest hospital for your own safety and your loved ones safety as well. Remember you should not be the reason for more people catching infections.
• Practice Social Distancing, stay in home and do something creatively and constructively during this time.

I always believe in a saying "This too shall pass", sure this too will pass and situation would get better, until then, lets pray, keep calm and stay healthy.

To watch out:

Worldometers - Corona Virus

Indian Situation Report from WHO

JHU Corona Resource Center