By CEDRIC HUNTER

The days of the new plague are here and in these days we must live. Live in them or die because of them; the choices are just that stark. The steps that brought the world to this point were long and well predicted, though the leaders of the world, caught up in their respective self-importance, failed to fully embrace the possibilities of plague.

The geo-political world has just been knocked on its backside and now it is high time to get up and fend off any further blows of Covid-19. But to fight any enemy, viral or otherwise, a combatant must know the enemy it faces. Covid-19 has an established history so the origins of this new plague are not at all unclear. Covid-19 is a cousin pathogen of the common flu virus, newly adapted to humanity from the consumption of bats in Wuhan, China. However, it differs from its cousin in that it becomes infectious almost immediately upon contact with its latest victim, even before that victim shows any signs of infection.

This covert capability gives Covid-19 a headstart in breaking down the respiratory system before it can be counter attacked by health care providers, thus giving us no natural protection against so stealthy an enemy. How do we fight back?

Firstly, social distancing from others who may potentially be infected by the virus, thus denying the virus new victims. But social distancing is only an initial step, there’s much more to do. Second: we must treat the infected with acute therapeutic methods that soak up extensive resources per infected individual. In short, to combat this pandemic, we must be altogether diligent and generous of time, equipment and money. Moreover we must be smart about what we are dealing with in the potential of new viral outbreaks.

Covid-19 is not the worst of what can happen to human biology, though shockingly covert and painfully experienced. There are other biological terrors waiting in the wings; some known, most unknown. We are just as ready to fight those enemies as we were against coronavirus, and that level of preparation wasn’t acceptable before and probably won’t be the case for a long while, if ever.

Covid-19 was never taken that seriously and it should have been. How do we rectify this current state of affairs? We must fight viral outbreaks before they occur. Through preventative research and material stockpiling, we can both as country and as a species counter-attack pathogens at their introduction into the larger human community. We must fight them locally and keep them as localized as possible. We must introduce emergency protocols that release monies and materials that both mitigate the losses to businesses and citizens and arrest the progress of the virus in its tracks.

We, as a society, failed when it comes to Covid-19. We elected an administration that professed to be anti-science, including medical science. But long before this current administration, we failed to take heed to the dire predictions of epidemiologists of the last twenty years. As with Cassandra of Troy or even the fictional Jor El of Krypton, we ignored the warnings of our scientists and we are now paying the price for our collective hubris.

Cedric Hunter is a resident of Irvington.