COVID-19, a strain which didn’t take more than 3 months to create a major crisis on earth as after originating in December, we had a crisis at hand by February. Today, the situation has fast escalated with even the most developed countries not able to contain the virus effectively. The virus has brought the world to a standstill, travelling to a halt, manufacturing to a stop and the economies at the edge of a cliff. The world has never seen anything like this ever before and today the situation is so bleak that the IMF is predicting a recession worse than the Great Depression 1923
. India, by God’s grace, has not seen a massive surge in cases like many other countries and has largely been able to keep it under control. Still, many other countries haven’t been so lucky. The United States of America which had always been a superpower, leader and driver of growth today finds itself in an opposite situation. Today, the country has been taken over by a virus, finds its leadership position at stake and is under the threat of a recession and a contracting economy. The virus has lately become so powerful that it has taken control over countries, industries and the markets.
New York City, the new global epicentre has been at its wit’s end as to how to curtail the spread of the virus. A cosmopolitan to whom the world looked up to is currently looking up to the world for help. America which used to be the one bailing out countries from their troubles is looking to others for assistance. The virus got the most powerful country in the world to a dire state of helplessness and chaos. The country is seeing a major rift brewing between the federal government and local governments and the damage was done by a virus smaller in size than even a grain of sand. The federal government and the local government have been at loggerheads over the response to this pandemic with governors requesting the federal government for emergency help to no avail.
The virus is also dictating the world’s demands, needs and production manifestos. Due to the virus, all secondary sector industries are manufacturing healthcare equipment like ventilators, masks, overall bodysuits etc. The world is now demanding more of healthcare equipment than ever and never before has the market been manipulated this bad by a one-man army. We are buying only select goods and that also in bulk, all because of one virus. Supply has been shaken up due to some manufacturers operating at less than 50% manufacturing capacity and some not operating at all. This together has led to a major supply chain disruption which is eventually going to lead to a rejig in the global supply chain.
The virus has single-handedly led a crusade over our healthcare systems by overburdening and over-stressing them in a small period. Countries today are facing a shortage of hospital beds, ventilators and other essential equipment in the fight against corona. Doctors and other medical staff have been likened to soldiers on a battlefield in a shift of professional responsibility that has happened at an unprecedented pace. They have been overrun by a flurry of patients such that now due to their shortage countries have had to take unheard-of measures like calling retired doctors out of retirement, giving degrees to third-year medical students without the final examinations etc.
The world has been brought to its knees by a single strain of the virus at an unprecedented pace. The virus came and conquered so quick that countries didn’t even have the time to prepare war front strategies. Our way of life has been threatened, economy pushed to a cliffhanger and healthcare system thrown down on a free fall down a cliff all because of a single strain of the virus. The only one benefitting out of this whole menace is mother nature which has been enjoying almost perfect conditions ever since the world came to a halt at the mercy of this virus. The virus has certainly brought the greatest planet in this entire universe that we all call home on its knees.