A journey through COVID
Distant rumblings were heard about a possible new pathogen wreaking a devastating toll on a susceptible population in Wuhan. Those rumblings were systematically smothered. The ears that are trained to hear through the smothering failed to listen a second time. First miss was SARS I. Same smoldering cauldron, same cooks, same complacency by pandemic sleuths and more sinister outcomes.
The world watched in horror with a bated breath as corpses piled up in Wuhan and uttering of the P word (pandemic) was hushed by the Chinese government and the World Health Organization. As millions were coerced into quarantine and large hospitals miraculously appeared to tend to newly sick, the Chinese government permitted free flow of traffic to the rest of the world as it meticulously guarded its domestic borders. The virus hitchhiked unsuspecting humans and seeded the entire planet.
The next theater was Milan, Italy. Milan is an economic hub with a large Chinese community. The newly introduced virus ravaged through Italy’s elderly in multigenerational homes, forcing stretched health care to ration care, adding to loss of life.
A sudden jump, from a faraway land, to across the pond kindled fearful awakenings in Americas. Threat appeared to be menacing. Yet we felt reassured by our advanced health care and resiliency.
As the infections mounted from a scattered case across the western U.S. to soul-crushing losses in New York City, our health care system stood stretched and resiliency questioned. The darkness descended deep and dawn seemed foreign.
The virus compelled the medical community to improvise, learn quickly and share the best practices to help mitigate the damage. Lacking in protecting armor, the medical community embraced this challenge, as a large number of them succumbed to COVID’s wrath. The societal love that was spontaneous and universal felt warm and welcoming to health care workers.
The mitigation measures like masks, therapeutics like chloroquine and perceived infringement of individual liberties all morphed in to cultural and political battles. The virus saw the fault lines and quickly inhabited them. The chasms were widened, divisions deepened.
We need to work on not being so predictable next time.
The virus also laid bare a fact that was barely a secret. Between obesity, diabetes, sedentariness, calorie dense and nutritionally vacant food, hypertension, addictions, etc., we are not churning out the best human specimens. Reasons are many: economy, education, culture, personal freedom, corporate conscience and others. We can do better.
Along the way, mitigation measures found increased adoption, therapeutics evolved, hospital practices adapted to the new pathogen and vaccine development galloped like never before. The Warp Speed endeavor that synergized private-public undertaking became our saving grace.
Contrary to common perception, mRNA vaccines did not emerge out of nowhere and in no time. Genomics is a robust scientific discipline. The mRNA vaccines rode that 40-year- old science to triumph on the wings of unprecedented collaboration and unrelenting pursuit by the best in the scientific community. These are not “rushed” vaccines. These vaccines are a crowning victory undergirded by decades of science. They combine incredible safety and efficacy. These vaccines are our way out of darkness.
As the logistics of scaled up production, timely distribution and expanded access to the general population are being resolved, the vaccine hesitancy is threatening to be a formidable challenge. With 100 million-plus shots delivered and a good three months of data at hand, there is substantial evidence of safety and efficacy to persuade the skeptic.
Let the message spread.
We need to remain cognizant that this fire is truly global. It needs to be put out everywhere near simultaneously. Large pockets of susceptibility will continue to offer the virus opportunities to mutate. Human to animal spread may allow more sinister iterations of the virus. Our immunity based on previous infection or vaccination may be a pervious shield to the next mutant.
The mRNA-based vaccine has the promise to be a platform technology. Possibilities of downstream breakthroughs in all aspects of human health abound. Surveillance, diagnosis and treatment of cancer, genetic disorders among others, have tailor-made solutions within the realm of possibility.
The COVAX program aims to achieve the ambitious goal of universal vaccination through international cooperation. That goal has to be met but means to reach that goal can be contentious. A demand has been made that IP rights be loosened for expanded production and expedited vaccination to save lives and effectively end this pandemic. It may not seem to be an unreasonable ask given the magnitude of the problem.
IP rights are capital, time and labor intensive. Success is rare and underpinned by enormous intellectual rigor. Fruits of such labors can’t be denied to the committed and unlawfully distributed to others. Countries that have strong protection of right to property laws are more prosperous. By some estimates, more than 70 percent of the U.S. economy is supported by IP contribution.
A successful venture needs financial rewards to keep the locomotive of imagination and progress running.
The pandemic presents an urgent question: Will preserving IP deny expedited expansion of vaccine development? If so, will the delay end up adding to preventable death? Is the cause of capitalism furthered by price or pricelessness? Is the goodwill best argument for capitalism in a distraught world flattened by the virus? Will the saved lives best monumentalize the spirit and deed of capitalism? Is it not human to be charitable?
The best model has to accommodate the sanctity of IP and expedited access to the vaccine to all of humanity. This is an opportunity to amplify the cascade of virtue, wealth and intellect. Saved lives will learn to respect IP.
Merit and mercy, we need both. Capitalism is occasioned an opportunity to proselytize the skeptics through acts of mercy.
As a battle-fatigued United States looks homeward, other countries are using soft power ploys to fill the void and redefine international relationship. The pendulum does not have to swing to extremes. We have to play a long game. Vaccine diplomacy is a necessary humanitarian and statecraft instrument.
The win over the virus is not a zero some game. In this global village, swim or sink together. The shore is close.
Let’s keep the harbor safe.