Written By: Uswah Islam Rahi & Syed Hassaan Naqvi
We cannot deny the wipe out through COVID-19 in all around the world. It first emerged in the city of China i.e Wuhan. The very first case in Wuhan was reported on 17th November, 2019 and from there it started spreading to every corner of the world by the movement of people effected with the virus from one country to another. This pandemic virus struck approximately every state in all over the globe. From being just one case to now months later, it is touching the figure of 1,102,142 active cases in the world and is growing day by day rapidly. With the increasing number of effected people, nearly 332,800 people luckily have been recovered back to their normal life. Death toll has reached to 88956. Collectively there are approximately 1,523,898 cases that have been reported so far including deaths and recoveries. This pandemic has disturbed the routines, thoughts, behavior of people in these months. The global economy is at risk due to the COVID-19 outbreak all across the globe. This pandemic has changed the world scenario. Military conscious states which were spending more on defense and military budgets are now under more pressure of stopping this major human health issue.
The novel coronavirus has shaken the whole world in just few months, the economy of the world is collapsing. Before this, countries were busy in buying military goods from military giants but now every country is trying to increase its health security which has become nontraditional threat for the whole globe. Let’s talk about some history it is believed that about 60-70 million people died during world war II and millions were injured. It is said that medicine of penicillin actually saved one in seven injured soldiers but the world still kept growing its military abilities afterwards and we are now fronting its consequences. This is not only the issue of Pakistan and other developing and under developed states, even big countries like America are now struggling to maintain health security in their states. There is a dialogue in bollywood movie “OMG ” in which leading character said ” yeh pandit dur ka business krty hain yeh dur bechtey hain our logo ko apni trf khenchty hain”. Our world system is also premeditated like this, big fishes create fear in states so that they can devote more and more on their defense. But now it is clear that health department needs more money, resources and devotion. Relatively defense department has been a business industry for some states.
Some stats shows that total world military expenditure rose to $1822 billion in 2018, representing an increase of 2.6 percent from 2017, which is increasing by as every year passes and health budget is comparatively very less. Invention of Nuclear power altered the world in different ways. Nuclear power can be used in many sectors like agriculture, medicine and electricity but countries cherry-pick its usage in producing missiles and fissile material which creates chaos and arm race in the world. So called superpowers have seemed to fail handling this pandemic. According to the official estimates the death toll in US only, could reach anywhere between 100,000 to 200,000. According to the British government report published by financial times, up to 80% of UK public could be effected of this virus.
Rendering to these official stats it seems that the 3rd phase of this virus which is already predicted is yet to come. This severe biological disorder could be compared with the effects of the Second World War. Coronavirus has exposed all military might’s. World was hectic in spiking defense budget, fueling regional tensions, cumulative health issues, environmental and other social problems were not first priority which is now a huge stumbling block in taking over this pathogenic virus.
Major states like USA, China and other which have nuclear power ensure nuclear umbrella to their weak allies but these superior states never bother to make a treaty or deal on providing health security to any third world countries just because of their priorities. People are more aware of military companies but not of the working of medical laboratories, Lets take an example of Lockhead Martin, a defense related company which is famous in the world for producing war jets etc. The whole world knows about it but no one is aware of the medical laboratories doing research on bioscience health.
World should reorganize its priorities. It is now time to address public health issues collectively. World leading supremacies should enforce the public health as an elementary concern for all countries as they did when they had modified a tradition of military power. Due to the lack of human health development, now the whole world is failing to contain this pandemic. There is no cure/vaccine that has yet been launched by any leading countries for COVID-19. To keep ourselves secure from this pandemic we should follow the instructions of our governments and other health related institutes. Otherwise this virus can take much more lives than world war II.
