LETTER: Throughout history, humans have been living with communicable disease-causing microbes that could potentially become epidemics.
From the bubonic plague (13th to 15th century) to the Spanish flu (1918 to 1920) to the HIV and AIDS crisis (1980s onwards), epidemics and pandemics come and go, while some still remain, taking millions of lives, creating trails of devastating social, economic and security consequences and leaving humanity in crises.
They shape our lives as we know now and, hence, our responses to them. Some have altered the course of history. Who among us have lived through a pandemic of such magnitude before? The last recorded one was a century ago.
Thus, many would argue that civilisations built on the power of scientific knowledge have improved human health and longevity. Advances in medicine and biotechnology, improvements in public health and
its regulations, sanitation, better working conditions, education and nutrition, among others, contribute to this.
Vaccine development has also lowered the cases of deadly communicable diseases such as measles, mumps, rubella, tetanus, pertussis and diphtheria.
In 1979, the World Health Organisation proclaimed that small pox had been completely eradicated after a global vaccination effort that began in 1959. It was the first success of eradicating an infectious disease after Edward Jenner's demonstration of small pox vaccination 200 years ago.
From these successes in the past century, historian Yuval Noah Harari, in his futuristic book Homo Deus, boldly claimed that humankind having turned the uncontrollable forces of nature, namely famine, plague and war, into manageable challenges that would hence bring forth new humanity agendas for the 21st century.
Well that is perhaps the prevailing view of modernity — an inexorable march of progress. While we can blame deforestation for causing emerging zoonosis, but right into the 21st century, malaria, HIV, AIDS and tuberculosis remain leading public health problems.
In many parts of the world, persistent poverty, social inequality, economic pressure that forces large-scale labour migration and displacement into crowded megacities already overwhelmed from inadequate basic amenities, urbanisation, increasing connectivity and rapid means of transportation all serve as a giant petri dish for pathogens to spread. Stigmatisation and discrimination push the diseases underground.
Ironically, all these issues are laid bare by the current pandemic and will remain unabated. Can science provide the solution? Dare we reimagine globalisation and capitalism as the order of the day?
The truth is, we are part of this natural world where survival is the name of the game. In the contest of struggle between humans and microbes due to selective evolutionary pressure, pathogens always have the upper hand. Humans may forget, but microbes lurk everywhere. Life remains as vulnerable as before.
We only have the mirage of invincibility built on hubris, societal amnesia and apathy. Against these, perhaps only with a mixed dose of wits, collaboration and humility can humans find ways to move forward.
CHEAH C.F.
Ipoh, Perak
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times