By now most of you have heard about the coronavirus (COVID-19) and the global mayhem it has caused. It is impossible to evade the social media blitzkrieg circulating daily images of masked civilians, empty supermarket shelves and westerners engaged in “mortal combat” over toilet paper.
From its likely origin in Wuhan, China, the novel COVID-19 has indelibly latched on to our collective psyche with resulting mass hysteria. While deadlier types of coronavirus have wreaked havoc on us in recent memory such as SARS and MERS, none of them have achieved the kind of global superstardom as COVID-19.
Information about COVID-19 moved slowly through Kurdistan where I am currently living. It was only when Iran, its next-door neighbour became swamped with the regional epidemic that Kurds took notice. Rumours of a new and dangerous “germ” quickly spread resulting in people buying masks, which they were told would save them. Out of curiosity, I went one day to the local street of pharmacies in search of masks. I found none. I told one shop owner that this panic buying of masks meant that medical people would be exposed to infection. A terrible dilemma. He sadly looked at me and offered me one of his masks.
The following week when I was with friends, the topic of coronavirus directed our conversation. It was only then that I realised to what extent corona phobia had become unleashed not only upon our bodies, but within our minds. One of my friends insisted that I wash my hands, though they had been washed shortly before. I had to then treat them with alcohol. After a brief period, I was prompted by the same friend to disinfect my hands with alcohol again. At this point, I backlashed. The penny had dropped. From that point onwards, I have been witnessing a panorama of irrational behaviours from otherwise reasonable people.
How could this have happened? There is a major reason. Nothing triggers human stress response more than uncertainty. The anthropologist Michael Jackson notes that the human psyche is incapable of living with ambiguity for too long. The price of chronic anxiety is psychological meltdown. This is precisely what we are now seeing globally.
So far what the authorities know about COVID-19 is that it is novel, can spread and infect large amounts of people very quickly much like influenza. Statistics also indicate that there is greater risk of mortality with increasing age, especially elderly citizens and those with pre-existing diseases.
However, unlike the influenza virus, we do not know the potential of COVID-19. It is a bogeyman in our middle. Maybe, this is a major reason why most of us do not worry very much about the influenza virus, though it kills hundreds of thousands of people and infects millions annually. It’s a familiar foe. We can live with it. But not indeterminacy.
Most of us don’t really know much about viruses apart from they can make people ill or die. Even fewer of us realise that approximately 8% of the human genome has derived from ancient retroviruses. Yes, viruses form a part of our biological essence. Think about that. However, what sets COVID-19 apart from other viruses is the vast amount of media coverage given to it. Coupled by our addiction with social media and inability to critically discern vast amounts of information and you have a recipe for corona phobia.
Not since 9/11 has an event tweaked our collective angst so much. Though international responses to COVID-19 have varied, corona phobia has triggered our dread of pathogens. Viruses are the primal shapeshifters. Long before vampires and werewolves, our viral ancestors learnt how to mutate and be a parasite with incredible ingenuity. Viruses learnt how to replicate themselves using their host’s DNA, a feat hitherto unequalled in nature. It is easy to draw a few parallels between viruses such as coronavirus and ghoulish beings that still haunt our imagination. Like ghosts, viruses are both invisible and can seemingly cross boundaries at a whim. Having invaded their host, viruses can quickly subdue the immune system. Some viruses like ebola are relatively dumb; they kill their host before they can spread. On the other hand, COVID-19 has shown itself to be a formidable opponent by its ability to infect human multitudes with apparent ease. It is clever. Despite COVID-19’s adroit nature, we have chosen to give it our unalloyed attention, and by doing so, have allowed ourselves to be swept into the maelstrom of global fear.
arthur.saniotis@adelaide.edu.au
