Reconciliation, Coventry Cathedral
I find it interesting how people describe the SARS-CoV-2 virus which causes the COVID-19 disease as the enemy and assign some idea of malicious thought to it. It's just a piece of RNA that's mutated and finds human cells a convenient place for replicating itself. It has no consciousnesses and, hence, is unaware whether its host lives or dies: it's irrelevant as by then the virus has already replicated. A virus doesn't really live or die: it's either active or it's been deactivated ... some tests identify bits of the virus but not if it's viable. I'm not sure attribution of blame is particularly useful: it's almost certainly a result of our ill treatment of animals and although it most probably originated in Chinese live animal markets those of us in Europe and the US shouldn't be too smug as BSE and bovine TB are the result of intensive farming - and if we look at the way some animals are pumped full of antibiotics to support intensive farming methods we're storing up another crisis when we are no longer able to combat bacteria ... So viewing the virus as an enemy possibly isn't the best way of winning when in fact we might be our own worst enemy? Cooperation and coordination of efforts and resources are surely needed to resolve these challenges? I doubt it's helpful comparing the COVID-19 virus with Hitler, Bin Laden, Milosevic, etc who thought, manipulated supporters and consciously murdered people but could themselves be killed, captured, negotiated with or may surrender and sign a peace treaty; the virus is something we have to live with and reduce, mitigate and manage with behavioural controls, medicines or - let's hope - vaccines. Perhaps we need to reconcile ourselves to that? Unlike a human enemy, surely a virus isn't capable of reconciliation?https://flic.kr/p/TrYxNJ
Michael Ixer ● 2374d8 Comments ● 2374d