Keep epidemiology and medical wisdom bystander, bring microbiology and evolutionary wisdom to solve novel coronavirus crisis

Bombs after bombs, WHO has been shelling at the world about novel coronavirus and COVID 19 thanks to the privilege it enjoys over the virus that WHO has cleverly named as novel coronavirus with the prefix ‘novel’. The term ‘novel’ means new, it means, the virus is new to me, new to you and new to everyone. 

Therefore every day, every hour and every second our policy makers can release different, contradictory and new statements with brave face that they are continuously learning about the virus and hence updating the world.

The latest bomb is that those people who recovered from either coronavirus positivity or from COVID 19 are equally susceptible like anyone in the community to re-infection.  https://www.timesnownews.com/india/article/as-global-covid-19-death-toll-nears-200000-who-says-no-evidence-that-recovered-patients-are-immune/583038

WHO is quite right that no substantial evidence is available now with WHO to suggest that those who are already infected are not protected from re-infection in future, it means, immunity against the virus is poor and non-protective.  

When we debate about novel coronavirus at global level, we also must look at the problem from the angel of microbiology and evolutionary biology otherwise we will be doing nothing but multiplying our fear and hypothesis to contain the virus alongside of rapid multiplication of novel coronavirus; both may run parallel to each other.

Unfortunately we have so far looked at the problem only from medical and epidemiological perspective and completely or partly negated the realm of microbiology and evolutionary biology from offering its wisdom.  At the end, we have only complicated our wisdom than to see the problem in a sensible way as how to solve it.

Look at the marine world?  The diversity of fauna in marine ecosystem is unimaginably high.  The same marine ecosystem is only holding one of the biggest and largest animals on earth called blue whale. 

Has evolution favoured blue whale alone to live in marine ecosystem?  Look at Serengeti or Botswana, is lion alone survives as carnivore or many other carnivorous animals do live in large numbers? Why panda live exclusively with bamboo shoot and leaves?  Why kola live largely by eating eucalyptus leaves? Can a kangaroo live in Indian forest? Will the same kola live in our eucalyptus forest? 

No microbe can produce such devastating consequence to the entire world as we think, can spread so rapidly.  Coronavirus may spread everywhere.  Such spread may be happening as an evolutionary consequence where the virus may be searching for an ideal habitat for itself?  From microbiological point of view, we must ask how easy is to culture coronavirus in the laboratory.  Is it fastidious or fast grower in several types of cell lines?

If the virus has not yet identified and set its habitat, it would continue to search newer habitats.  Such a search in medical parlance is called as epidemic or pandemic.  Cholera or Malaria spread we must differentiate from the spread of novel coronavirus.  Both the microbes are true or primary pathogen and novel coronavirus is not a true pathogen.

Now we must link the above context with the recent statement of WHO that all those who recovered from either coronavirus or COVID 19 are equally susceptible for re-infection.  It means, our immune defence either fail to recognise the pathogen or fail to develop immunity against the same virus even for a very short time.  It means, the virus may be still searching for an ideal host and that may not be Homo sapiens, who knows? 

Only when a pathogen forms reasonably long and formidable relationship with its host, it can turns to be a PATHOGEN or COMMENSAL FLORA. 

If that were the reality, how we found our over-fear over coronavirus?  Certain individuals may be falling down due to own pre-existing medical conditions than due to the virus? 

We also must ask where the multiplication rate of the virus happens more, in the nostril and throat or in the lungs.   What is the least viral load is needed to cause infection both in susceptible individuals as well as supposedly resistant individuals – younger ones without any pre-existing medical conditions? 

How long the virus can survive in wet surfaces?  What would be the probable viral load we can expect in mucous or salivary discharge?  If the half-life load of the virus in wet surfaces more than the inoculum size needed to cause infection in both vulnerable and resistant population means, how the social distancing and lock down alone would prevent the spread of the virus in India. 

It is so brilliant and scientific to assume that the virus has not already reached our community and not spreading?  How a virus can survive well over different human races and geographic and climatic conditions? 

Should the above several questions and ‘ifs and buts’ give confidence to us to take a calculated risk to remove lock down and let people to directly take on the virus? 

Was it true, only Dinosaurs alone survived during Pleistocene glacial age?  If so how different species of Dinosaurs existed together in the same geography? 

When a virus is aggressively searching its host, it is bound to hop from one individual to another and then may disappear.  Should we facilitate the virus to move away or should we lock the virus somewhere in India, allow the virus to stay for a while and spread evenly all over India and finally facilitate the virus to choose Indians to be its likely habitat? 

All our epidemiologists are busy in making several mathematical models to just predict the level of spread of virus?  Do we have a precise mathematical model to say how many of the novel coronavirus positive people would develop COVID 19 and would die?

In a country like India, can we prevent the spread of the virus?  Should we focus on COVID 19 or be after coronavirus positive cases?

If life and livelihood are separate and that is the outcome the lockdown has proved means, where come the logic of chasing coronavirus positive cases instead of do what best we can to COVID 19.  All the coronavirus positive cases are not going to become COVID 19. 

When a bird finds it necessary to save itself from the terrestrial habitat, it grew small, developed wings and become areal.  Are we sure, the novel coronavirus won adapt an inseparable relationship with Indians if we imprison the virus from moving from one to another to escape and find its ultimate host?

It looks like, the panic of novel coronavirus to leave human host may the problem that we have exaggerated as ours and otherwise the virus may leave us swiftly. 

When our medical science and epidemiology fail to give us a firm anchoring point to strategize, we must bows to the evolutionary science and must allow the virus and humans to be free so that virus would escape to another planet. 

It is like when a snake that enters our house, we must leave the door open for the snake to escape and not lock down the doors, cause panic and fear to the snake and get bitten by it and die if it is a poisonous snake.

Play the game from evolutionary perspective; we may able to solve the problem of both novel coronavirus as well as the problem of human life and livelihood in India. 

Time has come we must follow Bhagavat Gita of Lord Krishna, that we are left with only our duty and defining how the outcome should, is not ours. 

We should not kill India through lockdown and quarantine. Who knows, even the novel coronavirus may not have any intention to kill humanity. 

When our wisdom fails to make us wise, we must promote some bizarre ideas, sometime they may solve our problem. 

Like the proverb “the fool may teach/learn the wise man wit” means, a wise man can learn more from a foolish question than go by the rule book.