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Well known neurologist and surgeon, Dr. Ben Carson, is a member of the Presidential Task Force on COVID 19 in the United States of America. Carson is fit for the job, having distinguished himself when, at 35, he successfully separated conjoined twins, and went into the annals as one of the few to do so when he did. As current Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, what we call minister here, he has retired from medicine and gone into public service. He made a bid for the presidency and backed down for Donald Trump at a point.
When Carson said the virus presents a dilemma, as he did the other day, he spoke from a vantage point. He said 25 per cent of infected people show no symptoms. The evident implication is that massive testing is the only way to fish out people who have contracted the virus. The situation is more precarious by allegations by such people as the Japanese scientist and epidemiologist, Tasuku Honjo, who says the virus is not natural. He says 40 years on the job give him the impetus to make the assertion. He said viruses ought not to react the same way in all temperatures, insisting that this one must have been manufactured. Little wonder President Trump has prepared a bill of $160 billion for China, when the dust settles. I hope he won’t dismiss his bill as a ‘sarcastic’ one when push comes to shove.
A certain Dr. Stephen Ohize, in an article, described the virus as a wicked problem, not in the satiric sense but as a problem whose solution is difficult to find. I have long described it as presenting health and economic problems in rather equal proportions, which is why Carson holds that relaxing the lockdown is the dilemma of dangling between the devil and the deep blue sea.
He said, if the United States of America waits for the virus to go away to relax the lockdown, its economy would hit the rocks. The challenge is to find a way to navigate round the devil (the virus) and the deep blue sea (the lockdown). If you locked down without massive testing, given that a quarter of infected people hardly show symptoms, you would have missed your target of halting spread and if you continued to lock down, the economy would embark on a descent into the abyss.
Such was the dilemma of President Muhammadu Buhari in taking the decision to continue or relax the lockdown. He has taken the balance of saving lives and rescuing the economy. He faced the tough decision of locking down people whose stomachs were already revolting with hunger. Nigeria certainly does not have enough reserves in cash and food to sustain a long lockdown, one that has increased rather than abated the numbers. An extended lockdown exposes people to the ‘hunger virus,’ which poses more immediate danger than the coronavirus. Thieves have become more daring, justifying their nefarious activities with the lockdown that has denied them access to their daily bread.
The irony of coronavirus is that it has confined well known ailments to the back waters. These ailments decimate people in their droves. Diarrhea kills 150,000 people annually in Nigeria, tuberculosis kills 245,000 and pneumonia takes away 162,000, but the novel and strange virus, which has killed 40 people in two months, has taken the centre stage because it is extremely contagious. Drugs exist for the other afore-mentioned ailments. They are not novel like this evil virus, which has kept scientists in their laboratories in search of solutions.
It has set economies around the world on the path of decline, wiping off savings, yet preventing replacement. Oil sales have plunged and no one is in the factories. The machines are silent. The factories have been shut down. No one would put his head on the slaughter slab at production lines and dare the ailment, which has the capacity of sending them to the great beyond. Do they not say that people run away from fights so they can fight another day?
President Buhari has dared the virus through a phased reduction of the lockdown. Prevention of spread will be heightened by compulsory use of face masks and prevention of inter-state movements. The Presidential Task Force would produce detailed regulations before the lockdown would be partially lifted on May 4, 2020.
People are bound to return to their businesses, and restart their lives. They would now place more value on their lives. Only the living make money, which is why I have advocated that all funds mapped out for capital projects should be diverted to sustaining lives by way of palliatives. Businesspeople should, for once, look away from the bottom line, dig into their reserves and pay workers. Rather than send people to the congested unemployment lines, salaries can be slashed in order to keep people alive.
It is inevitable to lift the lockdown in the face of debilitating consequences. The virus moves through people. However, there seems to be enough awareness for which people will strive to protect themselves in the midst of a virus now walking on four legs around the city. The onus is on everyone to take responsibility for protecting themselves as they struggle for economic survival. The President has taken a step that is tantamount to protecting the people and the economy. The people must find a way to do the same.
