Two battlegrounds in the Covid-19 war

                                                               Source: Ministry of Health, Singapore

By Ivan Lim
Former AJA President, Contributor to AsiaN 

SINGAPORE: The world is in a tizzy never witnessed before.No one knows when the frightful Covid-19 pandemic will end; no one is sure how it can be ended. It continues to kill and maim. The tragic toll so far: more than 230,00 killed across the world, more than three million infected; countless nerves in a state of disarray.

Yes, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has given it a name, SARS-Covid 2, a progeny of Severe Acute respiratory Syndrome (SARS) that ravaged the world in 2003 but brought under control in 18 months.The more deadly novel Coronavirus strain surfaced in China in December, hence Covid-19 in media-speak.

The bug, invisible to the naked eye, continues to strike terror into the hearts of millions, from kings, billionaires to paupers. How do we describe it to get an idea of how it looks? Under the scope, the virus appears rotund, with tiny spikes sticking out like a crown; hence Coronavirus – corona is Latin for crown.
It floats in the air, catches victims unawares, gets anyone near a coughing or sneezing carrier infected, even sticks glued to various surfaces for long. Touch that surface, and it nets another victim.
In social media, the virus is portrayed as the ghastly Grim Reaper. Stealthily it invades, copying the best war tactics of humans, choosing our mouth or nostril to latch on, immobilising our defence cells, replicating en masse to overwhelm the body’s antibodies. Not satisfied, it attacks the lungs, targeting the air sacs, and sucks away oxygen. Acute respiratory syndrome sets in. Unless treated in quick time, the victim succumbs.

Corvid-19 is hurtling lives upside down, even words and their meanings. Thus, If you have caught the virus, you are said to have tested “positive” for Covid. So much so, says a netizen, “positive” is the most negative word today.

On the lighter side, Covid-19 has changed perceptions. Like wearing a face mask is now looked upon with approval. As a netizen remarks: I could never imagine I could don a face mask and ask a bank teller for cash!  Covid-19 has also spawned a new word—‘infodemics’, defined by the WHO as a profusion of “information, some accurate, some not, that makes it rather hard for people to find trustworthy sources and reliable guidance, when they need it.’’

Remarkably, as the battle against Covid-19 gets tougher by the day, speculation about its source and spread mounts.

Sections of the American media are rife with conspiracy theories, one declaring that China let loose the coronavirus from its Wuhan virology laboratories as part of “a covert biological warfare programme” to boost its economic prowess vis-à-vis the West.

President Donald Trump initially lent credence to the spurious story by using terms like ‘Chinese virus’ and ‘Wuhan virus’.

In a tit for tat, Chinese Foreign Ministry official Zhao Lijian proffered his take that the virus came from a United States military laboratory in Fort Derick, Maryland, and was carried to China by an American serviceman during the World Military Games heldin Wuhan in October last year. The Global Times, an English language tabloid of the official People’s Daily, followed it up with calls on the US to come clean onthe origin of the viruses.

US fact-finding website PolitiFact calls the conspiracy theories “specious” and authoritative experts in virus research discount them. However, as the Covid-19 pandemic escalates in the US, the speculative spoofs are being jazzed up by pro-Trump Republicans and Fox News talking heads, citing unverified sources. The finger-pointing had even morphed into demands on Beijing to allow US investigators to probe the Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan and hold China liable for the virus spill-over to the US.

The most outlandish of the conspiracy narratives is the one linking Covid-19 to 5G technology.  Believing that electro-magnetic waves from 5G networks helped transmit the coronavirus – pooh-poohed by scientists – the advocates in United Kingdom and Netherlands went so far as to destroy 5G towers. Or the bizarre twist to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call to the people to clap and blow conch shells as a united show of appreciation to medical workers combating Covid-19 pandemic. Online the gesture was rendered as a quick-fix therapy- the sound vibration caused by 1.5 billion Indians simultaneously would somehow make Coronavirus impotent to do any mischief.

Baseless theories on Covid-19’s genesis have been followed by speculative accounts of folk remedies, such as garlic and onions, that could stop the virus in its tracks. It reminded me of kimchi, which researchers tested as a potential SARS virus antidote.

Meanwhile Trump, not giving up on “miracle cures” – in a headlong descent into quackery, say critics – suggested using ultraviolet light to zap the virus. Or disinfect it with chemicals. Earlier, he had seized upon the anti-malarial drug Hydroxychloroquine as a quick Covid-19 cure.

As yet, an antidote against the coronavirus is at least 12 months away, according to the WHO. A race is on among 100 pharmaceutical firms and research institutes around the world to be first with a vaccine. Leading the pack is China’s Sinovac Biotech, a German tie-up with American pharmaceutical company Pfizer, and the India Serum Institute working on an Oxford University candidate vaccine.

Spouting and spreading disinformation, by video or audio, can easily create hysteria, confusion and panic – witness the mad rush at supermarkets to stock upon food items and even toilet tissues or the long queues for surgical masks in various countries.

Singapore too has had its crop of irresponsible online chatter that undermined public confidence in the government’s handling of the Covid-19 crisis.

Here are some instances. On April 3, a fake memo bearing a Singapore General Hospital logo circulated online that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was warded after he had tested positive for Covid-19.

On April 17, the States Times Review (STR) online platform, posted on Facebook allegations that the government was trying to cover up the severity of the Covid-19 outbreak by halving the actual number of cases to prevent public panic.

Invoking the Protection against Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (Pofma), the authorities directed STR to post a correction for its “multiple falsehoods”. The Ministry of Health also issued an official count of new cases and the grand total.

Speculation was also rife over the Covid-19 death toll in the city-state. On April 7, someone posted a false report that a Covid-19 patient had died. And, as early as January 26, the Hardware Zone forum ran a post, saying a 66-year-old patient had died of severe pneumonia caused by a new unidentified virus.

Fake news aside, the Singapore authorities arrested a civil servant on April 24 under the Official Secrets Act for leaking information on new Covid-19 cases. The officer had circulated the Health Ministry’s embargoed figures on newcases on April 16 among members of a WeChat group.

On April 27, a Singaporean man was charged in court for posting a false message that supermarkets would be open only two days a week under tighter measures. It was feared the report could spark a run on the supermarkets. He was charged for committing a criminal offence under the Miscellaneous Offences (Public Order and Nuisance) Act as a kind of warning to others.

Singapore is in the thick of stopping a spread of Covid-19 among the 300,000 Bangladeshi, Indian and Chinese foreign workers housed in dormitories. Amid the intense efforts to contain the outbreak, the authorities have warned the public to beware of doctored photos and videos circulating on social media platforms about the plight of migrant workers that were calculated to create fear, panic, and even violence.

One video clip claimed that a Bangladeshi worker at a dormitory had taken his own life after worrying about his pay and work. Another video purportedly showed a fight between two men of South Asian origin. In fact, the fight tookplace in a Dubai foreign workers’ dorm but the video was passed off as having taken place in Singapore.

As the Grim Reaper continues to run up a gigantic harvest of deaths and infections world-wide, the killer-superbug is seemingly aided by the scourge of infodemic, for which an antidote is also being awaited.

WHO director-general Dr Tedros A. Ghebreyesus has spoken of the two battle grounds in the Covid-19 war: “We are not just fighting a pandemic; we are also fighting an infodemic.”