prepare a note on covid-19 a blessing in disguise
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Explanation:
The SARS-CoV-2 virus originated in Wuhan city in the Hubei province of China. The Chinese authorities first officially reported its presence to the World Health Organization (WHO) on 31 December 2019, however, it almost certainly started spreading there much before that, possibly sometime early December 2019. Since then, it has spread to almost every country on earth taking lives, shutting down economies, and creating worldwide havoc and panic of the proportions perhaps not seen since World War II, with no signs yet of slowing down. Experts opine that, even if the virus-spread subsides in summer, it is almost certain that the virus will re-surface in the winter, perhaps becoming even more virulent than it already is. Although three have been reports of multiple breakthroughs with regards to COVID-19 vaccine development, with encouraging news coming from Oxford University (UK), Israel, USA and Italy, even the most optimistic estimates suggest that a working vaccine might get available to general public only by late 2020/early 2021 (which would be nothing short of a medical marvel given the timelines involved in vaccine development). Expectedly, people the world over are a worried lot.
Government-imposed lockdowns to check the virus-spread and/or people voluntarily staying at homes have completely pummelled major job providing industries including hospitality, transport (air, sea, rail and road) and pretty much the entire MSME sector. In many countries, the MSME sector is a major job provider for a significant population base. In India for instance, MSME provides jobs to about 110 million people and contributes to roughly 30% to India’s GDP. The COVID-19 situation has unfortunately played havoc with their wafer-thin bottom lines bringing many of them on the verge of serious financial difficulties, even bankruptcy. The extended country-wide lockdown in India, although extremely successful in flattening the COVID-19 curve, has taken away the livelihoods of a large segment of the population. This phenomenon is not limited to a developing country like India though. In USA, for example, a mind-numbing 30 million people have filed for unemployment insurance during this pandemic. There is a similar story panning out in other continents. More than the virus itself, it is the fear of the virus which is creating several major issues. The excess mortality rate in many European countries, even after accounting for Covid-19 related deaths, has been reported on the higher side. People are delaying visiting hospitals for fear of catching the virus, leading to other non-virus-related complications.
Expectedly, the world over, countries are seething with anger. The consensus view seems to be that although the transmission of the virus itself from an animal to human (most probably from a bat to a pangolin to a human), in a wet market in Wuhan, was unintentional (conspiracy theories of virus coming out of a Wuhan bio-lab notwithstanding), the subsequent human to human transmission, once confirmed, should have been contained from spreading to other countries; and at the very minimum timely and honestly reported so that other countries could have been better prepared. There have been reports of Chinese authorities ignoring the early warnings of Mr. Li Wenliang, a doctor based out of Wuhan, who ultimately succumbed to the infection in February 2020. What’s more, China has reportedly re-opened their wet-markets, from where it all reportedly started in Wuhan, thumbing their nose at the world. Chinese muscle-flexing in the South China sea, when the entire world is battling this grave pandemic, has also not gone unnoticed.
Consequently, countries are rethinking their dependence on China for manufacturing all kinds of goods. Although it still makes financial sense for them to outsource this essentially “non-value adding” activity, they now realise it does not make much strategic sense to depend so much on a single country; that also with the level of non-transparency as exists in China. The COVID-19 pandemic has totally exposed the negative consequences of single-country dependence. In the midst of battling the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries suddenly found that they were totally dependent on China for even the essential medical supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE), ventilators and drugs. It is no wonder that Japan has already announced a 243.5 billion Japanese yen package for companies shifting their manufacturing outside China. USA is also reportedly encouraging American companies to move their manufacturing operations outside China. President Donald Trump has repeatedly made comments reflecting America’s serious unhappiness over China’s role on this global pandemic. It is widely expected that other countries would also want to partly, if not completely, move out their manufacturing operations outside China to not risk putting all their eggs in one basket.