Globalization and Viruses

Globalization and Viruses

By: Erreh Svaia

CRANEOSCOPIO

The Chinese new year is coming, and a large part of the economically active population will travel to their home cities to enjoy a few days of rest, it is heard as something simple, the reality is that due to the population level of this eastern giant, the arrival of the Chinese New Year implies the greatest migration of the modern era, and this is precisely the factor that adds the most risk of spreading with greater intensity the so-called “coronavirus” that has already claimed today the lives of almost 2 dozen people, with registered cases of infection in around 500 people and already detected in countries such as the Philippines, Taiwan, South Korea and the USA.

Due to its intensive work of raising farm animals, China is a country very prone to the emergence of this type of virus mutations, which by "jumping" from animal to human and vice versa, generate strains of an unpredictable nature, usually more violent, which becomes a greater risk because there is no vaccine for these new strains, due to the issue of the very deplorable state of health conditions on farms in this country, to this we add the huge population, the great secrecy with which they handle these health alerts and the celebrations of the new year, without a doubt a recipe that will undoubtedly contribute to the increase in registered cases, as well as the spread in regions outside of China.

It should be noted that this "coronavirus" is not the type of pandemic virus that many have announced could become a major evil for humanity, although the sanitary conditions of the huge markets of Chinese animals, is reason to be on alert, since they are high-risk for the emergence of this type of respiratory discomfort, but even when the transmission progresses from being from animal to human, to being a transmissible disease from human to human, it is there, when the situation becomes really critical and it must trigger a global alert, considering the rapid spread of a disease, in an environment of great mobility among people in the world.

Originally detected in a very populated city of Wuhan, the “coronavirus” is not yet a problem on a global scale, although, in any case, several countries are already on alert regarding the entry of Chinese citizens, in order to contain the emergence of cases outside of China, in Mexico, without doubt the airports of the cities of Monterrey, Tijuana and Cancun, which receive direct flights from China, should already be on alert to detect possible cases that may enter the country.

There is no doubt that although the “coronavirus” does not have great transcendence at the health level at the moment due to its low mortality, the affectation at the commercial level has already been felt, while the fear spreads in the stock exchanges and a considerable reduction is experienced in the tourism sector, which increases the filters of people entering and leaving each country, from the beginning the city of Wuhan has already taken drastic measures canceling all public transport seeking to isolate the population and stop as much as possible the activity, as well as closing airports and train stations.

In Mexico, only one case is being investigated and it has not yet been determined whether the case can be referred to as a case of “coronavirus” infection, but the great trigger today could be the massive migration that will occur with the Chinese new year, then we could start talking about a pandemic about to emerge, countries like North Korea has already announced the closing of its borders, although its adjacent part with China is not precisely the most sealed border on the planet, it should be mentioned that countries plunged into totalitarian regimes could be the most agile at the time of closing their borders and isolating their population, although once an outbreak of the epidemic enters, they are also the least able to fight it.

The coexistence between animals and humans in farms and markets, many of them poorly regulated and monitored, remain one of the main sources of infection and outbreaks of mutated viruses that arise and threaten to become pandemics, the warning and threat is always latent, especially in countries like China, where much of the animal husbandry and slaughter sector lacks the necessary regulations and appropriate controls once an outbreak of infection has been detected, fortunately, China is no longer the hermetic country of 10 years, and the information that is being generated will be of great help in the effort to contain the outbreak.

In the event of a massive outbreak, much will depend on China's ability to open up to the collaboration of experts in epidemic containment, to open up to viable opinions and options, to remain calm and work on solutions, not on guilty parties, and lots of objective communication, mainly.