The Virus that went Viral!

Virus:

"An infective agent that typically consists of a nucleic acid molecule in a protein coat, is too small to be seen by light microscopy, and is able to multiply only within the living cells of a host."

This is the only meaning of Virus we knew growing up and then came along a new one when information technology emerged.

"A piece of code which is capable of copying itself and typically has a detrimental effect, such as corrupting the system or destroying data."

Viral:

"Of the nature of, caused by, or relating to a virus or viruses."
 
We understood this too well until the millennials came along and taught us their sole objective in life was to make things go viral. Something as trivial as a video of a loud sneeze started going viral. Bless You!
 

"(Of an image, video, piece of information, etc.) Circulated rapidly and widely from one Internet user to another"

We were doing pretty well with all the above interpretations, until a humble flu virus came along and humanity took it upon them to make both the virus and the information about it viral. This was when Life sciences crossed swords with the Information Revolution and is proving to be fatal both realistically and virtually.

It came by the name Corona; it meant Crown or wreath in Greek. Humanity were of late behaving like kings of the universe and they carried a halo of invincibility around inflated heads, little did they realize a crown when placed horizontally across their 56 inch chest could also be referred to as a wreath, the last floral arrangement that will adorn you ever!

The buzzword today is Social Distancing. We were already experts at it the last few years and since the advent of social media we have been distancing ourselves socially; we had become a tribe addicted to our smart phones. We were in fact only poking or pinging socially, now they have added a physical measure to it too, the distancing. The most affected would be the page 3 crowd and the millennials who hug each other at the drop of a hat, who now will have to take a temporary break from it. A Bollywood diva, now a Hollywood spouse recently claimed she has promoted Namaste to the western world for long; hopefully she does not become the brand ambassador for the same. This humble mode of salutation is now basking in its minute of fame & glory. From Royals to Political leaders across the world are patronizing it and the nationalists back home are like, We told you so!!!  Wish we had patented the Namaste, we could have bartered it for the Kohinoor.

Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, App for every trivial tasks, we were slowly growing bigger for our shoes, when man plays God, God plays with man. The great nations across the globe are being brought to its knees even as this is being written, by a humble virus and the whole of Humanity is feeling the sense of vulnerability that they have never felt in centuries. Cutting across the rich and poor the virus has proved to be an equal-opportunity attacker, a true socialist at heart, no wonder it began its journey from China. As we start to self-isolate ourselves we are going through what I call the Noah’s Ark moment, just that ark needs to be well partitioned. The 40 days and nights has also a significance in the origins of the word quarantine, the root of which is the Italian word Quaranta Giorni that also means 40 days, the number of days people were isolated during the great plague, Black Death, in the 13^th Century.

As we spend our time in isolation and look at the world slowing around us, it is time to introspect on how vulnerable we as a tribe are and it’s time to get our priorities in order, however as I type, someone has cracked an algorithm to detect a virus by your voice and would launch an app for the same soon….and then what I ask? Again a case of skewed priorities!

Let’s pledge to be socially responsible by being prudent on social media and slow the viral spread of the virus rather than creating a fear psychosis around it by making it go viral!