Corona: Fear is the key

As the second round of Corona scare grips the world as many had predicted, mass hysteria of gargantuan proportions seems to be building up again. Psychologists may call this reaction a paranoia that seems to affect large sections of the people all over the world. And Corona is not the only worry. US is worried about the gun purchases reaching alarming levels as a sizeable section of Asian Americans are in some kind of an insecurity syndrome. Worry and fear are all at the top of the mind as death seems to be lurking round the corner. The situation is eerily similar to the Corona scare round 1 suggesting that experience is not always a good teacher. Rather, it accentuates the past behaviour many times over. Against this backdrop, we once again need to ask the same questions that were raised during the previous round. The responses are of the same trial and error nature. To add to the woes some new questions have cropped up. Is this a different Corona? Does the vaccine has the answer? Difficult to say but history seems to be repeating itself. As the scare mounts and the toll counts rise to alarming levels, there is a need to have a relook at the entire scenario and examine things in totality. And things may not appear to be as simple as they look. Yes, it has impacted lives, ruined families and caused death and destruction of enormous proportions. Yes, it has shattered economies and crashed GDPs. But there is another side of the story. It has raised the number of billionaires in both developed and developing countries and there are some in the queue to graduate to the trillionaire status. It has pushed the growth of e-commerce companies astronomically while online platforms rose in geometric proportions. Investors now realise that putting money in Pharma stocks yields big dividends, and rather fast, even though there is no sure medicine in sight. It also threw quacks and charlatans in thousands sermonising on dos and don’ts on the social media. YouTube has become the most handy tool for the propaganda brigade who are delivering unsubstantiated pearls of wisdom almost at the same pace as the speed of the spread of the virus. Quite interestingly the biological virus seems to have acquired traits of computer virus. So we are told that this time the vaccine provides immunity for some months rather than a lifetime, as it used to be earlier. The connection between computer and Corona seems interesting as there is an uncanny relationship between people having stakes in computers and Pharma. It is not just the medical angle. An interesting aspect is that one voice of dissent on the social media meets with systemic campaign from troll brigade that makes sure that such voices are lost in the din. That apart, there are many intriguing aspects to ponder. But we must understand that while exercising utmost caution helps us, getting scared helps others who have something to gain from our fear. Fear is a big industry these days and marketing negativities pushes demand of goods and services that are often not required. Making a fast buck is seldom done through fair business. As Mario Puzo wrote in The Godfather — Behind every great fortune there is a crime. Corona is certainly bad, but cashing in on Corona is rather worse.