The battle between us and Covid-19 and the vulnerability of humankind

WHAT A PIECE OF WORK IS MAN!” the great Shakespeare wrote five centuries ago. Lest he, in the daft imperatives of modern politically-correct-speak, be labelled as sexist, let’s substitute “humankind” for “man!” And indeed what a piece of work all of us are - men and women - humankind.

We are told by the experts that we are relative latecomers to Planet Earth. Many forms of life came and went before we arrived or evolved. And again, according to the experts, some of that incredibly ancient life still survives in the deeper recesses of the oceans, where it minds it own business.

But humankind did   not mind its own business. We left our nearest cousins the apes, behind us in the jungles, where they now struggle to survive because of our intrusion into their habitat. Finding shelter in the caves (or so the legend goes), and discovering fire, we then set about controlling our environment, making it work for us. We bossed and bullied and controlled and manipulated and wounded and killed and exploited. We survived.

That’s what we have been doing ever since - exploiting, making things work for us. At this stage in  the story of humankind, we are top of the heap, know-alls, invincible, monarchs “of all we survey.” And when you consider the status we have achieved today, we can truly be described as an extraordinary “piece of work.” It would seem we achieved that status because we had initiative, curiousity, the imperative for survival, which impelled us to move out of central Africa, where the experts tell us we originated. We invented tools, and languages, developed skills, and learned the advantages of forming communities, of working and co-operating together.

 Though the Bronze Age - 3,000-4,000 years ago, is only yesterday in historic time, it is still humbling to look at the archaeological evidence of such a community living then in a gentle valley in the Moanavulla Ridge in County Waterford. There, stones in the ground, the physical presence of earthworks and built enclosures, tell us that the community enjoyed all the requisites for living  which we now enjoy, though obviously in a far less comfortable form.

They had shelters - homes - in which they lived and which gave protection against the weather. There is still a small circle which the experts interpret as the site of worship, and places on the stream, the fulacht fiah, where hunks of meat were cooked, probably on occasions of celebrations. The site where they buried their dead is still identifiable. Those were the basic needs for survival several thousands of years ago, and they still are today, but humankind has never been satisfied with remaining static. Always there has been the search for improvement, for development, for discovery, even if that meant the exploitation of other human beings and the environment in which we live.

 And so today, we have reached an era of extraordinary achievements. We have conquered many of the diseases that shortened the lives of our ancestors. We have vanquished distance. Invented immediate communication. Walked on the moon. Sent probes out to the edges of the universe. Are planning a trip to Mars. We are, indeed, “the greatest!” Indestructible. Undefeated by any challenge.

Well, that’s what most of us thought until a recent morning, while stirring the breakfast porridge, when the radio news told us that humankind had now been threatened by something we had never before heard of.

Coronavirus - Covid-19 - a sinister virus had invaded our world, and was not attacking us but was threatening to plunge our economies into a serious recession, and to socially isolate us. But perhaps the most menacing and ominous of its characteristics is that it is a form of life which has none of the elements of life as we know it in human, animal, vegetable, world. And yet, we are told, it may well be a form of life that has long predated human existence on Planet Earth and may well survive us. It is so infinitesimal that it can only be identified by very clever scientists using the most sophisticated equipment.

Coronavirus is the most recent form of life to emerge from that secret ancient virus world. Apparently, its habitat up to now has been in the bodies of bats. The Chinese, always adventurous eaters, decided to add bats to their daily diet, and thus they released Covid-19 into our human world to do its dirty work.

The story of humankind tells us that we will ultimately find a way to combat this invasion, but not before there is much devastation. Superb survivors though we be, this malevolent threat to our wellbeing reminds us that we do not know everything and that we are not masters of the universe. Indeed, the most recent threat from Coronavirus may well be another reminder of the inherent vulnerability of humankind.

Some decades ago, a Taoiseach, Albert Reynolds, said, in the context of politics, that it was “the little things that got you down.”

 And the great Shakespeare eloquently reminded his Horatio that there were more things in Heaven and Earth “than are dreamt of in our philosophy.”

Amen to that!