PETACH TIKVAH, Israel — Patrick Vallance, Chief Scientific Adviser to the Government of the United Kingdom, recently told the National Security Strategy Committee in London that “it’s unlikely we will end up with a truly sterilizing vaccine, something that completely stops infection.”
As daunting as this estimate is, chances are that Vallance is underestimating the impact of the virus. The more likely scenario is that the virus will spread from humans to the animal kingdom, to plants, and from there back to people. It will be impossible to defeat it using regular methods. Our only option is to revolutionize our way of life.
Already, a report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences confirms that cats and dogs can be infected by the novel coronavirus, and that humans are the ones giving it to the pets. Although so far, there has been no evidence that animals infect people, experience shows that the coronavirus changes all the time and we can’t be sure it won’t become transmittable through pets tomorrow.
Even more alarming, the Qingdao Health and Health Commission in China reported that positive samples of seafood were detected in the port of Qingdao, and two workers unloading the conditioned cargo have been infected. Without a vaccine for a virus that can infect us even through our pets and food, how will we protect ourselves? We can’t protect ourselves from the virus, but we can eliminate the cause of its emergence, and that will eliminate the virus.
Over the past several decades, a number of viruses have migrated from the animal kingdom to humans. The HIV AIDS, Ebola, and SARS are just a few examples, and scientists warn that many more are “in the tube,” since we have ruined animals’ habitats, which brought them closer to us. At the same time, we have weakened our immune system with our corrupt way of life, making us more vulnerable to unfamiliar pathogens.
If we want a healthy future, we have to transform our way of life. We cannot maintain an attitude of exploitation, ruthless competition, hatred and alienation among people, nations, races, and faiths. This hatred is the reason for our mistreatment of each other and the earth. We are transferring the battles between us to the world we live in and destroy our planet with our struggles for dominance.
We have become too powerful to act as if our misdeeds have no consequences. We are mutually responsible for one another. We are dependent on each other whether we want it or not. Whatever we do affects all of humanity. If we choose consideration and concern for one another, it will save the entire world. If we choose to keep on hating, we will inflict extinction on ourselves and everyone. We’re in a sink or swim situation, and we’re all tied to one another by strings we don’t want to recognize. If we drown other people, these strings will pull us down with them.
*
Michael Laitman, Ph.D., studied philosophy and Kabbalah at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, and now resides in Petach Tikvah, Israel. He has published more than 40 books on a variety of topics.
Good article. We need more love in the world. I believe true love allows others to be happy. I would never want someone else to be unhappy at my expense.