It was supposed to be a great year, but all of a sudden, the world came to a stand still as people are forced to stay home since the outbreak of covid-19 became mainstream.
Since the first case of the novel coronavirus was reported in Chinese city of Wuhan on 17th November, 2019, it has spread rapidly to many countries with currently confimed cases standing at 1,276,587, out of which 69,522 deaths were recorded and 265,944 recovery according to data from worldometer.
While the stay at home measure is regarded as the most effective way to contain the spread of the virus, the economic impact cannot be ignored.
But while other developed and hardest hit nations are already staring economic depression in the eye, developing countries especially those who rely on oil revenues, are more to be pitied according to Fareed Zakaria, an author and journalist at CNN.
Speaking in a publication by The Washington Post on April 5th, 2020, Fareed said, “Even as we are just beginning to confront the magnitude of the shock caused by the Covid-19 pandemic we need to wrap our minds around a painful truth. We are in the early stages of what is going to become a series of cascading crises, reverberating throughout the world.
“The shock of Covid-19 is being felt in countries like China, Italy, Spain, and the US, but next will come “explosions in the developing world,” where testing has been scarce, as are resources to cope with an economic crash.
“Oil-producing states could see chaos: with oil prices crashing even before Covid-19 hit, countries like Libya, Nigeria, Iran, Iraq, and Venezuela could see economic catastrophes resulting in “political turmoil, refugees, even revolutions, on a scale we have not seen for decades.
“The world entered this cris*s with mountains of public debt and with global cooperation at a nadir. The problem we face is broad and global but unfortunately the responses are increasingly narrow and parochial”.
There has been endless calls to diversify the Nigerian economy to avoid the prospects of an economic stress should a situation like the current covid-19, arises.
Some positive efforts were made by the Goodluck Jonathan administration, but which the current Buhari government failed to improve upon, thus making the country vulnerable to external economic shocks.
There’s the problem of corruption and lack of prudency in managing scarce resources, in addition to mounting debts. Surely Nigeria isn’t ready for what’s coming.
For those who think prayer is the way to go, we’ll have to pray much harder and hope for a miracle. Or the masses could take matters into their own hands and take the path of revolution as suggested by Fareed.
In another update, the spread of conspiracy theories linking the COVID-19 to the roll out of 5G networks has been described as “complete rubbish” and “biologically impossible.” There theories have also been branded “the worst kind of fake news” by NHS England Medical Director Stephen Powis.
Professor of paediatrics at the University of Bristol, Adam Finn, said it would also be impossible for 5G to transmit the virus.
“The present epidemic is caused by a virus that is passed from one infected person to another. We know this is true. We even have the virus growing in our lab, obtained from a person with the illness. Viruses and electromagnetic waves that make mobile phones and internet connections work are different things. As different as chalk and cheese,” he says.
To better describe the position of 5G in the electromagnetic spectrum, a graphic representation which can be seen below, was shared by the BBC.
The graphic places 5G way below visible light, suggesting that light from the sun has a higher chance of causing damage to the human body compared to 5G.
