How to Understand the COVID 19 Epidemic Phenomenon?

Abstract

The author discusses the mental barriers that are obstacles to understanding the phenomenon of COVID19 pandemic, and proposes a thesis that the crisis is not due to a new or a sudden mutation of a dangerous virus, but rather the collapse of our natural biological defences as we head into a civilizational cul-de-sac. The consequence is an attack by elements from within a biotope, which for millions of years had held within it viruses in many ways similar to that currently ravaging the planet. The popular perspective however is that of an alien, oriental, indeed criminal entity against which we must defend ourselves. However, the newest scientific research posits a different vision, which situates the virus in a biocenosis of which we are also a part. A balanced relationship had existed in which both man and virus formed a functional whole and in which biological mechanisms existed to create immunity (analogous to vaccination) up to the point where this relationship has been disrupted by man’s activities. The reduced resistance to infection of today’s children is symptomatic of this disruption as increasing susceptibility to infection appears to be in tandem with our civilisation as it continues its so -called progressive trajectory. We are now under attack from elements within our biocenosis with which we had been existing in a functional relationship for millions of years. In the evolutionary process viruses were assigned a regulatory function maintaining herd functionality through effecting the removal of aged and ailing units. The Sars2 Cov virus now performs this function killing those weaker aging or ailing members of our species and illustrates the reality of the 6th great species extinction as a part of the Anthropocene. The author treats COVID 19 as a factor accelerating human transformation to one in which cyborgization become a dominant trope of existence, affecting in the first instance human communities in which urbanisation and civilizational transformation is proceeding rapidly.