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Human adaptability and endurance towards situationally adverse uncertainty are the two foundational building blocksof civilized growth that have been repeatedly tried and tested to the very extent in terms of what we can endure as a collective particularly since September of 2020, may it be through isolation, death, permanent physiological impairments, hardship, pain, loss, hunger, poverty, or degradation of quality of life. The virus and the consequences that followed its mighty destructiveness brought an unforeseeable form of stand stillness to a socio-economic system that was neither designed nor ever meant to be halted, particularly in such an indefinite manner. Unsurprisingly, this unprecedented occurrence did much to create a disastrously uncertain future. We spent over a year being locked inside our homes, hiding from an enemy that is incomprehensibly small and yet has managed to send shockwaves of fear and panic across the most powerful species to have ever walked on this Earth. Life and existence as a whole is full of ironies if nothing else, and even though we seem to be finally gaining the upper hand in the struggle, a number of potentially significant threats are beginning to loom across the horizons that reside beyond the chaos, one of whom being the emergence of a Black Fungus epidemic.


The human body, particularly the immune system, does a pretty spectacular job in preventing and dealing with external microscopic threats that manage to dig their way into the complex physiological and biological systems of a person, with its presence posing enough significance and inducing enough body-wide influence to be able to decide its host’s fate as a whole. However, when a virus it has never fought introduces itself and starts a devastating and reckless battle, it becomes likely for a whole number of consequences to begin emerging, many of whom without a real or definite explanation. Such a battle also results to an exhausted immune system, and all that focus into one invader and dealing with the consecutive damages as a result leaves the body potentially vulnerable towards the growth of dangerous forms of bacteria and parasitic micro-organisms.


This is when the black fungus, a disease also referred to as Mucormycosis, steps into the spotlight. It is a condition that is primarily characterized as a relatively rare fungal infection that resides in and around the nose with a significantly high mortality rate. Although research on the exact causalities over its emergence remains limited, it has been determined through statistical analysis that the underlying conditions produced or provoked by a Covid-19 infection after its eradication from the body are to blame, such as worsened diabetes or a weakened overall immunological response towards any foreign or dangerous entities seeking to grow within the biological system. The infection is understood as one capable of causing notably gruesome symptoms such as pain and redness around the eyes, blurred vision, chest pain, and coughing of blood. More common symptoms such as headaches, fever, and breathing difficulties have also been reported.


It is said that desperate times provoke desperate measures, a philosophy that seems to have backfired in terms of the Black Fungus. For example, when things regressed to be unsustainably severe and critical patients began emerging like flames coming off of a destabilizing nuclear reactor, the desperation to save lives as quickly as possible to accommodate the ones waiting in lines for a bed forced doctors to widely prescribe a number of relatively controversial medications to ease the symptoms of the infection or the severity of post-covid complications. These medications reside in the classification of drugs given the scientific term of corticosteroids, while more commonly beingknown as steroids among the general public. These man-made drugs are formulated with the intention of artificially introducing fresh hormones to the body. The immune system’s unregulated inflammatory responses towards a bacterial or viral infection is evidently the biological factor that causes the majority of covid-related deaths due to the consequential swelling and inflammation reaching fatally dangerous levels. Steroids rudimentarily lend a helping hand in controlling that.

However, with exact reasons being majorly unknown, most of the victims of the cases of Black Fungus infections appeared with a history of supplemental steroids consumption, mostly having been prescribed by their doctors to aid their post-covid recovery. The frequency of these components completely rule out the possibility of the occurrences simply being products of coincidental instances. Although a definite explanation is still being explored, it is theorized by a number of doctors and scientists studying the infection that the steroid medications, while being lifesaving in critical situations, adversely hamper the body’s immunological responses by suppressing its attributes that contribute to macroscopic inflammation. This, added on top of an already weakened immunity because of a covid infection and the possible chronic provocation or the pre-existing presence of body-wide sugar imbalances or diabetes, evidently contribute to raising the chances of contracting the fungal infection. Almost all of the recorded cases in India were found to have been under the influence of at least on of these factors, giving a much-needed degree of clarity over the possible causes.


The black fungus, while being dangerously severe, is a condition that can be cured with appropriate inductions of pharmaceutical substances or medical treatments provided that the victim identifies the issue and seeks medical assistance on time. Black Fungus is a progressive infection that starts its ruthless journey in the nose and progresses towards the eyes and ultimately, the brain. Symptoms such as loss of vision, and eye redness and pain are strong indications of the condition reaching critical levels. After learning all this, you will most definitely agree to the fact that the cruciality of being aware of the problem cannot be emphasized enough. The most crucial parts of this puzzle are prevention and identification. For the former, you can start by staying safe from the virus either through vaccination or isolation. In the instance of being infected and recovering, do not indulge in the consumption of steroids unless it is absolutely necessary. If your post-covid complications are not life-threatening and do not extend beyond simply being in the realms of inconvenience, then taking the drug is most definitely optional. Always consider steroids as the last resort if nothing else.


For identification, begin by establishing your level of vulnerability and susceptibility to getting the black fungus. Objectively ask yourself a range of questions such as:

1. Am I diabetic?

2. Do I have irregular sugar levels?

3. Have I recently recovered from covid? If yes, was the infection mild or critical?

4. Am I experiencing or are severely impacted by post-covid complications?

5. Have I been consuming prescription drugs that are classified as steroids?

6. Do I have underlying conditions that can affect my immunity? (e.g immuno-compromised)

and most importantly,

7. Am I experiencing any of the symptoms?


However, it is important to note that many of the post covid complications, such as chronic headaches and nausea, are also symptoms of black fungus, so it is possible to confuse yourself between the two. In the majority of instances, the signs of a black fungus infection emerge within a span of 1 to 3 weeks after recovering from Covid-19, though for some it can possibly take longer. The best course of action is to consult your doctor if any of the answers to the questions stated above come out as a “yes”. If not, then spreading awareness and being on the lookout for the symptoms can go as far as to potentially saving the life of not just a loved onebut countless others residing outside of your immediate spectrum.

Be aware, be considerate, and be intuitive.

 
 
 

How does one perceive human resilience? Does your ability to endure irrefutable hardship vary from one piece of adversity to another, or is it a human psychological constant that fluctuates in terms of the varying intensity of the hardships you experience? Perhaps the pandemic holds the consequential capability of educating our species about the various philosophies that envelope and dictate the concept of human psychological endurance. Humanity has experienced loss, regret, isolation, oppression, suppression, hate, discrimination, and social injustices at every corner of the globe within a span of less than 2 years, and the lessons learned from those adversities that were inseparably empowered by the overwhelming scale of chaos and death that has occurred may in fact be the driving forces behind the creation of the unpredictable new world we are yet to see beyond the inevitable finish line of this global catastrophe. However, the unfortunate circumstance that deprives us of the luxury of thinking about the future is the continuation of the pandemic through a number of countries who seem to be experiencing only the beginning of a real sense of social disorder, unparalleled suffering, and death. On the top of that dreaded list resides the second most populated country in the world, India.


Human history is riddled with uncontrolled outbreaks of deadly microscopic pathogens that were not even remotely understood at the time of their emergence. We look at the deadliest epidemics in recorded history and we learn about the bubonic plague, the black death, the Spanish flu, all of whom who managed to purge and kill significant portions of the human population during their time periods, spanning from lasting only a few years to re-emerging all over the world at various periods across hundreds of years. However, when you dive into the details of these global catastrophes, including the one we are facing today, you will notice an unignorable pattern emerging. A pattern that peddles the escalation of widespread catastrophe and determines the scale of the damage that will be inflicted upon the human society. That pattern is the controversial concept of knowledge. You see, knowledge powers the modern world into progressing towards complexified growth and innovation. Knowledge braces humanity against the worst of the worst that could happen. We discover a new pathogen, and the world of science seeks to learn as much as it possibly can about its behaviour, its characteristics, and the level threat it poses to the human body. We did that with the SARS-COV-2 virus when it first emerged in Wuhan, China in December 2019. In a matter of months we acquired the kind of knowledge that would have normally taken years or even decades to attain. However, there is only so much science can do when a considerable portion of the human population either chooses to ignore or deny the facts or intentionally tamper them and spread misinformation to fulfil their own selfish desires. Such is the case in India, where the presence of unpreparedness, ignorance, and denial unsurprisingly fed the mere spark into becoming the uncontrolled wildfire with the possessed capability of engulfing and burning the whole country to the ground.

The story of India’s struggle with the virus is one that is full of preventable catastrophes that blew the situation way out of proportion, which is ironic considering that there was a brief period during this crisis when the country was doing so well that the rest of the world looked towards us for guidance and support. We as a nation became a glorified symbol and a noteworthy example for others to follow because of our successes. 2020 was a year that went relatively smoothly for India, starting from the first 3 cases emerging in the state of Kerala back in late January all the way to peaking at over 98,000 nationwide cases in September before beginning to gradually decline for the rest of the year. When you study the statistics of the rest of the world at the time, you would be acquainted with the understanding that India was doing fairly well compared to the hundreds of thousands of daily cases and thousands of daily deaths in multiple nations across the western world. These statistical observations and comparisons did much to generate quantifiable hope, particularly for the people of our country. it showed the world how even one of the most densely populated countries in the world that houses more people than the entire continent of Europe can survive the calamity that seeks to engulf us all. However, a brief list of factors we did not pay attention to are enough to tarnish and crush the demographic of Indian success in terms of the country’s handling of the pandemic in 2020. Firstly, India has a disdainful track record when it comes to officially registering the number of deaths irrespective of their causalities, may they be because of car accidents, tuberculosis, crime, or suicide. Countless independent studies conducted by a number of organizations unveil the staggering fact that more than 8 out of every 10 deaths that occur in the country go unrecorded. What that means in terms of the epidemic is the educated estimation that the real number of deaths that have occurred because of covid are likely to be 8 to 10 times higher than the official statistics. That observation alone places India at the top of the list when it comes to the total number of fatalities. Secondly, the majority of testing that was being conducted by both the government and several independent entities was effectively concentrated in the major cities of the country. That may sound practical and understandable at first, but when you learn that more than 90% of the population resides in the rural areas outside the major cities, all the practicalities of the situation go out the window. Lastly, the only cases and deaths that are registered are those that take place in hospitals. Any covid-caused fatalities that occur outside the immediate vicinity of a major hospital go unrecorded or are given a different cause of death. For example, when covid infection leads to oxygen deprivation in an individual who is in home quarantine, the latter is labelled as the cause upon the occurrence of death. The entire existence of covid is completely disregarded.


The most gripping analogy is the acknowledgement that all these factors were predominantly present throughout last year when the situation was considered to be significantly better compared to the events that have been unfolding since the start of 2021. Each and every one of these facts continue to hold just as much validity today, which places our statistics of daily cases and deaths at unimaginable figures and estimates, supported by hospital reports and the crematoriums that continue to claim how more than 40% of the bodies that are burned are signed off as non-covid deaths.


There is much to be said about India’s management of the pandemic for the current year. Governmental inaction, social defiance, insufficient awareness, lack of education, poor hygiene practices, high poverty, unemployment, corruption, overpopulation, all have been playing a role in feeding the unprecedented chaos that has been unfolding these past few months. For decades, scientists have consistently proclaimed this nation as the perfect breeding ground for a viral epidemic, which only holds unarguable and undeniable levels of validity today. For example, each of the viral strains of concern that emerged all across the world, may it be the one from South Africa, The UK, or Brazil, all found their way into India and merged into a variety of double mutant and triple mutant strains, which then consecutively spread all over the world.

The truth about our circumstantial hardship is the reality that if we wish for things to get better, we must begin by understanding the situation for the way it is. It is indescribably crucial for us as individuals to rid ourselves of any ignorant or denial-infested perspectives that go against all the realities of our circumstances. The government has proven itself to be disgustingly incapable of amending the situation the way they were supposed to, which only means that it comes down to the rest of us to make things right and do what is best for our people. Practice all the precautions, limit outside exposure, limit human contact, sanitize like your life depends on it, and do what you can to support the NGOs out there who are battling the devastation and doing what the government was meant to be doing. Any kind of help, may it involve financial support or resources, can save people from having to face a cruel and unjustified death they do not deserve. Do your part in resisting the calamity our country has been facing, so we can finally step into the unpredictable new world that emerges after the smoke clears.

 
 
 

Safety in its essence is a fundamental concept. Human history is riddled with societies valuing the assurance of being safe and secure above all else, and that attribute of our collective nature is what evidently brought us from hunting and gathering in the great depths of the forests to a world of civilization where life became about more than just trying to survive in the harsh wilderness of nature. By the merepromises of safety and security by a number of influential personalities, we were all brought together into building a life that both ourselves and our future generations could be proud of. There’s no doubt towards the statement that we have come a long way from the brutal realities of the historic past of our species, but a society riddled with complexity can only progress so far before being apocalyptically burdened by the provocation and the continued growth of the very issues it thought it could ignore. For India, the consequences of that neglect are the ridiculously quantifiable occurrences of sexual assault all across the regions of the country. A problem that remains relatively unaddressed and buried under the issues our society considers to be more pressing, such as unemployment, international relations, poverty or just petty politics of unconcerned politicians and overhyped celebrities.

We have all heard about the problem in one way or the other. It is easy to open a news article and read up on the endless number of stories about sexual assault incidents happening almost everywhere in the country. In the slums of Maharashtra, in the markets of Calcutta, in the villages of Bihar, and most prevalently in the streets of the very capital where only a few generations ago our forefathers fought for the freedom and liberty we so desperately deserved and needed after suffering through more than a century of relentless oppression. What we are witnessing on this day and age is the gradual return of that same level of oppression our ancestors fought so rigorously to eradicate. This time, instead of the entire population being at the receiving end of the sword drawn by a tyrannical empire, we are observing our women being at that same dreaded position, with the oppressor being the vicious parasites residing within the borders of the country. They could be your neighbours, your co-workers, your friends, the shopkeeper across the street from your house, and even your family members. Surely, that fact would have induced into you a sense of fear and dread. Well, that is exactly how the women of this country feel. Theyfeel that fear every time they leave the safe bounds of their homes.

The thing we do not realize as clearly as we should is the accurate proclamation that sexual assault is more than just physical abuse. It introduces chronic emotional trauma into the victim’s life. The incomprehensibly gripping impact the incident has on an individual’s mind is so indescribably adverse that the rest of us cannot even begin to fathom its intensity. However, what is just as much daunting is what happens to the life of the victim after the incident. You see, our society’s toxic, unjust, and unsubstantiated mentality towards sexual assault victims essentially guarantees that the victim suffers for the rest of their lives. They are abandoned by most of their friends, their family speaks of them with shame and embarrassment, their community alienates their entire existence, their partner leaves them, and social rejection all but ensures that they never marry. In widespread circumstances like these, it is not at all surprising when you learn that most victims choose not to come forward out of fear of having to suffer from these consequences. Even in situations when they do come forward and not face the most obvious consequences, they either do not receive the appropriate care they need and deserve, or the legal system fails to give them the justice that is so rightfully owed to them. The most obvious picture these circumstances paint about our society and our country as a whole is definitely that we seek to punish the victim instead of the guilty, and we feel no remorse and shame while we do it.

As a nation we talk a great deal about how sexual assault is wrong and must be eradicated, but the reality is that we also continue to create a comfortable environment for it to occur. Shaming and punishing the victim like we do in most instances does nothing but give inadvertent confidence to the guilty, because the adverse societal treatment of the victims all but guarantees that they never come forward. They suffer in silence and the offenders use that to their advantage, committing attacks against women with no fear of losing their freedom and being imprisoned because they remain confidently assured that the victim will never speak up. A social environment full of encouragement for the demonic personalities of any given society consequentially provokes them to come out of the shadows and commit to acts that allow them to carry out their evil desires. The counterproductive nature powered by the prevalent downtrodden mentality of our society is one of the biggest reasons why we have only seen a substantial rise in sexual assault incidents over the years. More and more women suffer at the hands of predatorial individuals who only live to ruin and destroy other people’s lives for the sake of their own pleasure.

There is no argument towards the fact that sexual assault is a severe sociological problem. However, what we as individuals often fail to notice is that it is not just the frequency of instances that is most concerning, but the limitless categories of people who are found committing these acts. There are a ridiculously large number of politicians in our country who have a long list of sexual assault allegations against them. Same goes for a number of police officers, celebrities and public figures that remain free irrespective of their deeds. The primary concern lies with how the very politicians we elected to rid ourselves of the issue happen to be the same people we are seeking to eradicate. There is no denying that the problem has found its way in the highest ranks of the government, which may explain why nothing qualitative is being done. Hundreds of protests across the decades have yielded little to know results in terms of social change, which may just be because the toxic mentality has also crawled its way into the minds of the individuals who have the power for societal reform in terms of laws and regulations. It is easy to ignore a problem that does not affect you directly, which is a statement we can use to explain the reason behind governmental ignorance and inaction towards addressing the problem.

The oppression our women witness is one that is powered by provocative fear. The fear of leaving your home, the fear of wearing whatever you feel like, the fear of being along in public and so on. These circumstances pressure women to be socially withdrawn, paranoid, anxious, depressed, and even suicidal. The psychological consequences can become overwhelming to the point of completely ruining a woman’s life, and that should be something incredibly concerning and disdainful for us as a society.

By simply looking back the last few decades, it can be understood that asking the government through protests and strikes is not enough to counter the problem. The fact that we have to carry out months of protests just to make the government create a safer environment for women is a distasteful causality to say the least. What is needed from us is simple yet highly significant if we all commit to it. Firstly, be on the lookout for the occurrence of any form of harassment towards a woman. Secondly, do extensive research before casting your vote for a politician. Briefly check on their background and criminal history before making the decision to vote for them. Do not fall for their fancy words and speeches that have been perfected a thousand times over beforehand just to influence you into voting for them. Manipulating people is what they do for a living, which is something we have to start being watchful of. Hold the current politicians accountable for their unignorable inaction and disregard. Thirdly, educate the people in your life. Do not respond with silence towards discriminatory and sexist opinions, because these opinions are evidently the reason why sexual assault is becoming increasingly acceptable in our country. Teach these individuals that words can have consequences, and that there is no place for distasteful and suppressive opinions in our society. Fourthly, treat the victims of sexual assault with the respect, concern, and regard they so rigorously deserve. Encourage them to come forward, remind them of how ridiculously strong they are, and let them know that you will always be there for them and that you will be by their side when it comes to fighting through the adversities they may end up facing because of speaking up while encouraging them to seek professional help for their trauma. Lastly, do all you can to spread awareness of the issue. Educate the uneducated and crush the twisted mentalities that plague our nation.

It is time we realized and understood that we must be the change, that we must lead by example so that others may follow. Let’s make our country a more safer place for women, and let’s do all we can to make the predators that walk among us think twice before seeking to hurt or harass someone. Let’s show them what we are capable of when we are united and strong. We have the power to set an undaunted example and standard for not just ourselves, but also for the rest of the world to admire and follow. History has taught us that social change begins at the very foundation of every society. Let’s be that foundation, and start a process that only ends with the predatorial offenders around us being completely undermined and eradicated. We cannot deny that it may take decades, if not centuries, for things to be the way they should be, but the effort must begin with us.

 
 
 
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