Lessons From a Plague

It’s the year 2020 and it has been an interesting year. We were barely in the first quarter before the visitation of a variant of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus called the Corona Virus (COVID-19) which was first detected in December last year.

Not to bore you with the details and effects of this disease but to remind us of the fact that this isn’t the first time that the world would been plagued with a deadly disease. In fact, history is replete with plagues and disease outbreaks occurring from as far back as 429-426 BC in Greece (the plague of Athens)* till date. These include the influenza, smallpox, cholera, black death, yellow fever, malaria, bubonic plague, etc. Most of which have been managed effectively.

With the morbidity and mortality that could result from these disease outbreaks and the economic implications for countries, world leaders aim to halt the spread and ultimately the effects of these diseases among populations as quickly as possible. Some of the effects of these plagues occur swiftly maiming and killing many within a short period while others appear to take a longer time thus buying scientists and medics more time to save lives. While I brooded on the COVID-19 a few days ago, my thoughts were led to a famous plague that occurred in ancient Egypt, the home of the Pharaohs.

So, the Israelites were slaves in Egypt for over four centuries and God sent Moses with a message to Pharaoh to set them free. We know the story; this request was met with stiff resistance from Pharaoh leading to an attack of ten plagues. My focus today would be on the tenth and final plague (we will discuss the rest in another write-up), ‘the plague of the first born’. This plague was the straw that broke the Camel’s back, it broke King Pharaoh’s resolve and brought him to his knees. There are a few interesting things to note from this story and this plague.

One, the effect of this plague was swift, it occurred over night. In one night, Egypt had recorded a death in every single human household and animal farm (remember, many livestock represented wealth in those days). Every single firstborn in Egypt died within a few hours except families in Goshen where the Israelites lived. This caused Pharaoh to send for Moses and Aaron at night, instructing the entire nation of Israel to leave Egypt.

Now after the Israelites had left Egypt, it suddenly dawned on Pharaoh that he had lost most of his work force, his influence over the nation of Israel and he decided to chase after them. Now this is the crux of the story, chasing after the Israelites to bring them back meant one thing – restore status quo. The Israelites will become slaves again and help rebuild and reposition Egypt to its former glory and influence (remember the effects of the plague had destroyed the nation – Ex. 10:7) and finally, all of these would happen despite the morbidities and mortalities that had been recorded, this meant that people would have died in vain.

Fast forward to today, in my country Nigeria, we are praying that this COVID-19 plague will pass quickly while working to stop its spread and managing effectively patients who are showing symptoms. Can we pause for a moment to ask ourselves to what end? So, we curb the virus and then what? Return to status quo? Same hospitals, same health system, same health sector, same healthcare worker to patient ratio? Do we intend to build back better and are we already planning so now? Or we just want COVID-19 out of the way so can have some relief at least. I am hoping we utilize this window of opportunity to set systems in place very quickly.

May systems come under pressure for the good of our country, may structures be set in place, may this pressure and ‘squeezing’ birth creativity and innovation. May Its been a terrible shaking for the entire world and our dear country but what will we do with this pressure? Aim to have systems and structures settle back to normalcy? God forbid!

Thank you for reading to this point. Be sure to share your thoughts on this by leaving a comment below.