Pandemic is a global issue, cannot solve locally          

           One Health is an approach that says ‘you cannot look at outbreaks in people and not also look at what happening in the environment and  what happening in animals’. 

We had a study looking at the global distribution of corona virus.  We found more than a hundred corona viruses, 98% of them in bats.  What we learned was that there is a really high diversity of corona viruses related to where we found a high diversity of bats. 

I do think this outlet is helping more people understand the links between environment and disease.  If you want to understand the next emerging infectious disease, you cannot ignore the environment or animals,  whether domestic or wild life.

One of the things that has really changed since the SARS outbreak in 2003 reveals how   global our world is!.

                                                                 Tracey GoldStein, One Health Institute, University of California

Acceleration of consumption is the basic cause of Pandemic           

         This time, with cyclone arriving during a pandemic, evacuations themselves may have adverse consequences- it is almost impossible to carry out large scale evacuations by observing social distancing.  Nor will it be possible to maintain social distancing in crowded cyclone shelters.  On top of that an untold number of people- many already suffering from the effects of lockdown-will lose their lovelyhoods.  A good number of migrant workers, walking back to Bengal are from the sunderban.  They will arrive to find further devastation.  It will be a humanitarian disaster or epic proportions.

There is no direct  casual link – but these phenomena are cognate in the sense that they are all products of the tremendous acceleration that occurred over the last 30 years, a period in which extreme forms of  neo-liberal capitalism have been imposed upon the world by global elites.  This period has beep called the ‘Great Acceleration’, which is appropriate because it is the  acceleration, and the resulting rise in green house gas emissios, that lies behind all these crises, from the climate breakdown to the pandemic.                                

                                                                                                            Amitab ghosh, Anthropologist

Money gives a false sense of freedom 

         Money gives us a sense of freedom and ownership.  We feel that with money, we can own anything or put a pricetag on anybody’s services.  Ownership of something means total control of its existence from beginning to end.

Money also gives  the idea that you are powerful and independent, despite the fact that we live in a world of interdependence.  We depend on farmers, cooks, drivers and the services of so many other people.  Even an expert surgeon cannot operate on himself; he depends on others.

Why are most rich people arrogant?  Because of the feeling of independence that money brings.  The awareness of dependence, on the other hand, makes one humble. The basic human tenet of humility is taken away by this false feeling of  independence.

Today we have gone to the extent of measuring people in terms of their net worth on the money scale- we may say, ‘ so and so is worth 500million’. Can money reflect the worth of a person? Calling someone a millionaire or billionaire is not a complement.  You cannot assign a monetary value to human life.                                                                                                                            Sri Sri Ravi Shankar 

Reduce violent consumption​        

            Ayurveda, Yoga and Yajna offer remedies for every stress-related disease.  Ayurveda recommends respecting your food and eating moderately.  Do not over eat.  Improve your diet.  Favour organic food.  Reduce toxic food grown with chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides which poison the earth.  Grow fresh organic veggies in a backyard garden(if you have one).Compost and re-cycle .

Eliminate red meat from your diet.  Reduce consumption of fish and fowl inorder to aid to your digestion and to reduce the confinement and torture of helpless animals.  Industrial meat production is a crime against nature.

Greet others with hands together in the respectful ‘Namaste’ with a gesture.  Join your two palms in front of your heart to express “Unity  from Duality”. Practice social distancing.

                                                                   Atmanand Douglas Rexford,  Maharishi Ashram, Uttarkashi