2 Ways We Can Stop Covid

I wasn't very concern Covid, not when people were panicking buying masks instead of toilet papers. Slowly but surely, it started affect things that I love (movies, bar, and now salary). It is on Covid! But as a mere mortal, I couldn't wage war against Covid so I just sat here and think of ways to defeat it, theoretically. After doing a lot of analysis (re-watching Infinity War and End Game), I narrowed down to 2 ways we as a society can defeat Covid.

Bring me Covid!

(*): This article contains spoilers for Avengers Infinity War and (subsequently) a lot of other Marvel movies. 

1) Covid is basically Thanos 

Thanos is the final boss in Avengers 10 years plan. Like villains before him, his goal is to wipe out humanity. Unlike other villains, he just want to wipe out exactly 50%, so the rest could have a better living condition. Over population causes problems: unemployment, lack of basic resources, crime and of course harming the environment. Covid's goal is the same - to simply reduce population. More than 800.000 deaths has been recorded up now, and it's just getting started.

Not just the goal, but the method of Thanos and Covid is also similar. Before declaring war against the galaxy, Thanos was a reasonable politicians who encourage his people to take action and save the planet. In the late 2019, the hottest news (at least in Vietnam) was the extreme air pollution in metropolitans. I personally had difficulties breathing during peak traffic hour. And what does Covid do? They suffocate you. Just like a mad titan that can't peacefully sway people into his idea, planet Earth is forcing us to pay attention by violent method. But, the word "violent" is a bit exaggerated. Thanos wants people to simply stop existing, turn to dust. While suffocating is not the easiest way to go, it's not the ugliest way to go. Which brings me to my next point. 

Covid isn't special or unique. We all have seen similar diseases before. It doesn't make your head explode. It doesn't boil your blood or melt your brain. It doesn't turn you into a flesh eating mindless zombies. It doesn't have a 100% kill rate. It's just a stronger form of virus that human hasn't dealt with before. Thanos doesn't have special power. Thanos is just a giant bold purple man who bench a lot. What made him special is that he is inevitable. In "My theory of extinction" written by me, that will be published in the near future, human will inevitably reach the point of extinction if we survive/prevent all type of natural disasters. "Strength invites challenge, challenge incites conflict and conflict breeds catastrophe". If human keeps evolving and countering lethal diseases, Earth will find a different way to attack, and that attack might wipe us all out. Thanos is the inevitable conclusion to the Avengers' growing strength and Covid is the inevitable disease catastrophe of our modernization.

Look how calm he is talking about solving the population issue. It's nothing personal, just like Covid.

So we have somewhat established that Covid is Thanos, the important question is what can we learn from the Avengers' victory over Thanos when none of us can predict the future, has magic or invent time machine? 

2) Sacrifice

Infinity War's theme is sacrifice. The Avengers had multiple opportunities to deny Thanos from getting the full gaunlet. They could have chosen to sacrifice Thor, Tony and Vision, either one of them would be fine, but they didn't. "We don't trade lives" - Captain said. When Wanda finally made the sacrifice, it was already too late. In End Game, the team has learned their lessons. "Whatever it takes" is the tagline of their campaign. They gave up Black Widow and won. 

The needs of the many out-weight the needs of a few. Utilitarianism is the way to solve this situation. Covid doesn't kill everyone. It is proven to be more lethal on older people or individuals who have weak immune system. We banned public places, we closed schools and borders. We put people who have symptoms or just were near people who have symptoms in quarantine. All of this is just to save as much people as we can. But at the end of the day, the economy is suffering. The very backbone of humanity is being damaged just to, maybe, save a few old and weak lives. I'm not saying we should shot them and burn the bodies, but we should prioritize the economy. If we don't make the sacrifice now (aka accept the risk of rising deaths) to get the economy back on track, soon it might be too little too late. Avengers have a time machine to fix their mistake, we don't. 

Imagine the world after Covid where everyone is healthy and broke af due to all of the medical bills, the salary decrease and a totally collapsed economy.

Luckily, there is 1 other way. 

3) United 

One of the reason for Thanos's victory was the Avengers disassembled. After Civil War, the core team was no more. Caps took half the team into hiding, Tony lead the other half while the 2 strongest Avengers were off on their road trip adventure. Thanos encounters them in small groups so he was able to wipe the floor easily. Only in End Game when everyone is united with the power of portals and epic music could the Avengers save the day.

In other words, we as a society need to be united. Whichever route we chose to go, we go together. We win together or we lost together. If quarantine is the way, then quarantine EVERYBODY. We spent every single resources possible into building a world where nobody goes anywhere. If we need to develop vaccines, then funnel everything we got into it. There should be no discrimination, no doubts in anyone or any organization or any countries. The concept of countries should be wiped out to unite us. Just like in End Game, when the Guardians, the sorcerers, some random hitmen from a different galaxies, or a flying horse, they are all Avengers. But the reality is, we can't. 

As long as there are free wills, people are going to act differently. So this, essentially, is asking the AI to took over or asking God to be real.

"You want to protect the world but you don't want it to change" - We humans are somehow greedy and lazy at the same time. It's amazing.

I guess there's always a third option which is to hope and pray everyday? 

Quanny Nguyen