So, live and let the (coronavirus) live?

This may not be the best time to get all philosophical. But former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat just has. Expounding his belief that ‘seen from the philosophical angle, coronavirus is also a living organism, it has the right to live like the rest of us’, the crypto-misanthrope jabbed one against anthropocentrism. Humans are trying to eliminate the virus. But man smart, virus smarter, he emphasised. Thus, the mutations.

Rawat is not wrong about Covid trying to thrive in a manner that would make rabbits seem like lazy lovers. But not to contradict his critique of human self-importance, the jury (comprising humans, so probably biased) is still out there whether viruses are living or non-living. According to present scientific thinking, they exist in-between, since they can’t replicate on their own but need ‘real’ living cells. But, then, once inside a cell, a virus gets into ‘action’ — and gets plenty of it — and reproduces while changing its host’s genetic make-up. So, viruses are in that Narasingha-Schrödinger’s cat zone of being half-living, half-inert chemical compounds. But coming back to Rawat’s Peta-like concern, should we let (Covid) live for the greater purpose of Life? We think not. But, then, humans are so selfish that they’d rather swat a mosquito than let it bite. Such are both life and Life.