Coronavirus a Parable of Our Time
Coronavirus a Parable of Our Time
The Rt Rev’d Trevor Mwamba
Anglican Bishop (Formerly Bishop of Botswana and recently Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of Chelmsford, and Vicar of Barking).
Bishop Trevor made a cameo appearance in the third episode of the HBO and BBC co-produced ministries The No1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. He appears in the episode entitled ‘Poison’ as himself thanking members of the business community of Gaborene for their donations to the fictional orphanage portrayed in the series. He is the author of ‘Dancing Sermons’ (published 2006). He is married to Mmasekgoa Masire-Mwamba a Commonwealth Deputy Secretary-General from 2008 to 2014
The beginning … once upon a virus …
In Wuhan, China, in the third week of December 2019, Dr Ai Fen, the director of the Emergency Department, at the Central Hospital, diagnosed an unusual lung infection in a person.
A similar infection was diagnosed in another person on December 27th. Three days later Dr Ai Fen saw written on the test sheet “SARS coronavirus”. It was a red flag. She informed the hospital’s public-health department, took a picture of the laboratory report and emailed it to other doctors.
An ophthalmologist, Li Wenliang, posted in a WeChat group that a coronavirus had been discovered in Wuhan. The news went viral among doctors and public-health officials in the city.
Li was summoned by the police and cautioned for spreading false news on the Internet. News outlets warning Wuhan residents of the virus were blocked. Li later contracted the virus and died on 7th February 2020. His death caused anger over the government’s attempts to stifle whistle blowers.