Photo: Which side is the planet on?

Are you one of the growing band who are taking a different view of the virus? Might it be that it's existence is being brazenly misunderstood? Like all sprouting lifeforms that have evolved over the last billion or so years, SARS-CoV-2, or coronavirus by it's everyday name, is doing what every other microbe has always done, it is procreating itself to claim its place alongside countless other microorganisms that live on this blue-ocean planet while it hurtles relentlessly around the sun.

Almost all lifeforms our eyes cannot see do exactly the same. In fact, every embryonic squiggly little squirmy worm-thing you see in microscopic petro-dishes exist with the same motive in mind - to reproduce. In the same way, more advanced carbon biotic life seeks to increases its popularity with organisms of the opposite sex to produce their own versions of adolescent newborns - lots of them. Now, between you and me, I know lots of men who have similar thoughts just about every day. So do male elephants and rhinoceroses, snakes and spiders, most testosterone-driven politicians and those incumbent foreign leaders who never condescend to leave office. What I'm saying to you is this, this SARS virus is not doing anything unusual, it's only doing what we ourselves like to do, it's doing what every other example of ambient life has ever done - it's endeavouring to survive, to spread its wings just like everything else that breaths and spits in this fertile garden-world that might not be alone in the cosmos.

Where this train of thought begins to get complicated is, which side of this conflict between procreating man and procreating microscopic lifeforms is this planet on? Could it be our planet is finally choosing sides? All life survives solely on the generosity of our slowly revolving world - a world that could conceivably decide the winner. Take the dinosaurs for example, dinosaurs trampled the earth for far longer than we ourselves have - now they exist only as bone fragments inside slabs of rock - like prisoners in a tomb. This planet creates life, our planet also takes life away, then we came along to ruthlessly replicate one of the planet's more unforgiving roles - it's fair to say we've taken the task of life-eradication to a whole new level.

Right now, as the direct descendants of the original homo-erectus race, we are setting our stall out to systematically eradicate this deadly virus. We're the planet's pinnacle lifeform, we have technology and science on our side, we have the skills to ensure our continued prosperity and survival. Of course, as you well know, we homo-sapiens are well experienced in the art of species extinction - we've practiced among ourselves often enough on numerous occasions. Aboriginal Indians, ethnic minority slaughter, the decimated populations when empire building, these are historic examples of our unique abilities in climbing to the top of the tree. We got rid of those bothersome neanderthals because of their cave-like ways, their horrible knack of looking different. And if the virus was more sizeable and recognisable, might we be considering less frontier-science ways to control its desire to establish itself, like torture camps or life-restricting chemicals? Or perhaps another religious crusade to convert the virus to one of our many violent and conflicting views of God. The creator. Our saviour. Our habitual slaughter of each other puts us in good stead to eradicate this spikey little microbe, to end this viral global pandemic that dares to threaten our existence. Because, like all viruses before it, it searches out our weakness, it probes our fears, it knows we have a vulnerability that might project its own vision of our oxygen generating planet.

I ask you this, what if our planet is definitely not on our side? What if this world that orbits swiftly through time and space has had enough? What if our cosmic homestead can take no more? Maybe our ravaged planet has come to a decision, that it can't rely upon one more meteorite comet to crash into our seas like before, to end the billion-year reign of rampaging dinosaurs, lunging beasts that showed no signs of scientific environmental advancement. Or the volcanic orbital creator of our biosphere has worked out that we could quite easily follow the fate of those spear-chucking neanderthals, who could not stand up to suave-looking humans that came hunting for neanderthal women. Could it be our worldly planet is fiercely on the side of the deadly mutating SARS-CoV-2?

Perhaps we are the virus. Think about it - this SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus could be the planet's vaccine - its way of ensuring its own survival.

If this is the case, and virologist are already beginning to sense we may be just two or three mutations away from something far more deadly, then surely we must try to resolve our misunderstanding of this virus, maybe take heed of why it is trying to kill us. Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 in its original guise was not something especially unique, but it has evolved, each time we have found a way to defeat its infiltration techniques it has changed, it morphs, it begins to sidestep our science - could the virus be performing the task given to it by our atmospheric world that's third in line from the sun? Instead of trying to fruitlessly destroy the virus, should we be trying to understand why it exists? Perhaps consider a truce, a ceasefire or armistice, a cessation of hostilities with our life-supporting planet - or at least consider how we treat each other. The virus might be a foot-soldier, an honest loyal trooper tasked to hunt us. Maybe those Hollywood world-annihilation screenwriters and science-fiction novelists are really far-seeing prophets, not media moguls making mega-bucks when they write stories about humans being eradicated from existence. Maybe we need to show more respect to the virus, look at it in different ways to learn why it wants to destroy us.

We ourselves, Marie and I, we tried to leave mainstream living behind, it was our conscious decision to sail away to find ways of existing that meant we maintained a semblance of bondship with the atmospheric water-covered rock we depend on. We failed, what we've found along the way is wholesale human destruction, widespread maggoty infiltration of wilderness, a wasteland of plastic dumped waste - there is no doubt in our minds that humankind is systematically destroying the environment we live in. If the planet is fighting back then it stands to reason this mutant virus might be the good guy, you know, the mean-faced gun-toting hero who appears in every movie, the Bruce Willis or Tom Cruise that exists in the exciting world of microorganism viruses.

If humankind is the bad guy, all of us, every single one of us, then look no further than the fate of those former prehistoric monsters. Also, the demise of those browless neanderthals, ugly grunting bipedal competitors who no longer exist. Extinction is a fickle fate, it's an ongoing foregoing outcome that's hard historical fact - we must take note of the countless species we are in the advanced process of slaughtering to destruction.

If we are up against the full might of a revengeful planet, if perpetual micro-creation is our final nemesis, if we are staring at defeat or facing unconditional surrender to the good guy, then should we begin to think of how we renegotiate our survival? Forest fires, floods, rising sea levels, hurricanes and tornadoes - now this deadly coronavirus. It's a full-on frontal attack upon human sustainability, payback for species extinctions and planetary devastation...

Long live the king, long live the virus.
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Read more about the mishaps and mayhem of Nellie, The Ship's Cat