The 91-year-old man who is my father is slowly going insane. His conversation is rambling, his ideas are fractured, he is jumping from one subject to another, he is telling me a story he already told me two minutes earlier.

The 91-year-old man who is my father has now been locked down (or do I mean locked up?) for nearly a year. The walls of his two-bedroom flat have become his cell. There is a world outside those walls, but he is afraid to step beyond them – afraid because that world could kill him. He is choosing a prison sentence over a potential death sentence. What a choice.

We had less than 24 hours’ notice that the assisted accommodation where my father has his flat was to lock down and the restaurant to shut. At the local supermarket, I stared in dismay at empty shelves where bread, tissues and toilet roll had sat. But I gratefully collected seven mismatched ready-meals. At the till, the teenage assistant said ready-meals were limited to two-per-shopper. I explained and I begged and the middle-aged woman on the next till leaned over and said, “that’s fine, special circumstances.”

The younger man who was my father lived life to the full. He managed a company, he brought up a family, he had friends, hobbies, a season ticket to Wolverhampton Wanderers, he loved to play cards, he collected stamps, he listened to music, he read books and newspapers.

Today, his stamp albums sit in drawers and his books are in boxes because he can’t concentrate, his music is silent because he can’t work the CD player, his friends can’t visit because they’re also locked down, he is banned from football stadiums and his family is banned from visiting him.

Day after day, the 91-year-old man who is my father looks at the television. He watches quiz contests, he watches sport, he watches antiques shows, he watches the news.

He asks again and again, “How many have died today? I saw it on the news, but I can’t remember. The numbers keep going up.”

It’s all about numbers, 1,000; 10,000; 100,000, like the winnings of one of his quiz games or the football scores. The numbers keep climbing the more we keep guessing. But this isn’t a numbers game – this is a people game. Every one in that 1,000, 10,000, 100,000 is (was?) a human being like the 91-year-old man who is my father. A human being with a name, a face, a personality, a family, friends, hobbies. Did they leave behind a stamp collection, boxes of paperbacks, their favorite CDs, loved ones they hadn’t seen for months?

Television brings faces, people, color and life into the flat of the 91-year-old man who is my father. People talk to him, they share their stories, they play their games with him, they kick their footballs into his lounge. News presenters become his confessors, quiz show hosts his experts, football managers his wisdom. Who could be alone with hundreds of faces on the small screen?

My father is allowed outside so we celebrate his 91^st birthday in the car park. It’s a warm afternoon in May and we sit in two deckchairs, with diet cola and chocolate cake passed over a two-metre space between us. He’s given up wearing a hearing aid and e had the traffic noise means he can’t hear what I say. He has no stories for me to listen to, so we become silent. He soon tires and wants to go back inside, to the safety of his four walls. I wrap up a piece of chocolate cake “for later, or tomorrow” and pack the deckchairs back into the boot.

We have a couple of outings for his hospital appointments. I make him sit in the back of the car “two metres apart, Dad,” and keep the window open, anything to minimize the risk. At the hospital, the floodgates open and he talks to the nurses and doctors in a torrent of words where facts and symptoms become confused with memories, stories and complaints. Still he talks and the kindly staff don’t try to dam the flow, they just allow it to wash around them. They have become used to this.

There is a time for hope. In the summer the prohibition is lifted and this 52-year-old daughter enters her father’s flat after four months of banishment. I find four months of post, piled up and overflowing on the sofa, four months of dust on the mantelpiece, four months of ice built up in the freezer. There has been four months of isolation, desolation and incapacity. In the grip of a depressive listlessness, the 91-year-old man who is my father hasn’t done things. The post, the dust, the ice have sat, like him, immobile in front of the television.

Like the proverbial new broom, I sweep in – dusting, vacuuming, scrubbing, changing dead batteries and light bulbs, sorting post into piles, throwing away out-of-date letters and out-of-date food. Chatting, sharing, filling the flat with action, movement and interaction. But not touch – with gloves and masks we sit on opposite sides of the room and every time the 91-year-old man who is my father tries to approach I back off, keeping the essential two metres between us.

He has other visitors. My 50-year-old brother (whose birthday celebrations have been put on hold) lives nearby and can now pop in. My 54-year-other brother lives ‘Up North’ and drives down to see our father while he can. For a short time, the 91-year-old man who is our father is cheerful and hopeful.

We think the worst is over.

We are wrong.

Again, we have a day’s notice to lockdown but we are old hands at this now and I spend those last few hours doing all I can to lockdown-proof the flat. I teach the 91-year-old man who is my father the purpose of bleach, I update the list of daily medicines, I ensure every letter is in a colour-coded folder.

And now it’s winter and the confinement and the loneliness are even worse to bear. The nights draw in and darkness takes over. Entire days pass when the 91-year-old man who is my father does not see a soul. There are Covid cases at his flats. Lounges, dining areas, communal spaces – all are closed and residents (inmates, as my father calls them) are asked not to visit the office, to phone if they need anything.

There’s the one-day Great Escape when the 91-year-old man who is my father comes to our house for Christmas. We drive past my brother’s home so my father can wave to his grandchildren and they can shout “Happy Christmas Grandpa.” At ours, my 54-year-old husband cooks beef goulash and serves it with a glass of red wine.

“I will never be able to eat all of that,” says the 91-year-old man who is my father. He eats all of it and then asks for Christmas pudding and mince pies.

We open presents.

“You don’t need to buy me anything, I don’t need anything,” my father says. But when he carefully cuts open the gold wrapping paper to reveal new flannel pyjamas, he admits “except pyjamas, mine have seen better days.”

We do Christmas quizzes and the 91-year-old man who is my father can’t remember a single answer.

“I know this one…” he says time and again.

My brother who lives “Up North” telephones to say Happy Christmas. My father tells him: “This is the best day I’ve had all year.”

He doesn’t want to return to his flat. “It’s like a prison,” he says. “It’s so lonely, I don’t see anyone from morning until night.” But he’s too afraid to stay so when the evening comes, I drive him back. “You know you could come here again at New Year if you want,” I say. “I can come and fetch you.” I watch him, hunched over his frame, as the glass doors close behind him.

He decides against coming for New Year, it’s become too dangerous. The numbers of diagnosed and dying are rising again and the 91-year-old man who is my father is frightened again. We telephone on New Year’s Eve. He’s going to bed early, there’s no reason to stay up.

Last year we went to a party at his flats, my father, my husband and me. Residents ate sandwiches and cake, they drank wine and non-alcoholic drinks, they danced in the dining room as a singer performed requests. I asked for Abba and the man on the table next to me wanted Elvis Presley. We all held hands at midnight and sang Auld Lang Syne.

Every evening I speak on the telephone to the 91-year-old man who is my father, but the calls become shorter as he has less and less to say.

“How was today?”

“The same as yesterday, and the day before, and the day before.”

I try to be encouraging.

“Why don’t you try doing a sudoku, or maybe read a book, call one of your friends – that might cheer you up.”

But the next night he’s done none of those things. And the next night, and the next night, and the next.

The 91-year-old man who is my father is slowly going insane. His conversation rambles, his ideas are fractured, he jumps from one subject to another, he tells me a story and begins to tell it again minutes later. I lose the plot of what he’s saying and give up trying to follow, I allow the words to keep coming but I no longer understand what he means. And neither does he.

Sometimes he tells me he can’t carry on, he tells me he’s had enough, he tells me this is worse than prison. He cries.

I’m afraid he will die still locked down. That these terrible twelve months will have been the last year of his life. That after all he did, all he achieved, all the hopes and dreams for his 91 years of life, it will have ended in loneliness, confusion and fear.

He has The Jab; my brother takes him on a Saturday morning to a local gym. There they join hundreds of other elderly and vulnerable men and women on their first step to freedom. But then we learn of a friend who has died despite having the vaccination and we learn of delays for the second jab and we learn the vaccinations may not be wholly successful against the new variants sweeping the country.

The 91-year-old man who is my father is waiting for his flat to come out of lockdown. He is waiting to see human beings face-to-face. He is waiting for visitors. He is waiting to hug people, to kiss people, to touch people.

Although he is so lonely, the 91-year-old man who is my father is not alone. He is one of thousands of 91-year-old men who are fathers, 73-year-old women who are mothers, 86-year-old men and women who are grandparents isolated and desperate. They are dying to see the people they love yet afraid that seeing them will cause them to die. It’s what we value most, human contact, which has become their gravest danger.

This year can never be re-run, this time never be recaptured, this loss will never be forgotten. Those who survive, whatever the number in their age, will carry the trauma. Of babies not held, of aged relatives dying alone, of loved ones separated. We will all bear the scars of our Covid-19 stories.

About 3500 years ago in Egypt, Moses began to preach the religion that calls for submission to God, which he inherited from his forefather Abraham. According to the belief in that era, the ruler was considered a son of God, even a god on earth.

The Pharaoh said (to his chiefs): “Let me kill Moses, and let him call upon his Lord! I fear lest he alter your religion (replacing it with his), or lest he provoke disorder in the land” (Mu’min 40:26). What is meant by “religion” as mentioned in the verse refers to the civilization, i.e. the overall social order, of that society. The pharaoh was rather concerned about his own reign, like many other tyrants, but he professed as if he was concerned about his people and that he wanted to get rid of Moses for their good.

The following verse expresses this fact: “They said: ‘These two men are surely sorcerers intent on driving you out of your land with their sorcery, and doing away with your exemplary way of life’” (Taha 20:63).

Then the Pharaoh increased his torment to the believers and closed up their temple. In that case, God commanded Moses and his brother to take their houses as places of worship (a center of learning) (10:87). The essential judgment on worship was to be observed in the temple, but the command to pray at home was a special judgment to be implemented during this period of torment.

We are currently facing another crisis, though entirely different from the persecution that Moses and his followers endured, that is requiring us to temporarily close our houses of worship and instead pray at home. In these days of Coronavirus, all faith communities, including Muslims, Jews, and Christians, abide by this special judgment. For Muslims even the congregational Friday Prayer, which all males without valid excuse must strictly attend, is suspended. Everybody prays at home instead for the same reason of protection from harm. Whether they observe prayers or not, most people are at an obligatory retreat.

From a believer’s perspective, these days are offering us some serious food for thought. Is Coronavirus on a mission sent by God to warn people who exceed in wrongdoing? Are we being told to come to our senses, to make up our minds, step back from wrong, act in accordance with our purpose of creation, not neglect our families for the sake of greedy pursuits, and live in a way to be eligible for eternal happiness?

Two thousand years ago, Jesus Christ, peace be upon him, taught his people about belief in God. He was able to preach for only a very short amount of time, only to be accepted by a limited number of people around him all of whom suffered and were exterminated under the cruel Roman Empire. Yet, his message was not silenced; by the third century after he was gone, a great majority of people ruled by Roman Empire accepted his invitation. Muslims believe Jesus Christ was ascended to the heavens to be sent back to complete his mission as a renovator of faith in God in the Latter Times in the way of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, who, according to some Muslim scholars, is the “advocate” (Paraclete – or Parakletos, the Praised One) mentioned in John 14:16. It is believed that Jesus Christ will lead his followers – now dispersed in many denominations more so than any other tradition has [1] – and will unite them back in worship. Coronavirus has struck at a time that is most special to the Christian community, and thus giving them an opportunity to reflect on faith. It was the time of Lent, a six-week period which ended on April 11. Observing Christians have sought closeness to God by observing different forms of worship such as fasting, praying, and supporting the needy while hoping to be more receptive to the call of revival by COVID-19. Taking this opportunity, it is my hope that Christians, who are adorned with these lofty qualities, had a happy Easter holiday, which was on April 12 this year. I also celebrate the Passover holiday of the Jewish community, which was on April 8.

As a matter of fact, even the timing of this global retreat is worthy of attention; similar to Christian Lent and Easter, Muslims are in the midst of the holy three months of Rajab, Shaban, and Ramadan, while the Jewish community have been celebrating Passover within these days of retreat. Surely the followers of other traditions such as Buddhism and Hinduism will evaluate this period in meaningful retrospect. The indigenous people of Canada pray as follows:

 “O our exalted Creator! We wish you to be with us. We wish you to help our diseased ones and our friends who are far away. When we lose hope, please remind us to be thankful for the blessings of water which gives life and the earth which bears us. O God, please help us know that all people are our relatives!”

Muslims have not undergone as huge a diversification as has been the case in Christianity in terms of the essentials of faith. However, many Muslim nations have failed to duly understand the true message of the religion, could not interpret its commandments, nor could they practice it properly. As those in power did not govern them well for a very long time, many countries of the Muslim world have lagged behind with regards to civilization, ethics, culture, and public administration. In a way, they have alienated themselves to the essence of their own values. Interestingly, social studies indices that conduct research on which countries perform better on establishing institutions that reflect Islamic values and principles, there is not a single Muslim country among the first thirty [2]. There are countries like Ireland, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, New Zealand, and Canada among the first ten. The brilliant face of Islam entered a period of eclipse in the Muslim world, and then the eclipse got to be constant. Accordingly, Corona is virtually making the following call to Muslims: “You did not thoroughly understand and practice religion God revealed to you by means of His Messenger. Come back home, you need a revival. Make up your mind to make wise use of this opportunity. Evaluate the oncoming opportunity of Ramadan well in your home. Try to make up for things you neglected for years. Make self-criticism, come to grips with yourself! Become repentant and ask forgiveness!”

May this holy Ramadan, the month of the Holy Qur’an, be a means of God’s good pleasure and happiness for all Muslims.

With Coronavirus, and for that matter with all such tribulations, perhaps God Almighty makes us realize that He has not ceased to care for the humanity He created: “Shall We take away this Reminder from you (and leave you to your own devices), because you are a people wasteful (of your God-given faculties and committing excesses)?” (Zukhruf 43:5). Thus, He gives an opportunity to people before the Day of Judgment to repent and experience a “revival” now, so that we can be absolved “there.”

Notes

1. De Glasenapp. 1954. Les cinq grandes religions, Paris, Payot, 1954, p. 415.
2. http://islamicity-index.org/wp

The Coronavirus Pandemic has shaken much of the world to its core and caused many disruptions. Economies have been crippled, millions have been laid off, quarantine has forced us to stay at home for an extended period of time, and thousands have died. Control over our lives and society, it seems, has been lost for most of us.

Perhaps it is possible to, ironically, use what takes control away from us as a means to regain it. One should ponder this coronavirus disaster, why it has come to us, what we can learn from it, and how we can prevent it from happening again. This way, we can regain control through reflection, faith, and science in order to learn from our past mistakes to help ensure that such a crisis does not happen again. Otherwise, we could continue to lose control of our societies.

Our brains have a finite amount of resources but must be taken care of in order to ensure that our bodies can perform all of our necessary daily functions. We can strengthen our brains through long-term potentiation (LTP), which essentially means using it regularly in order to keep it fresh, strong, and up to date. It also explains how our brains change and adapt to different situations and scenarios we encounter, thus serve as a means for us to learn from our hardships and develop new strategies for survival and growth. How can we maintain control of our minds and bodies if we do not learn from our mistakes and continue to grow?

We can continue to find control and peace in anything that speaks to us on a personal or spiritual level. This can range from simple scraps of paper to eloquent forms of art, such as Ebru. Our authors delve into a wide range of topics that they are passionate about. Their arts and crafts, whether a canvas for art or a sheet of paper for writing, is their field where they are in complete control. Surely, we can maintain control in these hobbies or actions even when it seems that everything else around us is falling apart.

“The Orientalists” piece in this issue is providing an alternative perspective on some of the travelers to the East. The perception of the East in the Western mind has been much shaped by the extensive chronicles of these travelers who endured long and strenuous journeys across North Africa and all the way to India. Lawrence Brazier shares with us a panorama of some of the leading Orientalists many of whom, according to him, “were travelers who found the East, indeed, ‘other’ than what they experienced at home. Their quest was a personal enthusiasm for the Orient.”

Andersen KG et al. The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2. Nature Medicine, March 2020.

Cases of Covid-19 first emerged in December 2019, when a mysterious illness was reported in in the city of Wuhan, China. The cause of the disease was soon confirmed as a new kind of coronavirus, and the infection has since caused a large-scale epidemic and spread to more than 70 other countries. Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that are related to a broad spectrum of illnesses, the first of which was the 2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic in China. A second outbreak of severe illnesses began in 2012 in Saudi Arabia with the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). On December 31 of 2019, Chinese authorities alerted the World Health Organization of an outbreak of a novel strain of coronavirus named SARS-CoV-2 causing severe illness. As of February 20, 2020, nearly 167,500 Covid-19 cases have been reported, though many milder cases have likely gone undiagnosed. More than 6,600 people have already died as a result of contracting this virus – and the numbers will be much higher when you will be reading this article. Chinese scientists sequenced the genome of SARS-CoV-2 very shortly after the epidemic began and made the data available worldwide. The analyses of genomic sequence data have shown that Chinese authorities rapidly detected the epidemic and that the number of Covid-19 cases have been increasing because of human to human transmission after a single introduction into the human population.

Recently, a group of scientists used this sequencing data to explore the origins of SARS-CoV-2 and how it has become the version that it is now. The scientists specifically focused on the genetic codes for spike proteins, the mechanical framework on the outside of the virus that it uses to grab and penetrate the outer walls of human and animal cells. There are 2 major parts of the spike proteins: the receptor-binding domain (RBD), a molecular hook that grips onto host cells, and the cleavage site, a molecular can opener that allows the virus to crack open and enter host cells. The scientists found that the RBD portion of the SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins mutated to effectively target a molecular feature on the outside of human cells called ACE2, a receptor normally involved in regulating blood pressure. The SARS-CoV-2 spike protein was exceptionally effective at binding to human cells, and the scientists concluded this could only be a product after a natural selection process and not the product of human-designed genetic engineering. This evidence was further strengthened by data on SARS-CoV-2’s backbone molecular structure. If someone were to engineer a new coronavirus as a pathogen, they would have constructed it from the backbone of a virus known to cause illness. But the scientists found that the SARS-CoV-2 backbone differed substantially from those of already known coronaviruses and mostly resembled related viruses found in bats and pangolins. These two features of the virus, the mutations in the RBD portion of the spike protein and its distinct backbone, basically ruled out laboratory manipulation as a potential origin for SARS-CoV-2. Based on their genomic sequencing analysis, scientists came up with two possible scenarios as the most likely origins for SARS-CoV-2.

In the first scenario, the current pathogenic state of SARS-CoV-2 has emerged naturally in non-human hosts such as bats or pangolins and then jumped to humans. Coronaviruses are well known to undergo genetic recombination. In fact, this is exactly how previous coronavirus outbreaks have emerged, with humans contracting the virus after direct exposure to civets (SARS) and camels (MERS). The researchers proposed horseshoe bats as the most likely reservoir for SARS-CoV-2 as it is very similar to a bat coronavirus. There are no documented cases of direct bat-human transmission so far, suggesting that an intermediate host was likely involved between bats and humans.

In this particular scenario, both of the distinctive features of SARS-CoV-2’s spike protein and the cleavage site would have mutated to their current pathogenic state prior to entering humans. In this case, the current epidemic would probably have emerged rapidly as soon as humans were infected, as the virus would have already equipped with the features that make it pathogenic and able to spread between people.

In the second proposed scenario, a non-pathogenic version of the virus jumped from an animal host into humans and after a mutation process it has acquired its current pathogenic state within the human population. For instance, some coronaviruses from pangolins, armadillo-like mammals found in Asia and Africa, have a spike protein very similar to that of SARS-CoV-2. A coronavirus from a pangolin could possibly have been transmitted to a human, either directly or through an intermediary host such as civets or ferrets.

In this scenario, only the cleavage site could have mutated within a human host, possibly via limited undetected circulation in the human population for months or maybe years prior to the beginning of the epidemic. The researchers found that the SARS-CoV-2 cleavage sites have similarities that resemble strains of bird flu that can transmit easily between people. In the case of SARS-CoV-2, such a virulent cleavage site could have been formed in human cells and soon the current epidemic got initiated, as the coronavirus would possibly have become far more capable of spreading between people.

At this point, it is almost impossible to know for sure which of the scenarios is most likely. If the SARS-CoV-2 entered humans in its current pathogenic form from an animal source, it raises the probability of future outbreaks, as the illness-causing strain of the virus could still be circulating in those animal populations and might come back to humans again. It is still noteworthy that a non-pathogenic coronavirus entering the human population and then acquiring properties similar to SARS-CoV-2, the second scenario, is less likely than the first scenario.

In conclusion, this study brings an evidence-based view to the baseless rumors and conspiracy theories that the SARS-CoV-2 was deliberately manufactured in a lab and concludes that the virus has emerged after a natural process that took place in multiple hosts over time. These genetic findings are also consistent with how SARS-CoV2 is currently behaving. The virus has a low fatality rate (1% to 3.4%) and does not seem to act like a bioweapon compared to pathogens such as anthrax or Ebola. Given the previous coronavirus epidemics and the persistence of the culture of eating exotic mammals in China and other parts of the world, the current COVID19 epidemic is unfortunately not a big surprise for scientists and experts. We have to take necessary measures to be more prepared for such outbreaks that may take place in future.

Our hands are vital for performing tasks throughout our daily lives and must be taken care of and cleaned regularly. They can easily spread germs, bacteria, or viruses such as Covid-19 (Coronavirus). Coronavirus has spread rapidly throughout the entire world in the past few months and health officials are very adamant that hand hygiene can help prevent further escalation of the virus. The reason is simple; viruses can spread from our hands to other objects that we touch, to which other people can touch those same objects and possibly contract the virus by putting their hands on their face. According to the World Health Organization, proper hand sanitation that uses alcohol-based rub or hot water and soap can kill Coronavirus and other viruses [1].

For some people, such as healthcare professionals, there are actually major consequences for neglecting hand hygiene. For example, the dirty hands of these professionals have a negative impact of 40% in the transport and spread of resistant microorganisms among patients. Hospital infections are actually among one of the main catalysts for increased disability and death rates in hospitals, along with additional healthcare costs [2]. In the United States, 1.7 million patients develop health-related infections every year, and 100,000 of them die. This increases the length of hospital stay by 20 times and the cost of treatment by 5 times [3].

It was not until the 19^th century that we began to understand that infectious diseases can be prevented by washing our hands. In the middle of the same century, the pioneer of antiseptic processes, known as the “savior of mothers,” Hungarian physician Ignaz Semmelweis, showed that microorganisms could be transmitted to patients via the hands of medical staff. This discovery began a new era of hygiene and healthcare. It is now well known that microbes reproduce rapidly, and that it is possible to prevent the spread of disease by keeping the hands and body, which is possible by following personal hygiene rules.

Hand hygiene is maintained in different ways in modern medicine. In daily life, washing hands with soap and water to remove dirt is called “social hand washing.” Common examples include washing after a meal and when visiting the toilet. For this purpose, it is sufficient to rub the hands and fingers for 15 seconds with a non-antimicrobial feature soap, rinse, dry with a disposable towel, and turn off the tap with a towel. Cloth towels used by many people in public places are not considered suitable for hygiene.

The more serious and professional form of hand washing is “hygienic hand washing,” where antimicrobial soaps are used in the washing process before and after contact with patients and bodily fluids. Other hand hygiene methods during surgical operations cover applications where alcohol-based 3-5 ml hand-disinfectant is rubbed until dry along with hand disinfection and surgical hand antisepsis, which includes washing the hands, including the forearms, with chemical solutions such as soaps, isopropanol, chlorhexidine specifically produced for this purpose for 2-3 minutes, and later wearing sterile gloves until the end of any procedures.

The World Health Organization published a guide on proper hand hygienics and explained when, how often, and how healthcare providers should wash their hands [4]. Despite the development of various programs and policies, especially hand hygiene, and increasing material expenditures in the fight against infections observed in health services, the control of infections remains well below the desired level.

Today, research also looks at the effects of hand washing on individual psychology. An experiment carried out by two psychologists from the University of Michigan, Spike W.S. Lee and Norbert Schwarz, shows that hand-washing reduces this classic post-decisional dissonance effect:

In individual sessions, 40 undergraduates browsed 30 CD covers as part of an alleged consumer survey as if they were in a music store. They selected 10 CDs they would like to own and ranked them by preference. Later, the experimenter offered them a choice between their 5th and 6th ranked CDs as a token of appreciation from the sponsor. Following the choice, participants completed an ostensibly unrelated product survey that asked for evaluations of a liquid soap; half merely examined the bottle before answering, whereas others tested the soap by washing their hands. After a filler task, participants ranked the 10 CDs again, allegedly because the sponsor wanted to know what people think about the CDs after leaving the store.

For those who merely examined the soap, the preference for the chosen over the rejected alternative increased from before choice to after choice by an average of 1.9 ranks, replicating the standard dissonance effect. In contrast, for those who washed their hands, preferences were unaffected by their decision. Thus, handwashing significantly reduced the need to justify one’s choice by increasing the perceived difference between alternatives. “Washing one’s hands after making a choice eliminates post-decisional dissonance effects, suggesting that hand-washing psychologically removes traces of the past, including concerns about past decisions” [5].

In another study conducted in 2008, Schnall, et. Al. “hypothesized that physical cleanliness reduces the severity of moral judgments. In support of this idea, they found that individuals make less severe judgments when they are primed with the concept of cleanliness and when they wash their hands after experiencing disgust” [6]. This effect of hand washing, which relieves conscience, is called the “Macbeth Effect.”

Washing hands is one of those simple but compulsory practices we tend to take for granted and lose interest in as we progress in science and education. Simple practices like using each of our hands for different purposes and frequent hand-washing will surely contribute to the fight against healthcare infections and infectious diseases that threaten public health.

There are several traditions of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, in which washing hands is strongly emphasized.

“The blessings of food lie in washing hands before and after eating.”

“Wash your hands after you wake up; you do not know where your hands have moved while you were sleeping.”

The Prophet advised using each hand for different tasks. It is narrated that his wife Aisha said: “The right hand of the Messenger of God (peace be upon him) was for his purification and food, and his left hand was for using the restroom and anything that was dirty.”

Notes

1. “Advice for Public.” World Health Organization, World Health Organization, www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public.
2. Pittet D, Allegranzi B, Storr J, Donaldson L. Clean care is safer care: the global patient safety challenge 2005-2006. Int J Infect Dis. 2006; 10(6): 419–24.
3. Allegranzi B, Storr J, Dziekan G, Leotsakos A, Donaldson L, Pittet D. The first global patient safety challenge “Clean care is safer care”: from launch to current progress and achievements. J Hosp Infect. 2007; 65(Suppl. 2): 115–23.
4. WHO Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in Health Care, www.who.int/gpsc/5may/tools/9789241597906/en/
5. Lee SW, Schwarz N. Washing away postdecisional dissonance. Science. 2010 May 7;328(5979):709. doi: 10.1126/science.1186799.
6. Schnall S, Benton J, Harvey S. With a clean conscience: cleanliness reduces the severity of moral judgments. Psychol Sci. 2008 Dec;19(12):1219-22. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02227.x. Also see https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2014-20922-011.html in which Johnson, D. J. et. al. suggest that “researchers investigating the connections between cleanliness and morality should therefore use large sample sizes to have the necessary power to detect subtle effects.”

The Coronavirus pandemic has swept the world in recent months and with it came a wave of panic, unease, and a need for courage. Humanity is collectively fighting for its health, a treasure that we sometimes take for granted. It is imperative that we constantly look to maintain our health through reviewing potentially harmful practices and working to discover new methods of cleanliness and purity. Many of our articles in this issue will explore the theme of health across the spectrum including bodily, psychological, spiritual, and moral health. We also discuss Coronavirus in detail in this issue’s Science Square and dispel some conspiracy theories that the virus is man-made.

Washing our hands regularly is actually one of the most simple and effective ways to help prevent the spread of viruses, including Covid-19. Such a simple procedure seems like common sense nowadays, but this process was actually a breakthrough in the nineteenth century. Consistent hand washing and sterilization is especially important for hospital staff as they can easily transmit new diseases and germs into patients with weakened immune systems. Taking responsibility for our individual health will contribute to the overall health of our society by at least not spreading disease.

Diabetes is another disease that threatens the well-being of millions across the globe. It is complicated, and we explore in this issue the differences that excessive fat and sugar consumption can have in regards to causing and accelerating diabetes. We can best preserve our health with reasonably sized diets that are rich in nutrients, and routines that physical exercise.  

The effects of selfishness versus selflessness on the mind are also explored. It is no secret that many current societies promote selfishness over the well-being of others whether through subliminal advertisement messaging or the consistent emphasis placed upon trampling over others for career success. The way that we view and treat others, whether positively or negatively, has a rippling effect throughout society and works to either bolster or deteriorate our collective mental health and happiness.

We must especially work hard to preserve the health of our children, from the food that they eat to the media and technology that they use. Cell phone usage among infants and toddlers is becoming more and more widespread, however studies have shown that excessive usage can stunt their growth or even permanently alter their very fragile and rapidly developing brains.

Our world is rapidly changing, as it seems that every year produces new innovations and challenges to keep up with. It is up to us to stay informed and aware, lest we fall behind and fail to preserve the very things that we hold most dear.