Saudi Arabia’s difficult decision has saved lives
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The move was an unprecedented one in recent times. On Feb. 25, 2020 Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced it was closing access to the holy sites of Makkah and Medina for non-Saudi pilgrims. The reason, the COVID-19 coronavirus that has sickened thousands of people on the Chinese mainland and is now making its way across the world to the Middle East, Europe and beyond.
Public health decisions require delicate considerations and this one perhaps required even more than most. As in Pakistan, people save their entire lives to obtain visas to visit the holy sites. For those (and there are many) who cannot afford or manage the physical requirements of the annual Hajj pilgrimage, an Umrah represents the only time they will be able to actually pray in these places. Visas follow quotas and are hard to procure, then there are flights, lodging plans and long journeys. In sum, a lot is at stake when access to the holy sites is temporarily halted. When the travel ban was first announced, this is just what happened. There were people who were en route, already on flights, at airports far from their homes. A lot of dreams, a lot of plans had to be deferred.
Halting access to the holy sites was, however, the best possible decision that could have been made. As host to millions of pilgrims every year, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is in a unique position. There are likely no other places in the world that involve the meeting and mixing of humanity on such a scale. There are pilgrims from every country, speaking languages some have never heard, all concentrated in a relatively small area. It is the ideal place for the spread of a virus whose origins are still shrouded in mystery, whose cure does not exist and which seems determined on sickening the most vulnerable. In a zone where so many people from so many different origins gather, transmission of disease can happen fast and soon become unstoppable.
The evidence of this comes from the South Korean city of Daegu, which is presumed to be at the heart of the epidemic in that country. There the virus began to spread among members of the Shincheonji sect, who all pray together in close proximity. According to adherents, the religious services of the sect, which is an offshoot of Christianity, require attendance by everyone, with each member swiping their membership card to indicate that they have been present. If services are missed, time has to be made up.
One hopes the rest of the world will take its lead from the decision made in Saudi Arabia. The next few months will require just these sorts of difficult decisions. We live in a world that is used to the movement of people and it is precisely this that leaves all of humanity suddenly susceptible to a killer virus.
Rafia Zakaria
When the virus struck and members of the sect began to get sick, the leadership did not react positively. Instead of immediately restricting further spread, they allowed services to continue and people to continue spreading the virus. Within days, hundreds of people mostly from the sect were infected. By the time they took decisive action, many hundreds were infected bringing South Korea’s total count to over 800 and making it one of the epicenters of the coronavirus outside China. Since then, the sect has taken on a massive disinfection campaign of its buildings all over South Korea. It is likely too little too late. The South Korean Government has had to step in, shut down all schools, cancel flights and take on the massive task of testing almost 100,000 people (at last count).
One of the reasons that the Shincheonji sect leaders delayed taking action was because the impact of the coronavirus was being hyped by the media. It is likely that South Korea, like many other countries around the world did not fully trust the reports emerging from China. The inefficiency of their decision making process undoubtedly led to people dying.
A similar situation was seen in Iran. The Iranian government wanted early on to shut down religious sites in Qom. The religious establishment, however, did not see eye to eye with the government and did not want to restrict pilgrim access to the sites in Qom. By the time the issue was sorted out, coronavirus had spread through the country. It is now the epicenter of the virus in the Middle East. While there are no reliable numbers, it is assumed hundreds of people could die in Iran. The sanctions that the country faces are likely not helping matters, but the fact is, there was no decisive action to avert the crisis when there was room to take action. Without containment, the virus is now overwhelming the country’s resources.
There is something inherently dystopic about a global pandemic. The idea that an invisible virus can spread from person to person and kill with impunity is a terrifying idea. In a world where technology appears to be able to do nearly everything, the premise that humanity is so vulnerable is humbling.
The recognition of human vulnerability, the sanctity of human life are all factors that go into making good public health decisions. It is ultimately a utilitarian calculation, the dashed hopes and plans of a few versus the lives of thousands. One hopes the rest of the world will take its lead from the decision made in Saudi Arabia. The next few months will require just these sorts of difficult decisions. We live in a world that is used to the movement of people and it is precisely this that leaves all of humanity suddenly susceptible to a killer virus. Perhaps it is consciousness of our collective vulnerability, so starkly exposed by this global pandemic, that will bring people together in a literal struggle for human survival.
– Rafia Zakaria is the author of “The Upstairs Wife: An Intimate History of Pakistan” and “Veil.” She writes regularly for The Guardian, the Boston Review, the New Republic, the New York Times Book Review and many other publications.
Twitter: @rafiazakaria
