666 and Isaiah 26:20 – The Many Fallacies on COVID-19 in Africa

By: Gurgur Japheth

Let me briefly commend the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) no thanks to the Benue Chapter for suspending all church gathering as a measure to ensure Social Distancing.

A major problem in Africa is Religion and Fetish in addition to the warning of Bill Gates. In a presentation at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Seattle, Bill Gates reportedly warned that the coronavirus could overwhelm health systems on the African continent.

This disease, if it’s in Africa … it’s more dramatic than if it’s in China, even though I’m not trying to minimize what’s going on in China in any way,” while there has been only fewer confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Africa, it’s possible that other cases have not yet been reported.

The flow of people between China and Africa has risen sharply in the last decade: According to Quartz, direct airline flights between Africa and China jumped over 600%.

By 2017, more than 200,000 Chinese laborers were working in construction and other projects on the African continent, according to research from Johns Hopkins University. (That number excludes traders and shopkeepers.) The top five African countries with Chinese workers, according to that research, were Algeria, Angola, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Zambia — which together accounted for almost 60% of all Chinese workers in Africa.

Unfortunately, as the world searches for scientific solutions to contain and eradicate Covid-19, Africa has not disappointed anyone at all: 1st, it started with the primitive search for hair in the Bible and drinking of same as fortification against Covid-19. This wild goose chase was followed by another esoteric linkage of Isaiah 26:20 with the Global Social Distancing and Isolation order against spread of Covid-19. This is also a fallacy because in Wuhan, where the virus originated since 2019, people had survived the disease even before the declaration in Nigeria for closure of schools, etcetera and this has been a measure against such diseases long before now particularly when there was no cure. This assertion is therefore part of coincidence theory by those who want to make Halleluia out of Coronavirus.

The latest of such conspiracy theories is from a Ghanaian man on Facebook with name, Reynolds Addo-Labi had “proven” to his Facebook friends that the deadly Coronavirus is ‘666’. ‘666’ is a number usually associated with the devil and the antichrist and according to the guy, the deadly virus is the works of the devil.To prove his point, the Facebook user used some weird mathematical calculations as he used the word ‘CORONA’ which is made up of six(6) letter words and also used the number values of ‘CORONA’ which adds up to sixty-six(66). Hence his conclusion at the number ‘666’.

This too is a fallacy because in China where the etymology and etiology of Covid-19 is traceable, the English ABC is not considered as alphabets and the reason is that there are approximately 5,000–7,000 characters in Chinese Language. Chinese characters are logograms used in the writing of Chinese and some other Asian languages. In Standard Chinese, and sometimes also in English, they are called hànzì (simplified Chinese: 汉字; traditional Chinese: 漢字). Corona translate as （指在日食期间的） 日冕；月华.

In conclusion, therefore, Africans must face this virus with a scientific viewpoint and lay aside fetish, primitive esoteric mentality and learn from the Cubans henceforth to up our medical standards because this may just be the beginning since there hasn’t been a cure, but there is prevention. No governor should again deceive his people that they are prepared for Coronavirus. The virus should be stopped by restrictions of interaction and movement. For example, there should be no interstate travels in the interim. Government should provide stimulus package to citizens within the period as is the case in US, UK, France, Germany, etcetera to cushion the Economic effect of Covid-19 on the Masses.

Gurgur Japheth is a Philosopher