The rapid spread of the novel coronavirus, called COVID-19, caused terror around the world. The World Health Organization declared a global health emergency, and many countries faced a sharp rise in infections, leading to high death rates. It became necessary for people to deal with many disruptions affecting their daily lives as the disease spread and became a pandemic.
During this period, I found myself—like many elderly retirees—surrounded by the walls of isolation and caution. Days passed slowly, each day resembling the other. There were no trips abroad—including to Iraq—no visits from friends or family, and no social gatherings filling the family atmosphere. Loneliness was heavy, but I learned to find happiness in small things. I began to enjoy writing about the pandemic and reading books I had long postponed, and I discovered the importance of walking in the Botanical Experiment Garden near my home. There were moments of anxiety and fear, but I learned to be grateful for each day that passed peacefully.
I wrote extensively and gave many virtual lectures about the pandemic, starting from theories about its origin and spread, through ways of infection and virus replication, to efforts to produce vaccines, and finally combating conspiracy theories and unscientific claims accompanying its spread. I began a daily series aimed at answering common questions about the virus and pandemic, relying on reliable global medical literature. I was eager to present new information, adding more questions and updating answers when new information became available. Perhaps the most intriguing writings and discussions were my attempt to answer the question about the origin and spread of the virus: was it laboratory-made or biologically evolved? My conviction was that the virus evolved biologically, based on evidence indicating it evolved through natural selection via an animal host before transmission to humans, refuting any claim of deliberate laboratory manufacture.
Suddenly I was infected with COVID, finding myself a prisoner in my room, isolated from the outside world and the warmth of my loved ones. I did not expect the virus to become my jailer, preventing me from the simplest things like breathing deeply or sharing lunch with my family. My COVID infection prevented me from responding to Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi's invitation, as I was supposed to be honored during the visit and present to him an ambitious project aimed at reconstructing and developing Iraq—an initiative carrying our dreams and hopes for a better future for our dear homeland, including a program for building Iraqi national capacities, a development initiative from the Network of Iraqi Scientists Abroad (NISA) aimed at improving Iraqi institutions' capacities to provide basic services. The program focuses on identifying the critical path for planning and improving performance in government service delivery, with emphasis on developing national institutions' capacities. I recovered after a long struggle, but I began to fear reinfection, and thus refrained from traveling to Iraq entirely during the COVID period.