Has the world missed a trick or two? Perhaps it’s already quite late, yet many lives can be saved if all put their acts together. When I say all, I mean every country on earth.

The global leaders need to come together and prepare a common strategy to beat the Covid virus. The strategy is simple, yet very difficult to implement. The leaders require steely nerves and a selfless attitude, while people across countries need to gear up for the most tumultuous time of their lives.

People may have to even sacrifice basic needs and keep consumption to the bare minimum as countries go in to a compulsory lock down for at least another four to six weeks. Very strict distancing has to be observed, says the accomplished Indian American and inventor of the Ethernet switch, Vinod K Bhardwaj in an article now doing the rounds on social media.

Bhardwaj says all countries are simply missing the point which is sheer mathematics. If one looks at the spread of the virus in the last three months, one will notice that it has been exponential. Every day the rate of people contacting the infection has gone up across the world.

What does it mean? It simply means that the lockdowns now in place in different countries will serve no purpose. Even the world leaders know that this will serve a miniscule purpose of possibly slowing down the spread as scientists and researchers work overtime to find a vaccine to halt the progress of the virus.

Soon as the lockdowns are lifted purely to serve the cause of the economy, the virus will get virulent again. In fact, the real pandemic will start only after the lockdowns are lifted, says Bhardwaj.

Of course, he is right. The lockdowns will not check Covid’s footfall, but will take the economies around the world to an unfathomable low. At the same time deaths will increase. In the ultimate analysis, neither deaths will be averted nor the economies be saved.

So, what is the solution? All countries must go for a compulsory lockdown simultaneously for the next month and half. The economies will get shattered; there is little doubt about that. A vast majority of the people around the world, especially the poor and even large sections of the middle class will have no money, not even to buy the basic food. But this may be a lesser demon at the moment.

All governments round the world will have to step in and offer some kind of a dole that will keep people and families alive for at least three months. Each government will of course need to evolve its own formula and methodology through which it will reach out to the target population. Now these programmes will not be entirely foolproof. There will be some pain nevertheless, in fact lots of it. All efforts will have to be made through state administrations and other public bodies which are dealing with the people at the grass root.

If peoples survive, economies will survive. If global leaders forget about their personal ambitions for the time being and support each other’s initiative, revival will not take too much time. Because of strict lockdown measures and social distancing, people in the meantime would have recalibrated their needs and adjusted to a new order. It would have given people enormous patience and strength to survive under extreme adverse conditions.