On the 10th of November 1942, the famous wartime British prime minister Winston Churchill delivered these immortal lines, on the occasion of the British victory over superior German forces, at the Second Battle of El-Alamein.
“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”
Churchill was, of course, referring to the victory’s significance in the context of the overall tide of the Second World War. Previous to this victory over the might of the German forces, all they had tasted were losses at the hands of the enemy, and this was their initial glimmer of hope in what was otherwise a bleak outlook for the Allies. Here at last, they could see the tide of war turning, if only for a brief shining moment.
By the time Churchill delivered this speech commemorating the allied victory in this crucial battle, it had been three years into the war, three years during which they suffered one setback after another, and without seemingly a hope in sight until that moment.
It hasn’t been quite that long yet, but in a couple of months, the world will have entered the third year of what has been a long and difficult war. This time, it is not against men and munitions, but against a virus and its mutations. Back then, the battles were named after the places in which they were fought — Dunkirk, Pearl Harbor, Bataan, El Alamein — these names are forever etched in history, as the two sides in that bloody conflict fought back and forth to establish control over the other. Today, the battles are against variants named after the letters of the Greek alphabet — Beta, Gamma, Delta and others, until the latest one to menace mankind — Omicron came along.
The victory at The Second Battle of El-Alamein, to which Churchill dedicated his famous speech, was the first breakthrough the Allies managed against the mighty German juggernaut. Dare I say that our battle against the Omicron variant seems to parallel the Allied success at El-Alamein, in that for the first time, we actually seem to be turning the tide against this virus’ relentless onslaught. Because, as infectious as this variant seems to be, the toll in terms of severe infections and deaths seems to be on the downtrend.
For those who care to remember, Covid-19, not unlike the German blitzkrieg and the Japanese tsunami, was a scary prospect to confront. Without a vaccine and a viable cure, people were getting infected and succumbing to the disease in their hundreds of thousands, all across the world. No country was spared, and even the most prosperous ones like the United States were hit hard and fast by the onslaught. But just as the Allies got better in terms of tactics and material, our scientific community also became better in battling the disease, waging a war across several fronts — through vaccinations, therapeutics and public health protocols. Slowly but surely the tide turned, and for the first time, with this Omicron variant, Covid-19 does not seem as fearsome as the foe we originally faced.
Has Covid-19 finally been conquered?
Hard to tell for sure, but there is light at the end of the horizon. With vaccination levels reaching record highs in many countries across the world, the severity of the disease seems to be decreasing. And even if there are still many people getting infected, their conditions don’t seem to be as severe as those that were taken ill during the early stages of the disease.
So is Omicron the end of this global health crisis?
Well, maybe not. But as Churchill said after the Second Battle of El-Alamein, “...this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”