Manufacturing Fear… From Corona to Hanta
Wajh Al-Haqiqa | Ibrahim Shiglawi
The Sudanese Center for Civil Aviation Studies and Research issued warnings on Sunday about the risks of the spread of the “Hanta” virus, calling on civil aviation authorities to tighten precautionary measures inside airports by intensifying sterilization operations, rodent control, ensuring quarantine preparedness, and activating coordination with the Ministry of Health and the International Civil Aviation Organization through the “CAPSCA” mechanism, in addition to tightening monitoring of flights arriving from countries that have recorded infections.
This important warning, which reflects the vigilance of the country’s authorities, underscores the importance of taking preventive measures, as the transformation in the structure of risk management among all countries of the world has become imperative. Epidemics are no longer isolated medical events managed within laboratories or political assessment rooms; rather, they have become part of an equation in which health intersects with politics, media with security, and biology with economics.
In this context, it is important to point out that the Hanta virus belongs to a group of viruses transmitted through rodents, especially rats, through their contaminated secretions, and may infect humans through inhalation or contact with contaminated surfaces. Despite the rarity of human-to-human transmission, its inclusion among health warnings reflects a clear shift in global health risk management.
In Sudan, and from the standpoint of realism in dealing with this disease, people must begin protecting themselves from rodents inside homes and markets before the intervention of the relevant authorities, through cleanliness, proper waste disposal, storing food in tightly sealed containers, sealing openings through which rats may enter, in addition to raising awareness in commercial shops and resorting to pest control according to clear health regulations.
Through these measures, the danger is reduced and the safety of society is preserved.
Unfortunately, at the beginning of this year, there was widespread circulation of what are known as popular prediction experts, who launch general predictions about health crises and global disturbances. However, the analytical value of this phenomenon does not lie in whether these predictions are true or false, but in the fact that they reflect a psychological and media structure that reproduces the idea of danger and prepares collective consciousness to accept possibility before it turns into reality.
Here, we are not speaking of “prophecy,” but of a media environment that produces multiple scenarios for the future, which the public circulates as likely possibilities. Over time, these scenarios overlap with real events, creating a misleading impression of this discourse’s ability to anticipate events, while in essence it is part of the attention economy and the management of public anxiety controlled by certain hidden forces.
The Corona pandemic had previously revealed a central turning point in this path. The epidemic was not merely a health crisis, but a moment of comprehensive redefinition of the function of the state, its sovereignty, supply chains, and global mobility mechanisms. Epidemics moved from being a medical issue to becoming a structural factor in reshaping the international order, redistributing power among states, and resetting the relationship between the individual and the state.
From here, danger is no longer measured only by its biological lethality, but by its ability to influence public opinion, reshape collective behavior, and create economic and political repercussions that extend far beyond the health sphere. This transformation is what makes any reference to a new virus part of the structure of global risk management.
In the Sudanese case, this equation acquires a more sensitive and complex dimension. A state emerging from a war that has exhausted its health and service infrastructure does not deal with health warnings as isolated matters, but as part of an extended system of threats. Weak health preparedness in such a context does not remain confined to the medical sector, but transforms into a sovereign issue that directly affects national security.
Hence, precautionary measures at airports and border crossings appear as part of a defense system that goes beyond the traditional concept of security, to include the management of points of entry in a world where biology intersects with information and patterns of indirect targeting.
History reveals that major epidemics have constituted turning points in the course of nations. The Black Death reshaped the economic and social structure of Europe, the Spanish Flu contributed to rearranging the balance of the international order after the First World War, while the Corona pandemic came to redefine the state and expose the fragility of global structures in the face of sudden shocks.
From this continuum, it becomes clear, according to #Wajh_Al_Haqiqa, that epidemics are a mirror reflecting the structure of the global system, and that fear has become a tool in the management of modern politics to direct behavior and shape awareness. From the plague to Corona and now to Hanta, the transformation does not lie in the viruses themselves, but in the way the world receives them, where danger is redefined and politics intersects with economics and media, making health preparedness part of the security system and the strength of the modern state.
Wishing you continued health and wellness.
Tuesday, May 12, 2026
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