ABSTRACT
Pakistan, as a low-income country, faces severe economic and political challenges that have resulted in a lack of funds for its healthcare budget allotment, which put the country at a higher risk of being overwhelmed by the pandemic. Public responsiveness to preventive measures helps to lessen the intensity of viral dispersion frequency and diminishes the death rate from COVID-19, yet such responsiveness has been sorely lacking in Pakistan, especially in its rural areas. The origin of the virus remained very controversial among our interlocutors. Some expressed conspiracy theories such as, “It is the start of a biowar among power states.” A male PhD professor, who is a 42-year-old well-known statistician currently working at a well-respected university, stated, “The third world war will happen via the Internet and this spread of disease is part of that.” A young female student expressed the Pakistani cultural belief in Qismat when she stated, “Our time of death is pre-written.
