Thoughts in the time of COVID-19
In March 2020, the entire world slowed down. The COVID-19 Coronavirus began its campaign from Wuhan, China, and now it’s practically everywhere. It has even reached us here in Sri Lanka. Most businesses, including mine, closed down temporarily to try and stop the spread of the virus early on last week. The government declared an island-wide curfew from Friday, that will be going on probably for the whole of next week, with intermittent breaks for people to buy rations (that’s gonna be a heck of a spectacle I’m sure).
For me, it has been fascinating to observe the reactions of people I know to this whole situation. Most people didn’t really care about the whole thing in the beginning, brushing it off as a simple flu or some kind of passing infection that won’t really affect them. Actually, the fact that I was closing my business for this was also met with some resistance and even a certain degree of mockery (“oooh are you scared?” etc).
But we did what we had to do. It’s interesting to see how the perceptions of the very people who had this attitude change over the past few days, especially with the global death toll rising.
Personally, I don’t feel a lot of fear about this situation; but I do feel very cautious about avoiding the chance of infection and spreading this further to my social circles. People were quick to say things like “oh it won’t affect me, my immune system is strong” or “only old or people with respiratory problems have to worry about it”. If you ask me, that’s a very self-centered approach to the whole thing. It’s easy to forget the big picture I suppose.
Then there are those who organized social events in the past week. I’m not necessarily talking about the Roy-Tho big match itself, but actually the events that happened in the week that followed before the government declared curfew. A lot of people have gone ahead with religious events, seminars and parties completely ignoring the situation. I guess they thought that they won’t really be affected by it.
I’m not sure how this is going to go forward in the future. If I have to make a prediction, I think that we will all, at some point, be infected by this new virus (and many more viruses to come in the future). I think that with some time and work, we will be able to combat this effectively and nullify its effects somewhat. But in the meantime, a lot more people will be infected, and some people will die. People from our immediate circles. I sound like a total morbid case when I say that, but I guess we all have to accept the reality of the situation.
What do we do? The best thing to do now is to co-operate with your local government in curbing the spread of the virus, to slow it down, and allow the scientists to work on vaccines/cures without being overwhelmed by new infections.
On a personal level, I think we should all focus on our own health and hygiene. We should keep our immune systems as strong as possible because in the case we do get infected (which is pretty likely despite our best efforts), we can at least survive it and continue to function. If we ever feel like we are infected, self-quarantine is a must, along with informing your local governing body immediately.
This is not the first time we as humans have experienced pandemics, and this won’t be the last. We have to ride out this storm and figure out how best to live our days in the future.
Besides, there’s climate change to deal with now too.
Stay safe out there, friends. đŸ™‚
MindWind 