The COVID Crisis

All of you would know about the current situation in the world - COVID-19 is ravaging Earth and is obliterating any sense of normality. No-one can predict what will happen over the next few days. Just over a third of the population of Earth is currently in lockdown, trapped within the four walls of their houses 'until further notice'; I know how it feels - in the UK, we have been in lockdown for around a week now.

The roads are empty, parks barren, most public spaces are deserted. Just yesterday, the number of cases worldwide crossed one million. One million people have been affected by this sinister disease, but that's not the end of the bad news - the death toll worldwide passed 50,000 yesterday, and it will continue to rise uncontrollably unless we stand together.

In order to stop this savage virus, you must follow the guidance your respective governments and health services put out. The symptoms of COVID-19, as you might already know, are a dry, continuous cough (this means that you are coughing very often and NO mucus or phlegm leaves your mouth), and a fever above 37.8ºC (100ºF). If you are exhibiting these symptoms, you must self-isolate for a week. Following all of the rules, in addition to socially distancing (avoiding big groups or gatherings and staying at least 6ft or 2m away from others when you are with them) are making a difference and might be the difference between beating this virus and losing at its hands.

We also must applaud the healthcare soldiers, fighting on the front lines for our safety and future, despite the apparent shortage of PPE and ventilators, as well as other medical equipment such as COVID testing kits. They are working hard, day in and day out, for us and we need to recognise that. Not only this, we need to recognise the engineers and private corporations who have stepped in to develop new technologies and produce more PPE and masks for us and the healthcare services. Already, new forms of ventilators are being rolled out and prototyped, as well as vaccines and treatments being tested. Without these new developments, we would be struggling to cope with the masses of cases that are appearing every day.

In addition to this, I think I have to address the matter of public hysteria. We are seeing reports of members of the public striking out at the police and health workers. For example, yesterday, there was reports of people in India throwing rocks at healthcare professionals who were attempting to test people in a city. We need to remember that they are just looking out for public welfare and we need to respect that they are doing their civic duty by caring for us. There may be a lot of pent up unrest about being locked within your household but we need to be patient and wait this out. I understand this completely - it feels like I am an insignificant part of a game of Plague Inc. and I have no choice but the be at the mercy of the people making the choices, but we need to persevere through this and calm down.

We will defeat coronavirus. We will come out of this stronger. We will win.