Coronavirus: a Test of Our Humanity

by Stephen Grossman, www.haloglobalresponse.com

The coronavirus, together with an already devastating seasonal flu and other virulent diseases, is a tsunami that has or will crash on every shore of our planet, destructively sweeping away lives and businesses and possibly whole communities with its unrelenting force. 

But as governments and health organisations around the world misstep, remain unprepared and ill-equipped, cover up and/or mislead the public in self-serving efforts to stay in power or to keep the markets buoyant or to serve short term business interests, in a manner totally opposite of how Ebola, for instance, was handled and contained, and as fear grips people and xenophobia (an equally virulent and malignant disease sweeping the world lately) takes on new momentum, and as pandemic-panic profiteers kick in to high gear with exhorbitant pricing for masks or flood the market with fraudulent products or hoarding/stock piling key essential supplies in order to extort people in need, this pandemic will test our humanity as much as it will test our immune systems and resilience.

Governments and government institutions that cannot or will not rise immediately to the real needs of its people will fall. Diseases like coronavirus thrive in unsanitary, heavily populated, inter-connected societies, which accounts for the vast majority of our planet these days; and contagions love ignorance and inaction most of all. Truth may hurt, but it saves lives. Decisive actions that are wisely made might be met with resistance and can hurt really bad initially but if done correctly and at the right time, may just save lives, including saving the economy. And isn’t protecting our society and keeping it running smoothly what we hired our politicians to do in the first place?

But the burden to protect and to survive these kinds of global attacks require not only governments and institutions but every single citizen to their best for one another.

This should be a time for people to look after their families, their co-workers, their neighbours. This should be a time for empathy and communal support. This should be a time to ban together to make sure each and every community has the medicines and food and other supplies necessary to continue functioning.

Everyone at some point will see their business effected. Already certain industries, not only travel and travel related businesses, are laying off workers or going bankrupt. That is in a matter of only 2 or 3 months of this illness being made public. Workers without jobs are humans without spirit and without healthcare, in some countries. Executives and business owners eventually will fall victim to the same fate. And the chain reaction begins. Businesses have or fear having financial difficulties and they stop paying vendors, stop investing in projects, stop moving forward. And the chain reaction kicks in. Primary businesses and all their co-dependent cottage industries will fall like dominoes, leaving a wake of unemployment and despair, which will further feed the cycle and will worsen people’s spirits and therefore their immune systems and the bloody microscopic parasites win. What’s bad for one of us is bad for all of us.

Selfishness, xenophobia, ignorance and malice will be our Achilles heal. We will lose this battle with enemies we cannot see or control if we don’t stick together. If we don’t use our massive collective intelligence and resourcefulness and kindness, we will lose. 

Resources:

www.who.int

www.cdc.gov

www.gov.uk/government/organisations/public-health-england

www.internationalsos.com