COVID-19: Is it really a pandemic?

The latest talk of every village, town, city and country is no longer about going to war, climate change or even Brexit for the Brits. All eyes are on the ability to cope with a new threat, one that doesn't negotiate or discriminate.

We've all heard rumours or conspiracies as to how it all began but we cannot ignore the harsh reality of what it's doing to us now. We will never know the truth but I hope we can find a way to move forward without wiping out the human race. On one side you have the brave doctors, nurses and medical staff working tirelessly to help those in dire need and putting their own life at risk. What makes it difficult is the fact that not everybody really understands the severity of what is happening. They continue with their everyday life. Just look at the stupidity of young people in Miami who didn't want to put their spring break plans on hold! Nobody cares if you've been planning this for months and you think you're invincible. In honesty, their lack of brain cells warrants them to be wiped out by the virus as they will bring very little to the table in the future anyway. Even country leaders who should be intelligent enough to understand the disease failed to acknowledge it and brushed it away until they began seeing the death toll closer to home. One even had the audacity to label the pandemic as the 'Chinese virus'. If the virus hasn't impacted us enough, then the spread of bigotry, hate and fear mongering has.

Times like this really puts life into perspective, when you think the worst and feel you will come face to face with something that will kill you or a loved one. Yet this is happening everyday and in so many other ways but we never really feared it. Looking at death rates per day for other diseases in comparison to Coronavirus (based on early stats) shows we shouldn't be scared, yet panic buying, media fear mongering and other behaviours like locking down cities, states and even whole countries have snowballed.

Many can self-isolate with the wonders of working from home. It's business as usual as life goes on. We can order our panic buy deliveries online, eat in, call friends and relatives, bake cakes, cook the ton of pasta we stocked up on, binge on Netflix box sets, watch movies, enjoy quality family time sharing stories, play board games like it's 1999 and frankly happily not see people for a few weeks. I often wanted a clear diary for the weekend and it looks like my wish has been granted without a genie. Social detoxing is a good thing. But what's most important is you're slowing the spread of the virus by doing so.

A number of businesses will see an astronomical slump in sales such as those in the aviation, oil, financial, retail (excluding Supermarkets), hospitality, entertainment and catering industries to name a few. Most significantly, it will be those where working from home is not possible or even in businesses where they could have worked from home with the right tools and technology but failed to provide it in time for staff. I expect a number of businesses to cease to exist from the impact of COVID-19. It has already been suggested as the worst economic disaster in history compared to the likes of 2008’s recession, 9/11 and the great depression. No country is safe from this global crisis. It will go down as the pandemic that changed the world with a terrifying death toll and infection rate. It will be remembered as a time when the future generation will be bemused at our panic buys for pasta and loo roll. We all will know of someone or be that someone who had the disease and it breaks me to say it, either recovered or died.

Whilst it's such a sad and surreal time to be alive, we must be thankful for the time we get to spend with loved ones and do the activities we always put on hold whilst we were on the daily grind or rat race. So, take the time to finally do that 2,000-piece puzzle, knit, paint or cook your first meal from that recipe book you were given 5 birthdays ago. Who else has daily WhatsApp chats and shares memes to lighten the mood or checks in on family more frequently to see how they are coping with self isolation/social distancing? All of this has to be the bright side to the darkness we are encountering.

Here are some quotes for thought:

"This is, above all, a human crisis that calls for solidarity." - Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary-General

"We want to look back on this time and remember how, in the face of a generation defining moment, we undertook a collective national effort - and stood together. It's on all of us." - Rishi Sunak, Chancellor of the Exchequer

"Your grandparents were asked to go to war. You are being asked to sit on the couch. You can do this." - Unknown

"If courage is contagious, ignorance is pandemic." - Unknown

Once the dust settles (I hope in my lifetime), the world should unite over this pandemic to solve the issues they fought over before the virus broke out. You'd hope in the face of losing everything, we'd cherish our finite time on earth, remove barriers or perceived differences and build a world fit for our children to thrive in.