Life goes on

Let me take a moment to set the record straight. The coronavirus outbreak has affected all of China, Beijing included. But things are not nearly as bad as some people might have you think.

I teach school in China, and am currently living in Beijing during the Spring Festival. After spending a couple of days sequestered in my apartment, I decided that I had to get out and take a walk.

I donned my mask and heavy coat and headed out. What I found was not a completely deserted street, and certainly not any signs of an impending apocalypse. Things had slowed down, to be sure, but that was about it.

Other people, like me, were outside, and most wore masks. There were fewer cares on the streets, to be sure, but there were still cars. The buses were running, like usual, albeit with fewer passengers than normal.

I did not venture down to the subway, but I would imagine that the scene would be similar there. When I returned to China on January 23, I rode the subway home. Yes, there were far less people than normal on the trains, but there were still people. And not everyone wore masks.

The one thing that everyone did do was wash their hands. I wore gloves when I went to the supermarket, to avoid touching the shopping carts with my bare hands. But even the supermarket was pretty much business as usual. The aisles were still stocked, and the meats were still displayed in their usual way.

The only real difference was that I was greeted at the door by a man with a temperature gun, who took my temperature before I was allowed to enter the store. And he denied entrance to anyone who was not wearing a mask.

I took a long walk down by the river, and passed several people doing the same thing. There were substantially fewer people than I was accustomed to, but there were still people. And there were even a number of hard-core joggers.

So no, the coronavirus is not the beginning of the zombie apocalypse. It is a very serious thing, yes. People are dying, and you have to take precautions. But it is not the end of the world.

China is doing everything it can to combat the spread of the virus, and is probably in a unique position to do so. Can you imagine the United States government quarantining 30 million people? It wouldn't happen. But China has done so, and its efforts are sure to pay off in the long run.

Am I afraid? A little. But I am not ready to stop living my life for fear that something bad might happen. Life goes on, and so do I.