What 91-DIVOC has taught me...
Coronavirus. That's the sentence. Honestly what new information is
there that hasn't been said a thousand times already? So instead of imparting
any knowledge about the subject, I want to share the knowledge it has left me
with.
The first nugget of information that I have learned from this is that we, as a species, are hilarious when it comes to our response to a pandemic. I remember hearing about this virus for the first time about three weeks ago. A WhatsApp message from my mother warning me to take ginger in my water to make sure I develop immunity to it and like most of these Whatsapp messages, I glanced at it and swiftly deleted the conversation after replying with a simple "hope you're okay, thanks for the advice". For me, this was a habit from my parents. The hypochondriacal message to alert me of a non-issue and some form of instruction on how to rid myself of the newest ailment taking over the world that week. But I soon realized that maybe mum was right. Not in the whole ginger advice of course, but rather about the seriousness of the disease.
Soon I saw news stories and articles about this exotic disease from Wuhan, a place that I didn't even know existed before this virus had struck. But, like most news, I chose to ignore the issue until it started to affect me (yes, I am aware of my selfishness in this instance). That day came about a week later when, upon my weekly shop at Tesco's, I couldn't find any toilet paper. It was my turn to get some for the flat but for the life of me I couldn't find it. 'It's okay' I thought, remembering that there was another supermarket nearby. So off I went again to source the paper of the toilet. Success! I thought as I found a twelve-pack and scurried to pay for it. 'That'll be £5 please' said the grinning shopkeeper as he scanned the packet. I laughed, remembering the countless time's shopkeepers would try and make a joke out of prices and so I laughed it off and paid with a ten-pound note, expecting to see at least seven pounds in return. But to my dismay, I was handed back £5... This is when I knew it was serious. Late for university and not in the mood to faff about, I took the stupidly expensive toilet paper and drove off.
It was later that evening that I properly sat down and searched for this 'COVID-19' and it was only then that I got it... this wasn't just a virus... it was an epidemic. Look, I don't even know what epidemic means but the fear of larger words with more gravitas and the shopkeeper's ransomous rate for toilet paper had convinced me that shit was about to hit the fan.
You see, little did I know that this had been an actual threat for a while with people already thinking the same thing that I had just had a euphoria about. For them, this was it. The plague, the end, the reckoning straight from hell. But their response was to buy loo roll, eggs and milk. Of course, there were the smarter ones who had actually watched a zombie movie or two who decided instead to get canned goods, those that wouldn't expire in the next week or two. But this was the time I learned my first lesson from Corona, loo roll matters so stock up!
It was a week after this that I was summoned home by my mother ahead of the lockdown rumours that had been floating about. Force-fed ginger and honey every day, I had nothing better to do than to research this virus and if it really would create the chaos that everyone was anticipating. You see, the last time we had a virus like this was a couple of years ago and it was called 'ebola', as I'm sure you're aware. That whole situation, however, didn't even hit us that bad so it kind of made me think that we'll be fine. 'I live in the UK for Christ's sakes, I'll be fine, this isn't the village', I remember saying to myself. But how wrong I could be...
Within days the number of deaths increased and the stats on the news rose from the tens to the hundreds and eventually hit the thousands. It was real. It was so real. Schools shut down, restaurants announced they would close and it felt like my whole world was going to change. Here came lesson number two. Don't think that you can out-evolve nature. You see, it was my privilege that brought me to the point of thinking that I was exempt from the virus. The embedded thought in my mind of developing vs developed country. Of healthcare and institutions being a shield of some sort. But despite all of this, we were hit with the disease. It's only when I read 'Sapiens'by Yuval Noah Harari that I finally thought about it... all of these institutions are fake. McDonald's, the NHS and everything are man-made and just like any manmade thing, they're susceptible to nature. The only thing that survives then is nature, as exhibited by the closures and the reduction of our highly complex society to scampering ants in the search of food and sustenance.
So it did happen. We did hit a lockdown. Pretty quickly too. Boris Johnson took to the cameras and announced that we weren't allowed to leave our houses. Well, not really. It was more of a 'don't leave unless you want to or have to' type of speech. But it was a speech nonetheless. The WhatsApp messages came flying in, full of a mixture of laughter, panic, annoyance and upset. Some laughed at the resolve and vowed to work against it with their every living breath whilst others decided to fortify their homes and adopt the advice like gospel. The news was terrifying though, was it that bad? Should I go out? What will happen? When will it end? These were a few of the questions I had then and still hold now. It's impossible to know the real extent of what's happening because the numbers are mostly retrospective, based on hospital cases, don't differentiate those who had other ailments to those who didn't and honestly just felt like numbers, nothing else.
The first week felt like a year and although I wasn't adhering to the advice completely, like most I felt the impact of lockdown on my life. I couldn't see friends, family or anyone else. My family would message me every day to make sure I was okay and I would do the same. I would step outside with hand sanitizer and douse my hands in it at any given opportunity. It was here that I realised lesson number three. You're not scared until everyone is scared. For me, before this whole thing, the thought of catching this disease, let alone death, was practically none. I was healthy and despite health complications, I had read enough misleading articles and used my confirmation bias to convince myself I was invincible. However, it was at the first story of someone my age dying that it kicked in. It was when I realised that this was a reality for my family and those I cared the most that the fear kicked in. It was when I had a sudden fit of coughing that I paused and the fear took over. The news of the young person passing away sent shockwaves through my social media and it was when I looked around and saw the fear of my friends, that the fear took over me too.
But soon the cough was gone and I returned to quarantine with a mission to better myself. Spanish language practice, essays, revision, exercise and the goal of reaching out to friends and family were all on the agenda for me. Until the morning hit and the laziness kicked in. Lesson four. We love to make excuses. 'Today I can't, I need to rest', 'Ugh, I have so much to do I need to rest and think about it later', 'Wow, that video is so cool, I promise I'll work after'. This endless cycle of 'tomorrow's, 'maybe's and 'later's is what taught me that we love excuses as humans. We love to blame things for taking us off course. Why do you not work? Well its the virus. I can't concentrate with all the stuff going on.
It was again, however, when a WhatsApp message appeared on my phone that I learnt my last lesson from Corona so far. It was a message from my brother this time saying that we're all going to clap for the workers of the NHS who risk their lives to save others'. Lesson number five. Zoom Out. It was this night that I sceptically left my house and, to my dissaray, heard the applause of everyone on my street echo and merge with the applause of the street adjacent. The most patriotic moment I have ever been a part of, this taught me that we truly are blessed to be where we are. It's important to sympathise with the thousands dying and the thousands trying to save thousands more from dying. It's important to look at the privileges we have rather than the things we crave. Clapping for the carers isn't enough... it's only when we respect them by staying inside and putting the onus onto ourselves that we show we care.
The first nugget of information that I have learned from this is that we, as a species, are hilarious when it comes to our response to a pandemic. I remember hearing about this virus for the first time about three weeks ago. A WhatsApp message from my mother warning me to take ginger in my water to make sure I develop immunity to it and like most of these Whatsapp messages, I glanced at it and swiftly deleted the conversation after replying with a simple "hope you're okay, thanks for the advice". For me, this was a habit from my parents. The hypochondriacal message to alert me of a non-issue and some form of instruction on how to rid myself of the newest ailment taking over the world that week. But I soon realized that maybe mum was right. Not in the whole ginger advice of course, but rather about the seriousness of the disease.
Soon I saw news stories and articles about this exotic disease from Wuhan, a place that I didn't even know existed before this virus had struck. But, like most news, I chose to ignore the issue until it started to affect me (yes, I am aware of my selfishness in this instance). That day came about a week later when, upon my weekly shop at Tesco's, I couldn't find any toilet paper. It was my turn to get some for the flat but for the life of me I couldn't find it. 'It's okay' I thought, remembering that there was another supermarket nearby. So off I went again to source the paper of the toilet. Success! I thought as I found a twelve-pack and scurried to pay for it. 'That'll be £5 please' said the grinning shopkeeper as he scanned the packet. I laughed, remembering the countless time's shopkeepers would try and make a joke out of prices and so I laughed it off and paid with a ten-pound note, expecting to see at least seven pounds in return. But to my dismay, I was handed back £5... This is when I knew it was serious. Late for university and not in the mood to faff about, I took the stupidly expensive toilet paper and drove off.
It was later that evening that I properly sat down and searched for this 'COVID-19' and it was only then that I got it... this wasn't just a virus... it was an epidemic. Look, I don't even know what epidemic means but the fear of larger words with more gravitas and the shopkeeper's ransomous rate for toilet paper had convinced me that shit was about to hit the fan.
You see, little did I know that this had been an actual threat for a while with people already thinking the same thing that I had just had a euphoria about. For them, this was it. The plague, the end, the reckoning straight from hell. But their response was to buy loo roll, eggs and milk. Of course, there were the smarter ones who had actually watched a zombie movie or two who decided instead to get canned goods, those that wouldn't expire in the next week or two. But this was the time I learned my first lesson from Corona, loo roll matters so stock up!
It was a week after this that I was summoned home by my mother ahead of the lockdown rumours that had been floating about. Force-fed ginger and honey every day, I had nothing better to do than to research this virus and if it really would create the chaos that everyone was anticipating. You see, the last time we had a virus like this was a couple of years ago and it was called 'ebola', as I'm sure you're aware. That whole situation, however, didn't even hit us that bad so it kind of made me think that we'll be fine. 'I live in the UK for Christ's sakes, I'll be fine, this isn't the village', I remember saying to myself. But how wrong I could be...
Within days the number of deaths increased and the stats on the news rose from the tens to the hundreds and eventually hit the thousands. It was real. It was so real. Schools shut down, restaurants announced they would close and it felt like my whole world was going to change. Here came lesson number two. Don't think that you can out-evolve nature. You see, it was my privilege that brought me to the point of thinking that I was exempt from the virus. The embedded thought in my mind of developing vs developed country. Of healthcare and institutions being a shield of some sort. But despite all of this, we were hit with the disease. It's only when I read 'Sapiens'by Yuval Noah Harari that I finally thought about it... all of these institutions are fake. McDonald's, the NHS and everything are man-made and just like any manmade thing, they're susceptible to nature. The only thing that survives then is nature, as exhibited by the closures and the reduction of our highly complex society to scampering ants in the search of food and sustenance.
So it did happen. We did hit a lockdown. Pretty quickly too. Boris Johnson took to the cameras and announced that we weren't allowed to leave our houses. Well, not really. It was more of a 'don't leave unless you want to or have to' type of speech. But it was a speech nonetheless. The WhatsApp messages came flying in, full of a mixture of laughter, panic, annoyance and upset. Some laughed at the resolve and vowed to work against it with their every living breath whilst others decided to fortify their homes and adopt the advice like gospel. The news was terrifying though, was it that bad? Should I go out? What will happen? When will it end? These were a few of the questions I had then and still hold now. It's impossible to know the real extent of what's happening because the numbers are mostly retrospective, based on hospital cases, don't differentiate those who had other ailments to those who didn't and honestly just felt like numbers, nothing else.
The first week felt like a year and although I wasn't adhering to the advice completely, like most I felt the impact of lockdown on my life. I couldn't see friends, family or anyone else. My family would message me every day to make sure I was okay and I would do the same. I would step outside with hand sanitizer and douse my hands in it at any given opportunity. It was here that I realised lesson number three. You're not scared until everyone is scared. For me, before this whole thing, the thought of catching this disease, let alone death, was practically none. I was healthy and despite health complications, I had read enough misleading articles and used my confirmation bias to convince myself I was invincible. However, it was at the first story of someone my age dying that it kicked in. It was when I realised that this was a reality for my family and those I cared the most that the fear kicked in. It was when I had a sudden fit of coughing that I paused and the fear took over. The news of the young person passing away sent shockwaves through my social media and it was when I looked around and saw the fear of my friends, that the fear took over me too.
But soon the cough was gone and I returned to quarantine with a mission to better myself. Spanish language practice, essays, revision, exercise and the goal of reaching out to friends and family were all on the agenda for me. Until the morning hit and the laziness kicked in. Lesson four. We love to make excuses. 'Today I can't, I need to rest', 'Ugh, I have so much to do I need to rest and think about it later', 'Wow, that video is so cool, I promise I'll work after'. This endless cycle of 'tomorrow's, 'maybe's and 'later's is what taught me that we love excuses as humans. We love to blame things for taking us off course. Why do you not work? Well its the virus. I can't concentrate with all the stuff going on.
It was again, however, when a WhatsApp message appeared on my phone that I learnt my last lesson from Corona so far. It was a message from my brother this time saying that we're all going to clap for the workers of the NHS who risk their lives to save others'. Lesson number five. Zoom Out. It was this night that I sceptically left my house and, to my dissaray, heard the applause of everyone on my street echo and merge with the applause of the street adjacent. The most patriotic moment I have ever been a part of, this taught me that we truly are blessed to be where we are. It's important to sympathise with the thousands dying and the thousands trying to save thousands more from dying. It's important to look at the privileges we have rather than the things we crave. Clapping for the carers isn't enough... it's only when we respect them by staying inside and putting the onus onto ourselves that we show we care.
Very insightful. It's good to learn these lessons amongst these times. Thank you for your overview.
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