It amazes me, weeks into what has quickly become a global pandemic and, in my eyes, a defining event in all our lives (more so than even September 11th, 2001) that there are people out there trying to live their lives like nothing is happening — as if this isn’t something to be concerned about. I understand in January or very early February, when news coming into the United States about COVID-19 was a bit sparse and it still looked like one of the many other diseases that we were warned about in the past but nothing ever really came of. We had all grown to think this would be another one of those, but it wasn’t.
Once it hit the states, the government was, to put it nicely, slow to react. As I said before, too little too late, and in the past two weeks the virus has begun here in the states to spread at an incredible pace, and only now are areas actually locking down, but even then only partially — nearly every business that sells anything anyone may “need” is being classed as essential, albeit with modifications to how they run business. This all should have been done weeks ago, but only now are many communities, after hundreds are verified infected, finally beginning to shut things down.
That, of course, comes after a solid two weeks of panic buying, something which helps no one in the end. While I say people should take this seriously, panic buying because you’re afraid of everything closing isn’t exactly what I, or anyone who understands these things, would have in mind. The world isn’t just going to suddenly shut down, but it would have been better for things to have more quickly begun to taper off and better support for citizens be planned. That’s it’s own article, thought, but my point is panicking doesn’t help anyone — including yourself.
Others, however, are treating this like there’s nothing wrong. Gamers went to Gamestop and the like to pick up the most recent Animal Crossing game seeming not too concerned with the possibility of contracting the virus. They just had to have that game. Still others are going to stores in areas that aren’t locked down and acting like things are completely normal, like there is no cause for alarm, still getting into close knit groups, seemingly showing no concern for the fact that even one person who may be infected and contagious could make the whole group sick, and each of them would continue to spread it.
I see people already whining and crying that they are “tired of hearing about Coronavirus.” The complaints about sporting events being canceled started day zero, as if the safety of thousands of people means less than watching some overpaid tall people bounce a ball. The idea of having to stay home (something many people, such as myself, prefer to do) is so horrible, and some of these people are so entitled, they think they shouldn’t be inconvenienced. Social Distancing is the key to slowing / stopping the spread of Covid-19, which will buy us time to handle the already infected — the medical systems of any given area can only handle so much.
You have 20-something college kids going on “spring break” anyway and sure enough contracting the disease. You have stores refusing to close, go contactless, or seemingly do anything to help their employees until municipalities force them to. You have the aforementiond customers walking into stores like nothing is going on, showing no concern. Again, I’m not saying panic, but you should at least show some caution in this — even if you think you will be fine, you don’t know who you could infect who may not survive.
This is all just what I’ve seen, though, and experienced. All I’m saying is please take this seriously. Stay home. Only go out if you have to. Take precautions, but don’t panic. Stay distant from people, wash your hands constantly, especially when out. Find something creative to occupy your time. If something you really like like sporting events has been impacted, get over it – sports will come back, friends and family who may contract the virus and die won’t. For fellow gamers, buy games digitally and download at appropriate hours, replay old games or finally catch up on games you never did play before.
Just please, take this seriously if you haven’t already. I’m not optimistic about the outcome of all this and we all need to do what we can to make it through this together, to give ourselves the best chance possible.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/index.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019%E2%80%9320_coronavirus_pandemic