So, COVID-19 is just a flu? Yeah, nah (as we say in New Zealand). COVID-19 didn't exist in humans until the end of last year. Since then, 1,343,153 have died (3.39 pm, 8/22/20 Worldometer). That is, 1,343,153 people who may or may not have died in the interim, but have been lost because COVID-19 hastened their death. At the moment, about one person dies every minute in the US. And this pandemic is still going strong and on the increase in many nations. Who knows what the final death toll will be?
We all know what kind of outcry there is when one horrific event occurs that takes lives. In NZ, we have had a few disasters in the last few years. Twenty-one people died on 9 Dec 2019 in an eruption on White Island. Fifty-one people died on 15 March 2019 in the mosque attack in Christchurch. Earlier, 185 died in an earthquake in Christchurch, 22 February 2011. And we all remember 9/11 when 2977 people died in 2001. The previous worst disaster in the 21st century was the 2010 Haiti Earthquake, 12 January 2010, when 316,000 people died. I could go on listing all sorts of horrific events in NZ or the world where all of us were overwhelmed and we had wall to wall coverage on the media for weeks and months.
Well, COVID-19 is the equivalent of 63,960 White Island eruptions; 26,336 mosque attacks; 7,260 Christchurch earthquakes; 451 9/11 attacks; and 4.25 Haiti earthquakes and counting.
Yet, we have a good number of people who write the Corona virus off as merely the flu and consider society should just get on as normal, albeit with common sense.
Sorry, that doesn't cut it. We have to take it seriously, do whatever we have to do to stop this disaster that is taking the lives of so many. If that means more lockdowns, wearing masks, social distancing, signing in with our apps as we move around the place, and washing hands, let's just do it. We have the power to limit this thing, so let's do what we have to do.
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