Hey you,
Are you currently on Spring Break?
Before you head on out to the beach, I just have one question. It's a rhetorical one so you don't even have to answer it. Why are you so dumb?
Are you currently forwarding messages on your couch?
Before you press send, I have just one question. It's a rhetorical one so you don't even have to answer it. Why are you so ignorant?
Are you currently traveling on your cheap ticket?
Before you board the flight, I have just one question. It's a rhetorical one so you don't even have to answer it. Why are you the way you are?
Are you currently at home?
Since you're already bored and got nothing to do, I just have one thing to say. Thank you for keeping yourself and those around you safe. Thank you for maintaining social distancing.
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I didn't want to write about Coronavirus because it's such a sensitive topic at the moment. The only place one should go for their COVID-19 updates is official news channels and their respective government updates. I won't be writing about the virus itself, but about the precautions that you should take into consideration. This chapter is for those that do not take this seriously but also for those that are taking it way too seriously but with their own rules.
For those living under a rock, Coronavirus is an infectious disease that is spread globally. It was initially an epidemic, which is when a disease spreads rapidly among a group of people across a population (aka one country probs) within a short period of time. This was the time where the world could continue going out and not many people would bat an eye. It's fine right? China was the only country affected, our hearts went out to China, we prayed for their speedy recovery, and continued going to parties, weddings, and traveling around the world. Life was rough, but still going on. Now this disease, turned into a pandemic, which is when the disease epidemic starts affecting multiple continents AKA worldwide. This is when the world goes out, and we should start raising our voices and stopping them. Our hearts can only go out to so many countries, we can't even pray for speedy recoveries because this doesn't have a cure and the hospitals can only take in so many people at a time.
WHO (World Health Organization) has declared COVID-19 to be a global pandemic. I repeat.
G L O B A L P A N D E M I C.
Louder?
GLOBAL PANDEMIC.
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How on earth is this something that is not being taken seriously? How do you still want to celebrate spring break? How do you still want to go to a bar? How do you still want to go clubbing? How do you still want to interact with strangers? H O W.
No one is asking you to stop socializing. No one says cut off your friendships. No one says cut ties with the family. We are so blessed to be living in an age where we have the Internet and we have smartphones and we have governments that are doing their best to keep us safe. What are we doing in return? Going out, meeting friends surrounded by strangers, not knowing who they've been with and adding to the risk of carrying the virus around? SIRS AND MA'AMS, PLEASE STAY HOME. Also if you must, then go to a place where you know the people and know who they've been interacting with and know that they take the quarantine situation seriously. Don't go to a party, where you don't know anyone.. please. Take the precautions that you can. I know some people are working (which hello employers, please care for us and let us work from home as well) but that doesn't mean being close to your coworkers. Maintain distance, be safe at all times please.
But then also - for those uncles and aunties that sit around as if they're hired by WhatsApp as Chief Forwarding Officers - what on earth are you guys doing? Everyone's already worried with this virus spreading across the countries, we don't have time to worry about the rumors you are spreading. Where is this pesticide coming from that the governments are spraying down across all cities through special helicopters in the sky? It sounds like your 5 year old grandson has written this as part of this English class. Use your brain a little bit, you're much older and much wiser than we are. You always ask us to fact-check our stories because you don't believe us half of the time we speak. Please practice what you preach, fact-check things before spreading such rumors. We're really tired of you telling us to eat 2 oranges a day to be safe from Coronavirus. We're tired of you telling us to stop watching Netflix because headaches can cause Coronavirus and we're definitely tired of you asking us who allowed the virus to enter the country.
Please bear in mind that these are the same uncles and aunties that will sit with 5-10 people every evening while sipping on some tea and exchanging their daily gossip. The irony.
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Another important issue that I think it is super essential to shed some light upon is hygiene.
How am I finding out that people haven't been washing their hands? What caveman behavior is this? There are cavemen rolling in their graves in angst because they did so much, and humanity has come so far, and you're out here not washing your hands? How are people saying 'oh don't worry, we've washed our hands today'...
TODAY? What have you been doing before that? Can you imagine how many people haven't been washing their hands properly. At least COVID-19 got people to apply rule 1 of basic hygiene.
Please wash your hands at all times, please maintain extra social distance from me, wash your bum while you're at it and sanitize your phones. Thanks.
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On a realer note, another issue arising due to COVID-19 is the affect it has on everyones mental health. Of course it threatens our physical health, but our mental health gets affected by it too and we need to look after it. Quarantine makes it a lot more difficult to distract yourself from your existing mental health issues. Your mindset is switched from 'living life' to 'surviving life', it triggers feelings of hopelessness because you're not sure what's going to happen. Uncertainty is at an all time high, job security is at an all time low. You're fearing for the safety of your loved ones, your anxiety is increasing and you're put into a situation where social withdrawal is compulsory for your physical safety. It's rough. It's tough. It's not going to get easier, but you will get stronger.
I want to remind everyone, and myself, that social distancing is distancing yourselves from others physically so that you are not at risk of carrying or transmitting the virus. By no means, is social distancing meant to keep you away from your loved ones. So please, check up on your friends and family, make sure they're doing okay. I've said this earlier but I'm happy to say it as many times as needed - we are more than blessed to have the ability to communicate with each other from the comfort of our homes. Use the blessing to your advantage. Tell people how you feel, even if it's a negative feeling. Tell people how you feel, even if you're over-optimistic about the situation. But for crying out loud, don't use social media to tell us how you've gone to your boss's house for a house-party and have the next image say "#SocialDistancing" because I might break my quarantine, take one for the team (Team World) and come whoop your ass for such negligent behavior.
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Final Thoughts
To young people that don't take this seriously:
Please don't go to crowded places and increase my blood pressure because of your stupidity. Please use your last 2 brain cells. Please stay at home.
To older people that take this seriously in their own weird way:
Please don't forward messages and increase my blood pressure because of your ignorance. Please use your remaining brain cells. Please stay at home.
To employers:
Don't be so hard on your employees during this time. Everyone's worried. Everyone's got families to feed, everyone's living through this uncertainty. It's a challenging time, but we need to prove to each other that we will get through this together. You don't want to be the company who is known as the one who let go of their employees because they were too uncertain of what was going to happen. Try to make it work. And obviously employees, don't misuse the 'Work from Home'. Smash those deadlines, do your best! This might be our chance to prove to the corporate world that we are beyond capable of being productive and efficient while working from home. Post-Corona, we should be able to continue working from home if needed.
To corporations:
Be creative - show the world how you can promote social distancing and make it fun. Hats off to #Netflix for creating #NetflixParty (even though it might be an old thing, not sure?). But everyone else that takes money for our services, be creative, find ways to keep us happy and entertained at home. It's not an easy job, we're a bunch of demanding people but when there's a crisis, we'll take what we can get. I kind of want to include a cheesy line about diamonds are made under pressure but I don't know what the correct wording is.
To the rest of the world:
Focus on the positives - if there are over 200k cases around the world, focus on the percentage of deaths and percentage of recoveries. Just because there are 200k cases, does not mean 200k people have passed away. All hospitals, doctors, nurses and officials are doing their best. So let us not make life hard for them and maintain social distancing and proceed towards flattening the curve as it's being advised.
I would also like to thank all the delivery guys for being heroes. Delivering us our food, groceries, medicines, pet food, clothes, shopping, snacks. God bless everyone working for us to ensure we live comfortable lives during this Global Pandemic.
Thanks for reading my Ted Talk.
Remember - We're all in this together! (Maybe Vanessa Hudgens isn't, but we are)
Stay safe, wash your hands, take care of those around you.
Air kisses and hugs,
Sara Haseeb
xo
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