Please stop minimising COVID-19 impacts, especially if you’re not vulnerable

Everyone is having strong emotional reactions about the present crisis.  For some, it’s about the hype, for others it’s about the negativity, and for others again, it’s about the amount it’s in the news.  Many people are also beginning to panic.  It has everyone’s attention.

For those who are seemingly not bothered, what about those who are really vulnerable?

What about the seven people every 200 who will die from this virus? 

What about the families for whom have at least one vulnerable family member?  And that’s most of us!

It’s easy if we’re 30 or 40 or 50 to underplay the situation.  We’re not centrally at risk.  There are the 70- and-80-year-olds who are downplaying it because they’re trying hard to imagine it’s not going to happen to them.  Then there’s the person who is already susceptible to pneumonia.

I have a person in my mind, and I wonder if it would pay right now as you read these words for you to have a person who is vulnerable in your mind, too.

This is the biggest thing happening in our lifetime.  Right now.  That’s no hype.  It’s not being hysterical.  It’s not an overreaction.  This is real world in real time with real lives.

And it’s not centrally about the health threat the virus poses.  It’s about the economic destruction that’s happening right now.  Ask yourself how long this lasts.  Nobody has an answer for that question, so many are too afraid to ask it.

We come back to that vulnerable person in our midst.  A mother, a father, a grandparent, someone with a pertinent disability, the immunosuppressed... and so many more.

Before we minimise the current pandemic, let’s consider the truth of our words, and instead choose to consider those who are dying.

We’re presently in a phase where many eyes are being opened wide.  Where will we be in two days, two weeks, two months?  We can’t answer that question because two weeks ago we were worried about toilet paper.

It’s more than toilet paper now.  It’s about jobs, and homes, and having enough of everything, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

We must start to seriously think of those who may die of this virus and take all steps to support them.

And we must stop minimising the impacts of COVID-19 because it is “less deadly” than other diseases.

We’re talking about real people who have real hopes to stay alive, and the thought of death naturally terrifies many of them.

Of those seven people in 200 that are dying of COVID-19, just about every single one of them has family members who love and care for them, and let’s especially think of those who don’t.

These are someone’s mother or father or grandfather or grandmother.  These are fellow human beings.

Photo by Lucrezia Carnelos on Unsplash