To be very honest, never in my wildest nightmares had I ever imagined that I will see a pandemic of this scale in my life. Nothing is normal. From an outside point of view it feels so. But if I analyse it d/dx it feels a bit surreal and I sometimes feel that I am in a dream. But I am not. The entire species of homosapiens are not. There are many thoughts which have been running through my mind for several days. Some thoughts have been put down on various social media platforms. But not everybody would have been able to read them. So I am collecting some of those thoughts and am writing down those. Anybody who will read this post - wherever you are on the globe my regards to you.
Most importantly follow the health advisories issued by WHO and your local and central health ministries WITHOUT FAIL. Covid19 is NOT a simple flu. It is a serious and very contagious respiratory disease which is related to SARS. It's name itself says that. The virus is called sars-cov-2. It is very important that you understand the risk and be prepared and be careful of your habits.
1) Please be safe, stay where you are do not travel unless it is very very very urgent. May such urgencies not arise now.
2) Wash your hands with soap and water. If you can't access those please use alcohol based hand sanitisers.
3) Keep respiratory hygenie - cover your nose and mouth with a disposable tissue when you sneeze and cough and dump the tissue into a closed bin. Sneeze into your elbow if you do not have a tissue.
4) Do not touch anything and touch your eyes, nose and mouth without washing hands. If possible do not touch your face unnecessarily.
5) Always keep atleast 1 meter distance between you and others. Do not go to any crowded places. Many places are under lockdown. Even then if you have to go to buy groceries make sure that you keep minimum 1 meter distance from the people you encounter.
6) Take care of your mental health. It is very necessary to pin point the fact that you might be getting affected by all the depressing news and might be feeling anxious. Identify this and confide it to your loved ones. There is no shame in this.
I have no children, but WHO has given some very specific guidelines to address the anxieties of children during this time. Please read them.
Here are some of the important links to WHO and other UN pages on covid19.
https://www.who.int/
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public
https://www.unicef.org/coronavirus/covid-19
https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/in-focus/in-focus-gender-equality-in-covid-19-response
https://www.unhcr.org/news/latest/2020/3/5e7dab2c4/qa-access-health-services-key-halting-covid-19-saving-refugee-lives.html
Here are some of the important links to WHO and other UN pages on covid19.
https://www.who.int/
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public
https://www.unicef.org/coronavirus/covid-19
https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/in-focus/in-focus-gender-equality-in-covid-19-response
https://www.unhcr.org/news/latest/2020/3/5e7dab2c4/qa-access-health-services-key-halting-covid-19-saving-refugee-lives.html
Most importantly follow the health advisories issued by WHO and your local and central health ministries WITHOUT FAIL. Covid19 is NOT a simple flu. It is a serious and very contagious respiratory disease which is related to SARS. It's name itself says that. The virus is called sars-cov-2. It is very important that you understand the risk and be prepared and be careful of your habits.
7) Always listen to credible and credible sources only. There are so many whatsapp forwards claiming magical cures, "instructions from people who call themselves doctors" etc. DO NOT believet them. If you happen to be a person who tends to gather information via whatsapp, send "hi" to the official whatsapp number of WHO.
https://www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/detail/who-health-alert-brings-covid-19-facts-to-billions-via-whatsapp
The number for English is "+41 79 893 18 92".
Keep checking the websites of the health departments of your country and states for correct information. Follow the verified social media accounts (with blue ticks ofcourse) of your ministries and local governing bodies. They are much much useful than the fake whatsapp forwards you recieve. If you cannot live without information from whatsapp please follow WHO and the official whatsapps of your respective health ministries.
8) There will be a lot of scams during this time. So beware of them.
9) Shopping - Though many places are under lockdown people will have to go to get groceries at some point of time or the other. Make sure that you stock enough food and can avoid frequenting shops unnecessarily (but don't horde things other humans also need food items). Make sure that you go shopping at times when there is less crowd (this is for people living in places where there is a possibility of people panicking and crowds occuring in the wake of lockdowns).
Remember this is is an unprecedented thing. None of us ever imagined that such a thing would happen during our life time. To be honest I though that climate change would kill us soon via floods, fires, rising temperatures and droughts, but the possibility of such a severe pandemic had never occured to me. The new normal will be a shock in the beginning, as we get used to it, things will work out. So do not panic. Stay calm. The entire human species going through this.
But while staying calm be aware of the facts and take the lessons from the places which have been hit severely and do your bit to keep yourself and your locality safe. If all such localities remain safe then the states and countries will remain safer. So starting from yourself practise it. It will be hard. I, a person with no social life, already a socially distant person am finding it difficult to stay away from the nominal amount of human contact I usually have. Even for me a little bit of human contact is necessary. So I can understand that very social people with large friend circles, who love surrounding themselves with people will find this very very difficult. But if you have to have all those circles safe, you need to endure this temporary pain of having to stay at home. Like those posts say, yes you are privilaged you have a home to stay.
But let me comeback to all the instructions part. I am sure that you must be familiar with many of these and there are so many instructions from reliable sources which you can read and practice. So please do that. Also make sure that you pass the correct information to the vulnarable people of the society around you. It may be your maid, it may be your driver or it may be your old parents. Pass the reliable information with explanations which such people can understand and ask them to spread it. Especially if you are someone with basic science understanding, access to the pandemic data via internet, on reliable websites (note the repeated usage of the word "reliable" - this is very very important). There are so many people with no access to these informations around us and around others we know. So start the chain of reliable information to break the chain of transmission of virus.
I have written some of the things which I could remember. Will keep updating as and when I remember. For the time being stay safe and stay healthy.
PS : Cross check all the basic precautions mentioned in this post with those from WHO and health ministries.
https://www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/detail/who-health-alert-brings-covid-19-facts-to-billions-via-whatsapp
The number for English is "+41 79 893 18 92".
Keep checking the websites of the health departments of your country and states for correct information. Follow the verified social media accounts (with blue ticks ofcourse) of your ministries and local governing bodies. They are much much useful than the fake whatsapp forwards you recieve. If you cannot live without information from whatsapp please follow WHO and the official whatsapps of your respective health ministries.
8) There will be a lot of scams during this time. So beware of them.
9) Shopping - Though many places are under lockdown people will have to go to get groceries at some point of time or the other. Make sure that you stock enough food and can avoid frequenting shops unnecessarily (but don't horde things other humans also need food items). Make sure that you go shopping at times when there is less crowd (this is for people living in places where there is a possibility of people panicking and crowds occuring in the wake of lockdowns).
Remember this is is an unprecedented thing. None of us ever imagined that such a thing would happen during our life time. To be honest I though that climate change would kill us soon via floods, fires, rising temperatures and droughts, but the possibility of such a severe pandemic had never occured to me. The new normal will be a shock in the beginning, as we get used to it, things will work out. So do not panic. Stay calm. The entire human species going through this.
But while staying calm be aware of the facts and take the lessons from the places which have been hit severely and do your bit to keep yourself and your locality safe. If all such localities remain safe then the states and countries will remain safer. So starting from yourself practise it. It will be hard. I, a person with no social life, already a socially distant person am finding it difficult to stay away from the nominal amount of human contact I usually have. Even for me a little bit of human contact is necessary. So I can understand that very social people with large friend circles, who love surrounding themselves with people will find this very very difficult. But if you have to have all those circles safe, you need to endure this temporary pain of having to stay at home. Like those posts say, yes you are privilaged you have a home to stay.
But let me comeback to all the instructions part. I am sure that you must be familiar with many of these and there are so many instructions from reliable sources which you can read and practice. So please do that. Also make sure that you pass the correct information to the vulnarable people of the society around you. It may be your maid, it may be your driver or it may be your old parents. Pass the reliable information with explanations which such people can understand and ask them to spread it. Especially if you are someone with basic science understanding, access to the pandemic data via internet, on reliable websites (note the repeated usage of the word "reliable" - this is very very important). There are so many people with no access to these informations around us and around others we know. So start the chain of reliable information to break the chain of transmission of virus.
I have written some of the things which I could remember. Will keep updating as and when I remember. For the time being stay safe and stay healthy.
PS : Cross check all the basic precautions mentioned in this post with those from WHO and health ministries.
