A Crazy Little Thing Called Life

What was your reaction when you first heard about the “deadly” Coronavirus disease? How about when it was declared a pandemic? Or when you checked the number of infected people last week and found out there were a total of 123.390 cases around the globe? Better yet, when you turned on the news at your house and suddenly: “First Coronavirus Case Confirmed in Bogotá”? Even with infinite memes and jokes about the matter, it still wasn’t good news, was it? You could see the fear starting to get hold of us at school. People started wearing disposable face masks, using antibacterial gel every minute, making jokes about some of the girls having the disease just because they coughed or sneezed, laughing nervously. And this is just the beginning of it all. We haven’t even had a Coronavirus case at school, people can still go buy some bread at the grocery store, we can still go to a mall with friends and catch a movie.

Li Wenliang, “The Chinese doctor who tried warning us about the virus and died because of it.” That’s how everything started. I’m not justifying his death, nor blaming him for his actions, but I’m trying to take a close look at the matter.

When you injure your foot, how long does it take it to heal? Three months? A year? And when you live in constant fear and paranoia, how long does it take you to truly be at ease? What Li Wenliang contributed to was indignation by Chinese people to their government and collective hysteria. Soon after the news about the virus came out, various people started to publish on social media, and to recommend “Natural Medicine to Cure You from Coronavirus.” A woman arrived to a hospital with her throat severely swollen after eating 1.5 kilograms of garlic, because supposedly this would prevent her from getting infected. Jim Bakker, an American televangelist promoted and sold a so-called “Silver Solution” which, according to him, would be an effective cure for the virus. It’s sad that these kind of people could be so opportunistic, ignorant, and stubborn. But what is most worrying, is how fear and paranoia have followed us since the moment humans became political animals. We live amongst seven thousand diseases on a daily basis, hundreds of them worst than the Coronavirus; and who knows amongst how many other unknown diseases.

News have the amazing ability of causing great scandal, or of transmitting calm and peace, according to what’s most convenient. The rest is up to us: To believe all we hear and see, and not think for ourselves; or to critically filter the information that we receive and get closer to the truth. Here’s an example: the trials of the witches of Salem. These trials were made in the years 1692 and 1693, due to the theory that the town had been cursed by a work of Satan, causing the strange seizures of many young women. Here’s part of a newspaper article at the time: “On June 10 of this year, 1692, the hanging of witch, Sarah Good, put many people at ease because it was thought that her witchcraft wouldn’t cause any more death or destruction.” In those years 20 people were executed, and 100 were jailed. What’s ironic is that the “witches” who didn’t confess were the ones that had to face death, while those who made false confessions lived. Years later, medical scientists revealed that what caused these seizures was stress caused by the ongoing war with the American Indians.

It is true that the Covid 19 is still a disease, and that it has unfortunately killed many people. It is, without a doubt, much better to take care of ourselves and stay healthy physically, but we should care more about our mental health and not let us panic. This virus is just a brief example of what kind of impacts we have after receiving “bad” news. Throughout history, humanity has had many similar, and much worst encounters like this one, almost as if it were a requirement for us humans to live at least one of them. Life is unpredictable, sometimes it’s going to crash you as hard as it can against a wall, and in others it’s going to make you sing of joy and amazement; but just imagine, all the stories you are going to tell future friends, grandchildren, and nephews, besides a wood fire sipping hot chocolate.

By Valeria Delgado, 8B

*Written March 11, 2020