COVID19 – Did we learn?

COVID19 – Did we learn?

Last year, early March, the whole world shut down. An unseen disease had been unleashed on an unsuspecting humankind. Pretty much everything about this illness was unknown, even to the researchers. Barring the fact that this was a killer on the romp, and hailed from the Chinese territory of Wuhan, this new kid on the block was a complete stranger. No one knew how to handle him. Hastily devised safety measures were drawn up. Suddenly walking into a Cash Machine with your mask on was no more a crime. On the contrary doing so without one was. You started carrying vile smelling chemicals and called them sanitizers. And for once we decided that the lonely man was the smartest man, not the cranky nitwit. Above all we discovered that the guy who washed his hands every five minutes was the wisest man around and not the nutcase we thought he was.

Congregation was a calling card to death. Ceremonies like marriages, engagements, etc. were called off or postponed for a later and safer date. Kids stopped going to school and many an office closed down, at least temporarily, urging their employees to work from home. Life changed overnight. Over the course of a few weeks we revised our lifestyles and created new protocols for the way we lived, dressed, travelled, and socialized. There was the brand new term called “Social Distancing”, and even gave it a physical measurement of 6ft. One thing you were sure to get, after the restart of the public transport was a seat with ample side and leg space. The aged grandma had to agree to stay back home or be fatally infected, most chose to stay back. Same with the tiny tots.

Months rolled by. We researched, discovered, did more researched and found out ways to prevent, researched even more and rolled out immunizations etc…

Slowly counts dropped, but we were advised by the experts not to let our guards down. We continued to wear our mask, albeit in a lax manner. We still washed our hands, without enthusiasm. We started congregating, gingerly at first, briskly a few weeks later. Number at parties increased and we were on our way back. We heard in a disinterested manner the news of the second wave that has hit UK and some other countries and heeded not the alarming news or the number of causalities. We celebrated Christmas and New Year with care but went all out to celebrate the elections. All was hunky dory, until the second surge was atop us.

Having been through a year in hell should have taught us care. It should have built in us the essential resolve to keep ourselves and family on the safer side of the road. It should have instilled in us the knowledge of how to contain the illness.

The sad truth is, it did not. Not at personal level, certainly not at Administrative levels. Until the immensity of the surge hit us we sat back with the smug smile and hoped that the vaccine would keep the devil at bay. Even at these vaccination centers we heeded not the warnings we were taught so cruelly just a year back. And above all we conveniently forgot that the very basic way to healthy living is to stay clean and keep distance from those we are not closely related to.

Hope that 2022 March would not have to teach us the very same lessons over and over again.

“To beat COVID19, we need to change”.