COVID-19 Reminds Us What it’s Like to Not Rule the World

The spread of COVID-19, also known as the coronavirus, in China, has been occurring since the end of last year. Now, three months later, the CDC here in the United States confirmed the first possible instance of community spread of the disease. Reportedly, someone in California tested positive for COVID-19 despite not coming into contact with any other known patients, nor having any relevant travel history. This case, reported February 26, marks the 15th case in the United States, although by the time you’re reading this, that number will be larger.

The fact that I can’t tell you how much larger, though, is what makes this whole situation so scary. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you how to feel about COVID-19. Experts warn that it is inevitable that it will spread here. There are some experts that say there is a potential for this to become a worldwide pandemic. But this does not mean now is the time to panic.

Right now, the chances of someone in the United States catching the virus is slim. It will likely take some time and some improper handling of the situation before it spreads here the way it is in China. However, and I don’t want to alarm you, the spread of it is likely to happen at some point in the not-so-distant future. But now is not the time for worrying; it is the time for action.

In every situation, there are things that we know that we know, and there are things that we know we don’t know. We know for sure that it doesn’t kill everyone. In fact, in China, it doesn’t even kill most people. However, we also know that not all countries are as advanced as China is, and despite how well the government may or may not have handled the outbreak, China is still pretty well off when it comes to medicine. We know that when COVID-19 reaches the poorer countries of the world, especially in Africa, we don’t know what will happen. The death rate will undoubtedly be higher due to their lacking resources, but we don’t know how much higher.

We know that, as a human race, we are going to have to fight this together, because we can’t do it individually. No country alone has the resources to get themselves through a national epidemic. However, we don’t know whether we will even be able to do it together.

Not to be a Negative Nellie, but this is going to be an uphill battle. We have our work cut out for us, as this outbreak really caught the world by surprise. It may have originated in China, but it’s killing humans regardless of nationality. And what ruffles my feathers even more is the fact that individually, I am powerless to do anything. I can’t control how my government handles the situation, nor can I control how international governments handle it. I can’t control which countries to which it spreads, nor can I control how many people it kills. But I can wash my hands with soap and water thoroughly every time I use the bathroom.

In fact, the CDC says that the best thing to do right now is to be hygienic, washing your hands with warm soapy water and by staying home if you’re sick. Avoid touching your face with dirty hands, and cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze. Unfortunately, any vaccine is still weeks, if not months, away. I would also like to point out that the Black Death ravaged medieval Europe for three years. We might have no choice to just wait it out.

If it makes you uncomfortable to just sit and twiddle your thumbs while a pandemic sweeps across the globe, I understand. There’s nothing we can do but wait and see how this whole thing goes, and until then, the most we can do is prepare. It’s only natural to worry about it as it looms in our future, where we know that something will happen but we can’t really know what exactly.

But, no matter how worried you are, things will be okay. Every century, a disease becomes an epidemic, and we are always okay. This new period of global connectedness means that the worldwide spread of a disease is much more likely, but it also means that we, the human species, have the ability to rely on and help each other more than ever. Furthermore, the ebb and flow of what challenges we face is only natural. With almost eight billion people on Earth, the environment is always finding ways to make our lives a little harder. That’s what it does.

As humans, we have to expect that we are always going to need to work to carve out a place for ourselves in the world. Sometimes, Mother Nature throws in a wild card, to remind us that we aren’t supposed to thrive on this planet without a little effort and sacrifice. In my opinion, there is nothing like knocking someone down a peg to make them realize that they can’t always win. We live in a time where humans expect to be the most powerful thing on this planet, and for the most part we are. But sometimes, it’s good to be knocked from your high horse and made to realize that we are only animals, not immune to the throes of life on Earth.