As places around the world start opening back up after being in lock-down from the coronavirus, we need to reflect on what we as humanity have learned… or should learn.
Here are my thoughts:
- Listen to scientists. This idea that politicians, religious leaders, and anyone who can get an account on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter know more than scientists do is nuts. If we had listened to epidemiologists and global health organizations, we would have known for years that a pandemic was coming and could have prepared.
- When in crisis, listen to the experts in their fields… see above. Also, don’t deny the facts. China, the U.S., the Russian Federation… all played down the seriousness of the disease and had to then back-pedal to keep the virus from killing even more people. Denying facts do not make them any less true.
photo - Shutterstock licensed - Keep calm and address the problem head on. Our daughter-in-law, Cassie, is a family medicine physician. She says that she is glad that Gavin Newsom is her California governor because he comes on the news regularly and calmly states the problems and the solutions they are doing in connection with COVID-19. He doesn’t speculate. He doesn’t throw out ideas off the top of his head. He listens to the experts. He is consistent in California’s approach to the virus.
- Pay and protect those on the front-lines, as it were, for their dangerous work.
- Those who are asked to give up certain “liberties” or - as I would describe them – comforts… should cooperate. Many have given them up and too many still do not. They isolate until they decide their “need” is greater than the common good.
photo: Shutterstock licensed - As the virus has spread, we see more clearly all the disparities that have always existed. Poor people with poor health die. Homeless people are crowded in shelters or sent to parking lots to sleep. African-American people are dying more. Old people, left alone in their homes or those in nursing homes, die more. People who live paycheck-to-paycheck start to go hungry. The people with various disabilities are often triaged to not receive critical help… and…
- Poor nations are screwed… they are so, so screwed.
Now let’s see if during this coronavirus crisis we have learned sufficiently to face the other crisis also now facing us… that of climate change.
Can we NOW start:
- Listening to scientists?
- Stop denying the facts? Climate change is real.
- Staying calm and addressing this massive problem head on?
- Giving the workers the support that they need to address climate change?
- Realizing that our comfort is not as important as the common good for all?
- Addressing the disparities now before climate change starves and kills those most vulnerable?
- And understanding that poor countries suffer the most with climate change, can we lend aid - not military weapons - and can we support these countries instead of imposing sanctions or organizing coup d’états?
photo: Shutterstock licensed
I pray that maybe enough of us have learned these lessons. Maybe we can start a movement… from our homes - at least - until it’s safe to socialize again. 😊
-Kathleen
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