We are on a BREAK…from the ‘rona, of course.
The submission to masks, lock-downs, work-from-home and online classes for 9 months have seemingly hit rock-bottom as people simply refuse to believe that the impostor (read pandemic) is still among us!
Adjusting to the new normal once has been hard enough, but it apparently hasn’t hardened people for them to grasp the reality of it: the pandemic is still there, the virus is affecting people and causing deaths.
Several warnings about the second-wave of the Corona Virus pandemic have been making rounds since early September, yielding zero response from concerned authority, other than the acknowledgement that the cases indeed will exacerbate in the coming months of winter.
How stable has the stabilization break been?
With lock-downs apart from educational institutes being lifted, people began rejoicing at the misconception that the pandemic is over. Vacation trips, excursions, shopping, weddings and dining out have begun at full swing since August 2020, where the terms social distancing and masks are believed to be an abomination.
“If it bothers you, ignore it; it will eventually pass.” We have a dysfunctional way of dealing with problems, which sometimes leads to not dealing with it at ALL, making it a permanent baggage. Applying that same rule of thumb to a pandemic goes to show the dire lack of sensitization.
This newfound defiance to the pandemic is disturbing on several levels, especially when I have been personally dealing with it recently. When three members of the family are down in bed for weeks with little to spend on food and medicines, it’s hard to argue about whether the pandemic should be taken lightly or not.
Economic Projections worsen: Groceries are limited, youth are unemployed
This stabilization scheme was effected mainly to protect the economy; however, several households are still struggling to keep up with the costs of necessities, bills, and rents, while many are still out of jobs.
According to projections made by ILO (August 2020), the youth unemployment in Bangladesh is to double in 2021 due to delays in curbing the pandemic: 1.1m youth are facing short-term unemployment, whereas 1.7m are facing it long term.
When in doubt, get tested
People are under the impression that testing for the virus would lead to them becoming social outcasts, while not getting tested puts their entire family and contact thread at risk. This is problematic because people who are asymptomatic, the mutations may work differently in their bodies and they unknowingly become carriers of the virus. There are working people with no choice but to get out of their homes to live a stable life, while others are simply shortsighted as to the greater good of the community.
The concept of contact tracing has not yet been adapted too severely as the WHO and other International Health Organizations have reported that there have been negligible cases of a dual attack, meaning the bodies are prone to immunization and less likely to reacquire the virus within 6 months of recovery. Although it may come as a relief to some, the “negligible” cases still amount to over a thousand, which has the potential to cause a multiplier effect that no one is talking about, or simply neglecting.
Oxford, Gavi, Pfizer, Moderna: Who will cut the Vaccine chase?
The disease has killed more than 1.3 million people worldwide, more than 246,000 in the US alone. World leaders are hopeful, however, with leading pharmaceutical brands assuring them of vaccines by the beginning of 2021, but with such dire conditions in the place the vaccines are being formulated, question remains, who gets it first?
Vaccine stocks would be small at first. There won’t be enough to cover everyone but getting the shots to the right people could change the course of the pandemic. Many other questions regarding distribution remain unanswered, such as whether to spread shots evenly around the country, or to concentrate on hot spot areas.
Deadly as the situation is, and continues to grow with 2292 diagnosed positive cases today (November 26, 2020), and 37 reported deaths from Covid-19, it doesn’t look too different from when it first arrived and spread in the March-May period.
What do we do? Not all superheroes wear capes: some wear masks.