This Coronavirus crisis is a scary time, and the word ‘unprecedented is being used a lot. These are unprecedented times, in this century for sure, and for most of last century too, unless you include the Ebola virus that killed thousands of people, and the SARS Virus too, back in 2003. and there was MERS as well, in 2012.
But none of those were as bad and this current pandemic, with Covid-19, in terms of deaths, or spread. Apparently the Antarctic is the only continent without any Covid-19, as far as my ‘research’ has shown. My research was a couple of Google searches, one of which led me to an interesting Antarctica-related article concerning a cruise ship that had Covid-19 problems, which were all recorded by one of the medical people on the boat. The numbers of negative and positive people on the boat gave some very interesting results.
When you have asymptomatic people with a disease, only testing can let you know the truth of things, and when some of the testing gives false negative results, things can be tricky indeed. On that particular boat though, Everyone was tested, and tested very often, and everyone was aware of what the situation was. Apparently one of the affected people died.
These are sobering statistics. The people on that boat were very aware of what their situation was, and all were more than happy, by the look of it, to take part in the necessary testing. And being on a boat, that was out on the water, there weren’t any options apart from going along with what had been deemed necessary. And I suspect the kind of person who would go on a cruise such this one where you are looking at scientifically interesting things, would be well aware of dangers if things with this virus took off.
So back in Australia, where are we? There’s understanding, ignorance, and denial, there are people who don’t care, ‘cos ‘We’ve all gotta die of something, don’t we?’ Arrogant ignorance, perhaps the most dangerous kind, because what can you do with people like that? Abject fear, being too afraid to even go outside at your own place, that’s going too far, regarding being careful, perhaps, but at least it won’t harm others.
The people who can be dangerous to the broader population are the ones who make no changes to their behaviour, and possibly are unknowingly spreading Covid-19. And what of the people involved in the recent “Black Lives Matters” protests/rallies in America, and in Australia? These events have inspired, interested and enraged different people. Social distancing issues were raised, and some questioned the wisdom of such events.
Others were anti such things for quite different reasons. Reasons of racism, for sure, in some cases. But it seems organisers did the best they could to enforce or at least strongly encourage, social distancing, as much as that is possible. Certainly, there were some instances of people being too close together, that I saw on the television. but for most of what I saw from Australia, the crowds were at least trying to stay apart to some extent.
But is it enough, and what about shoppers at supermarkets these days of ‘opening up’ and reducing the restrictions that kept us all at home and separated. If there are increases in numbers of Covid-19 affected people, will it be those people, or will it be those who were protesting? Should fears for our health keep us home, and let others risk their health, while Aboriginal deaths in custody still happen at terrible high numbers? From what I’m told about one of the events, most of the protesters were wearing masks, and were keeping socially distanced.
And with the protests in Sydney, the police did bad things for sure, from what I’ve read. Herding protesters into smaller spaces with exits closed off. It could have been a breeding ground of infection, and only time can tell whether it has been or not. Whose fault? Protesters for being there, or police? I know what I think …
These are unsettled times for sure, keep safe, but remember the lives of those who aren’t safe, and think on doing what you can, to help them keep safe too.
Carolyn Cordon - Writer 