The Virus that Stopped and Changed Everything

It is hard to believe. This virus and the mayhem that it has caused in such a short period of time. The virus did what terrorism could not, it shut our country and essentially the world down in short order and threatens to wipe out humanity. Yes, I know people will say that the idea that it could end the world is far fetched, but given what we have seen so far, it really isn’t, this is bad.

From every single sports league and sporting event to concerts to movie showings to political rallies to vactions and even voting primaries. This virus has shut down the country and many other nations around the world have done the same to prevent further spread of Coronavirus. Now, we are seeing major world city after major world city and even states and yes, countries too close down and put their citizens on lockdown orders.

Again, this is bad and it continues to get worse by the hour.

Many are not taking this pandemic that we find ourselves in seriously and that is a dangerous mistake on their part. Thankfully, cities, states, and countries around the world are taking this virus seriously and are shutting down events across the board and closing restaurants, bars, and other non-essential places of business to try and slow the spread of what is in my memory, the worst contagious disease our world has seen in some time.

Life as we know it has been cancelled, or at least put on hold and the future that we face is uncertain at best. This gets worse by the day and a large part of that is due to the public not listening and not taking CDC (Center for Disease Control) guidelines of social distancing seriously. The guidelines set in place by the medical community is to stay at least six-feet away from other people and to avoid large crowds and so far, many are not following those simple and life-saving directions.

This pandemic is scary and once it started to become what it is today, everything else took a backseat. Politics, sports, romance, and so on suddenly became less important as our lives are at risk and the lives of those whom we care about are as well. This has become our new reality and in a large sense, will be for some time to come, but how long this lasts depends on what we do next and the outcome we face as a world is dependent on the actions we take as human beings from here on out.

Let’s be honest for a moment. Human beings and especially Americans are self-centered to the core. We care about what is best for us and we do what we want to do when we want to do it and it has been that way for as long as life has existed, but these are different times. We must change the way we live our lives with the shared goal of public safety and not getting and giving this virus in the forefront of our minds.

As of this moment, there are 353,692 global cases of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) and 15,430 global deaths and there are 35,345 U.S. cases and 473 of our fellow Americans have passed away. I am sure in writing those few sentences that those numbers went up. These are the numbers since the first case was discovered in November of 2019 in China. That means, that in under five short months, more than a quarter of a million human beings have become infected with this deadly virus and the rate of deaths that have occured have risen to unacceptable numbers.

I believe that the lockdowns are needed and that we should have more of them. I believe that we find ourselves in an unprecedented time in our history as we face this deadly pandemic. How we respond is crucial, but it will be much different than how we have responded to other times of crisis and other tragic moments.

When 9/11 happened people filled stadiums and lit candles and gave blood, when Katrina happened people brought food and supplies to the people displaced, when wildfires happened people opened up their homes, when we had the mass shooting in Vegas or the terror attacks in Europe there were concerts to raise money for the victims.

In regards to the Coronavirus, we cannot do ANY of that because we cannot be near each other. What we can and must do is LISTEN to the experts and practice social distancing and take care of our selves and our communities in this time of crisis. We must be smart and do what is right, as hard as that may be.

These are difficult times and this virus has destroyed life as we once knew it and not to be bleak, but we are just in the beginning stages of our new lives and our new reality but, we must come together (apart) and do the right things that ensure our safety and support each other (apart) online and over the phone so that those who are scared and broken can be okay and that we can get through this challenging time and be who we were and better before it began.