Right now we are at war. Health care workers are fighting the Coronavirus like troops on the front lines in a shooting war, but instead of bullets and bombs, they are faced with the invisible threat of death and disease from the enemy. The situation is even worse with the new daily surge of patients they come in contact with while lacking the equipment and protection they need. You truly have to admire these brave people and the unselfish personal risks that they take for the sake of us all. And they aren’t the only ones that you have to really respect for showing up to work during this crisis such as all the people working at grocery stores, online store warehouses, truck drivers hauling food and supplies to restock store shelves and places like the post office and garbage collectors deemed as essential workers. Already the Coronavirus is not only increasing our stress levels, but this first experience with a pandemic is already changing us and our way of life.
Now some of these people will have real issues going forward even if they stay physically healthy just from the stresses of their jobs. I was especially thinking of the health care workers. Like soldiers in a war I worry they will be going through a lot of stress issues similar to battle hardened veterans. I hope we can take of them like they are taking care of us.
But what will you do after this crisis will be all over? Hopefully, you don’t lose anyone or get sick with COVID-19. But I’ve been hunkering down. I’m terrified that someone will bring something back more than food to get us sick. It’s going to change us on so many levels. I wonder will affect us in this way for the long term or not?
Many companies are having employees work from home, if you are already not doing so now. But that will end eventually for most.
Will we still be shaking hands or hugging people after living through our first pandemic?
Every conversation I have anymore or email written typically now closes with “stay safe.” Even so, I am not the only person adopting those particular words. Friends, business contacts, store workers to random telemarketers have also told me the same thing.
Some people were aghast at politicians and even regular people who tend to be the embracing or hugging types before COVID-19. Yet, will that preference become the norm?
I strongly suspect for the short term it may be that we turn into that type of people due to our human instinct to survive. We’re going through this and fear changes people. I think that for the longer term that has to wear off.
I am more optimistic about what happens to us from how the Coronavirus is already changing us over the longer term. We’re going to get a vaccine. Moderma Pharmaceutical is already in Phase 1 trials of their vaccine and linked an interesting video for you about their progress. And they are just one company of many working on a vaccine. More drugs are being approved for clinical trials to fight the disease now.
Abbott Laboratories just came out with a device similar to what doctors’ offices use to test you to see if you have the flu. Abbott said their machine can give a response in 10-15 minutes as well. You also may want to check their fascinating video on that device.
So we’re making progress. I bet after we heal the mental stresses, us regular people who have been worrying about this, we’ll get back to our nonsocial distant world. It will take time. For some of us it will take longer and we need to be patient and allow time and science heal these wounds both to our minds and bodies.
Thus, the Coronavirus is not only increasing our stress levels, but this first experience with a pandemic is already changing us and our way of life now as well as long into the future. Hopefully, the challenges that it puts us through will make us stronger and wake up to the realization that these dangerous lurking viruses are still out there and can happen again. We need to be more prepared for next time because in the world and how we live, it is only a matter of time.
