With 24/7 coverage of COVID-19 its hard to not be concerned about what is going on arounds us. It seems that every news outlet is preaching that we need to be socially distant, stay at home, do nothing. With the President pushing for more social distancing until April 30th it makes you wonder what will we learn when all dust settles, chaos ceases, and we get back to living our normal lives?
For months scientists and elected representatives have been trying to uncover the real source of the COVID-19 virus and what China’s involvement was. Nationalreview.com reports the COVID-19 virus was first discovered in late 2019 and was transmitted from an animal at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, where people were allowed to sell wild animals for meat relatively freely, to humans.
According to The Lancet The first case was identified on December 1, 2019. A 53-year-old woman who had no known history of exposure to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale market, “also presented with pneumonia and was hospitalized in the isolation ward.” In other words, as early as the second week of December, Wuhan doctors were finding cases that indicated the virus was spreading from one human to another.
According to Strait Times “China’s National Health Commission, the nation’s top health authority, ordered institutions not to publish any information related to the unknown disease, and ordered labs to transfer any samples they had to designated testing institutions, or to destroy them.”
Roughly one month after the first cases of COVID-19 were identified in Wuhan the United States government was notified that their was a potential health crisis that would affect the USA and possibly the world. It is now obvious that the U.S. government’s response to this health threat was not nearly as quick or robust enough as it probably should have been. This is more than likely due to the misinformation coming from the Chinese reguarding the truth behind COVID-19.
As we watch the nightly news it is apparent that most governments around the world were caught ill prepared for the scale of spread and the true danger behind the COVID-19 virus. It will make you wonder whether China could have curbed the spread earlier by providing accurate and timely information to the world health organization.
Today fear has set in as more US government agencies take steps to enforce Stay-AT-Home-Orders. The lockdown orders have shut down many manufacturing operations, government agencies, social gatherings, and even caused the stock market to shutter and drown to record lows.
People have flocked to supermarkets to stockpile food and hord toilet paper. Kids are now learning from home and families are having to stay isolated. Limiting activity and not socializing may help build family bonds but from my seat will change us forever on how we interact as we move forward.
This epedemic is not like a natural disaster where you mourn, regroup, and rebuild. This pandemic is like nothing we have ever seen. For the USA we are still in our infant stages of the pandemic and really have no idea what life will be after COVID-19 is a distant memory.
Many wonder how will life will look as we move forward? Will social distancing be a new norm? Is the market going to recover and rebuild my retirement? Will there be jobs? Will we learn the truth about COVID-19? Have a cure?
Its still to early to predict the future because the chaos is still kicking up dust and creating uncertainty. Once the dust settles Im confident we will learn a lot about what transpired. Was COVID-19 intentianal or truely accidental? What can we do to prevent another health pandemic in the future? How will we recover? What will be the new norm?
Only time will tell. For now all we can do is hope and pray.
