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HOPE AGAINST LIVING IN FEAR

-Dilip Chakrabarti

As of April 24, 2020, CORONAVIRUS CASES IN USA ARE GIVEN BELOW

Total Coronavirus Cases:  890000

Deaths: 50372

Recovered: 82843

By this time all of us know what Coronavirus is and what harm it is doing to our human life, yet I thought it would be a good idea to write a few words about this virus like it got its name etc. a very short description about it.Coronaviruses derive their name from the fact that under electron microscopic examination, each virion is surrounded by a “corona,” or halo. In Latin “Corona” means “Crown” and as it looks under the microscope like a crown, that is how it got the name “Coronavirus”.They are both the same thing but a virion is a virus that left the host cell and has fully matured to the ability to infect other cells. The virus is a general term for any kind of virus but virions are like adult viruses that are the outcome of an infected cell. Virion is a more specific term, for a virus particle.

More than half a million peoples have been infected and death toll rose more than 47974 (death rate more than 5.49% and recovery rate is 9.14% approximately.) 

China informed the WHO of UNO that Coronavirus Covid-19 has spread in Wuhan City in China. They delayed to inform the WHO, intentional or innocent delay caused an increase of the infected peoples by a tremendous numbers and by the middle of January, 2020 many countries like Italy, USA and many others have experienced a huge increase in infections leading to death, by April 12, 2020  USA has lost 20637 lives in this Pandemic. Since it was delayed to inform most of the nations could not figure out how to handle this grave situation which caused death of so many peoples, eventually NIH of USA led by Dr. A. Fauci and his team found out certain clinical procedures and a few behavioral modification could put a break in spreading the disease effectively and these effective measures were recommended to protect its citizens. Some of them are social distance, using a face mask and washing hands very frequently with any soap for at least 20 seconds and dry the hands with dry paper towels. We have read in history about the plague arrived in Europe in 1347 when 12 ships arrived from Black Sea and docked in Sicilian Port of Messina. As a result, this epidemic wiped out about 350 to 375 million people worldwide in 14th century. After that plague arrived in different part of the world and killed many peoples. The most recent attack of this disease was seen in Surat of Gujrat in India in 1994, as a result of this Pneumonic Plague epidemic many peoples died in that State. Now a new Pandemic arrived in the arena of humanity and its deadly force is felt in the whole globe and it has been named as Coronavirus. Besides killing of many lives, it has already created a major impact in our live in the USA. Besides loss of life this virus has created an unprecedented impact in the Socio-economic field of our life in USA. 

In the wake of this Pandemic time the government officials have taken extraordinary measures to keep its citizens safe and well. Government is doing its job very well to keep us safe and well. We, the citizens of this country, should also join this war to stop this ominous deluge of Covid-19 Pandemic, we should follow instructions of the government agencies and their official leaders. As a good citizen I am personally following all the advice given by the authorities but it is not easy, since now I have enough time in my hands, I am trying to ponder over the situation we are in now, the effect of this deadly disease. I am being self-quarantined for last 34 days, I have plenty of time for self-scrutiny and assertion about the critical situation we are in. It is not only me and my family, thousands of families are in the same shoe as it is getting tighter and tighter. I have some personal experience of epidemic condition caused by cholera and small pox in the small village where I grew up as a teen ager, I have seen how everybody was coping with the situation when every day two three patients were dying, soon the village became a nightmare for the villagers, villagers were noticing everyday their loved ones were dying out of that epidemic. Everyone was scared to death and the epidemic continued for at least next six months. This happened when I was a teenager, but in this Pandemic I am a retired adult and I have a family to look after, life is more complicated than before, needs of life are many now but ways to fulfill them are very limited, so everyone like me at this time is at a loss what to do. In the wake of this Pandemic life has become more complex, society is in jeopardy and life is in danger, Government is in dilemma how to protect the citizens, how to stop this Pandemic, but this is a very difficult task, all of us need to be together to fight this monster and make this country safer and make the life normal again. We the people of this country have to stand by the government to stop this Pandemic but as an individual our strength is very limited, so we must unite together and must sacrifice our living standard until we overcome this difficulty. These difficulties will come from every angle of life and we have to cope with those and ultimately someday this nightmare will be over for all of us.Many of us migrated to this country for a better life, we struggled and worked hard for many years and finally our families became stable financially, some of us are retired and enjoying the retired life. Financial stability gave us hope for the best. Now due to this Coronavirus Pandemic the stock market is plummeting, peoples’ savings are depleting to a great extent, savings are vanishing, everybody is scared about the future financial trouble. Now many of us believe that our financial stability is vaporized, our happiness is on the verge of disappearing. Social life is almost gone, we cannot go out, we have to maintain social distance, and we have to use facial masks to protect ourselves so that we do not get infected by this deadly disease. Socialization with friends and family has become an event of the past, friends cannot visit friends, family cannot meet families anymore, and grandparents cannot have grandchildren in home anymore, loving relationship has disappeared, fear of getting the infection of Coronavirus has surpassed, all the joys of companionship and relationship are virtually nonexistent, our lives are practically on the edge of a cliff, about to fall and crash any time soon.  Millions of peoples are out of work. Small businesses employ about 70% percent of work force. Restaurants, small stores, grocery stores, salons, barber shops and many other small service stores are closed by the order of the government. The impact of this closure is observed in many folds, namely no haircut, no nail cutting, and even no hamburger from the McDonald. We, the Americans, experienced this kind of stalemate of life when 911 terrorist act took place in the year 2001. That was done by some Islamic religious terrorists, three thousand plus persons lost their lives but this Coronavirus has already claimed more than twenty-two thousand lives. Nobody knows whose turn is coming when, a sharp sword of Coronavirus is hanging over our head, it is only matter of time when it is coming down on someone’s neck and cut the head off.  Life is under the current of panic and fear. It does not end here. It is coming from all directions, north, south, east or west, the whole country is in danger. Once the Coronavirus is contained, the impact of this pandemic will still be far reaching in the society. Now most of the big companies are letting their employees to work from home via computers. Employees are very happy in this time because they can work from home and getting their salaries as well. This is good news for both employer and employee, a real harmonious relation between the owner and the employee. Now, everyone in employment force is working hard from home to keep his job and as a result the production is way above the normal time, more accurately now one employee is producing more than time and half of normal time. So, employer is getting three employees work done by two employees, the employers will figure it out very soon and once this Pandemic is over, they will reduce their workforce accordingly, as result a good number of people will lose their jobs and eventually become unemployed.One of the worst effect of this virus is that our children cannot go to school or playground as a result they are not getting face to face teachings in school, since they cannot go to playground, they cannot get any physical exercises either, this may definitely cause obesity in some of the children. Some adults who are physically active face the same situation, they cannot go to Gym, or who play tennis or golf, they cannot do that either, they are not getting their exercises which may lead to diabetes, obesity or heart related complications, overall the consequence may be a rise in health related issue for all of us. It has been determined that obesity is also a grave risk factor for the infection of Coronavirus Pandemic.   The other side of the coin is even worse. During this mandatory staying home among young married couples may give rise to some marital problem. Normally each married couple spends about seven hours together besides the sleeping time, calculation is like this, out of twenty-four hours if you take out twelve hour for work related use including commuting time, then remaining twelve hours are for sleep and home related activities. As a result now a days husband and wife has more time for interactions, for difference of opinions, for small  altercations which may turn into a big one, small drops of water makes an ocean, this ocean can also be wild, similarly staying together may also create huge commotion and eventually divorce filing may take place, also some of them will be victims of depression and other mental issues, these may also add fuel to fire of addiction of alcohol or drugs, even though when Coronavirus will be contained, these social issues will burn our society little by little like a slow fire of husk. Our ephemeral memory became very feeble that we have forgot that after 911, we could never put our lives together, quality of life never came back at all to its previous satisfactory stage, on the other hand our daily life is now circling around security line etc. for any flights or any big play or sports event and it has become part of life, we like it or not, we are just in it and we shall never be able to come out this menace. Similarly, some day our scientists will discover some vaccine for Covid-19, may be, they will also find out some specific drug to treat the severe symptoms of this disease but it will never be eradicated from the environment, it will float around the air all over the world round the year. Seasons will come when this virus will infect peoples again but its morbidity will prevail but mortality may not be as bad as now, it may even be a seasonal disease like flu or any other disease which spreads during certain time of the year. The use of drugs like Chloroquine and Hydroxychloroquine for prophylaxis of Covid-19 may give serious side effects for their use, symptoms of heart disease, liver disease may appear and a certain number of patients who are suffering and treated with these drugs may suffer again from such conditions of side effects. So, according to many experts it may be contained now but it will never be eradicated completely, it is here and like it or not, it is going to stay here forever as one of the deadliest maladies of our time. Covid-19 Pandemic will ameliorate someday but the devastating effect of it will be remembered for many years to come.      It feels that we are all imprisoned in a jail where thousands of wild and hungry animals in the form of Coronavirus are running around to whet their appetites and we are only waiting to be attacked by those hungry ferocious animals. We have no recourse to safety; we are only waiting to become victims and help this Covid-19 to whet their thirst and hunger by becoming their prey. For now, looks like that our life is on the razor thin edge of this Covid-19. This angst is not going to end soon, this Covid-19 will scintillate so many deaths in our country we, the citizens of this country will be punctilious and do whatever it needs to create the situation of eradication of the Covid-19 from this country. 

It is very disappointing for any human being to go through this ominous time and we have to find some way to cope with this time of struggling existence. Personally, I believe that this is the time that we resort to get help from our inner self, we should never lose our inner strength, and must depend on our spiritual strength, and we must submit ourselves to our almighty to get strength so that we can pass through this Pandemic days. Previously, whenever there was any problem in my life, I always sought answers from the holy book The Shrimad Bhagavad Gita where Lord Krishna explained to Arjuna how to cope with life in any difficult situation like this. Actually, The Shrimad Bhagavad Gita enlightens everyone on how to cope up with various situations in life. It uses the conversation between Lord Krishna and Arjuna to highlight initial negative coping mechanisms exhibited by the latter. It goes on to showcase positive coping with skills suggested by Lord Krishna and implemented by Arjuna. The Bhagavad Gita, through this “case-based methodology,” teaches us how to cope with a demanding situation like this one. We should never give up our hope and believe in that whatever happens for the very best, we have to believe in it. The spirit which we have in our heart will always nourish our hopes and will always keep us safe and well. If we always feel that some bad things are going to happen to us then this may lead to us to paranoia and we will become more fearful and panicky. In these situations, it is always better that we accept the situation and try to change it for better, we should learn the coping skills and adapt ourselves to come out of the importunity which may put us in more dire and fearful situation. 

There are 195 countries in the world. The United Nations (UN) recognizes 195 sovereign countries. 193 of these countries are members of the United Nations, and two – the Holy See and the State of Palestine – are simply observer states. By some definitions, there are 197 countries in the world. Out of all these countries the root cause of Pandemic points to China. It is the responsibility of all these countries to find and determine if China is really responsible for the spread of this epidemic, if it is determined that the rogue administration of China is found responsible for this Pandemic, then the United Nation should punish China for causing such a heinous act against humanity. Now it will be seen that the no-good UN has the intention and strength to punish China and its Leaders financially or by any other means so that none of the countries will ever resort to do this kind of detriment to the humanity.  Finally, it is very necessary that all of us start praying according to our faith and start to believe that this wild Coronavirus Pandemic will be tamed and the fear of this Coronavirus finally will be eradicated with the combined help of faith, coping skills and knowledge of medical science. Every night ends with light of the day. Similarly, we must be hopeful that now we have almost reached end of the tunnel and rays of light will appear soon. Despite the fact that fear of Coronavirus is very dominant but we must be strong and at the end of this our hope will always prevail, we will conquer the deadly effect of Pandemic and finally we will restore our lives to a new normalcy which will be enjoyed by every citizen of our country.  

Note :

1. By the time it is published the numbers of death etc. will change                                                         

2. Used references from different source of information

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