Thoughts on the Coronavirus aka COVID-19

Street Art COVID-19

By now the entire world is aware of Coronaviris/Covid-19 and its recent impacts on the global economy and daily grind. Coronavirus is a respiratory infection which means it infects your respiratory system. With all the hysteria one has to consider how surface germs affects your respiratory passages, maybe the germs get into your mouth and make their way to your lungs where it sets up shop. With this germ idea comes the suggestion of washing hands; which may hold some other implications and undertones. But all the gloves, hand-washing and such, and panic seems a bit much. I see people riding their bikes with masks on, and wonder. I see constant reports on convalescent homes and the constant uptick in new cases and deaths, and people in convalescent homes already live in quarantine!

I think it may be more sensible to consider close contact and those who find shopping trips to be a prime opportunity to yawn/hee-haw/cough when in close proximity to other people. It might be of help trying not to inhale while in close proximity to other people who can’t help but to hee-haw. Some people may feel like bucking the social distancing recommendation is a way of opposing government officials (and medical advisors) who recommend it, but when is it ever appropriate to cough on anyone? Regardless of the governor or president the people you cough and yawn on may not be cool with you doing so, while also violating their personal space. This idea is associated with an appeal for a universal standard of hygiene, as well as a suggestion to eliminate such social customs as handshakes.

The recent crisis is sure to cause/rush a paradigm shift as there will be changes to power structures, economies, cash, etc. Should we forget about being polite and get to gnashing and grabbing like some people continuously do? Should we all become short-tempered and expect payment for almost anything involving our time and energy, but not necessarily laborious work? We’re looking at almost a year of getting through this “together”, while many people become low and clever about proving they can get (small) monies in their possession. Who are they proving this to? What is the benefit of proving such things?

For some furloughed workers, the stay-at-home order is a welcome time to rejuvenate and not have to choose between sleeping and reading a book. Under current circumstances you have enough time to do both. And for others it is a time to tell everyone to go to hell (aka joie de vive). Economically this seems a bit unreasonable as some business owners are faced with paying shop rents that are higher than what most people’s mortgage payments tend to be. That’s double mortgage payments and double shop rent. I suspect that such shop owners are probably renting their homes given the examples of business practice. The main problem with this business strain is the fact that it is advisable that a business owner have enough savings to cover operational costs during a slump in business or when there is little to no profit. Some might call this a “cushion”, though, it seems, there are only literal cushions.

The government’s plan to “reopen the economy” is centered on data and how certain data are indicators of what the next action will be. This totally seems like a new approach since looking the other way and ignoring signs is the usual. But the bright side to most of this is the time to maybe think critically and note how leaders handle such a crisis and consider what we all can learn from this so-called "togetherness" of running against the machine.