Under the current situation as of March 12th 46 countries have now shut their schools either locally or nationally. Some of these include China, Italy, South Korea, Ireland, Bahrain, UAE, Norway, UK Etc. According to the UNESCO 26 countries have implemented nationwide school closure and another 20 countries have implemented localized closures. These numbers are changing at a daily level, as are the number of cases reported world wide.
Countries have imposed quarantines, flights have been cancelled, conferences have been cancelled, universities have gone online, the stock market is a mess, daily wage earners are already starting to lose jobs and the list goes on.
So, in the light of such a world, what are we “the layman” supposed to do other then washing our hands frequently with soap and coughing into our elbows.
- Herd Protection and Herd Responsibility
It is important to remember the concept of herd protection. It is term used with reference to vaccinations. Vaccinate enough children, so that the children who are immune-compromised and cannot take vaccines are also protected, because the other children around them don’t fall sick. I like to use the term herd responsibility. People are constantly asking why are schools shutting down, when the young are apparently not getting as sick. Please understand this, if my sick child goes to school and gets your child mildly sick. Your mildly sick child can make your parents, or your favorite elderly neighbour very very sick. Now my irresponsibility led to your parent being on life support. In these times, it our responsibility to function as a community, to watch out for our family and our neighbours.
We travel overseas for Spring Break every year. We have been for the past 6 years. It’s the time of the year that the children go meet the grandparents. Not going one year may be a sacrifice, but it needs to be done. I can travel and make my parents sick, or I can return and make my elderly neighbour sick. Is it really worth it? I think I can live with not escaping the cold one spring break and I would rather keep my parents safe. You may not have neighbours but coming back and making your colleagues sick, who in turn make their families sick. Is your week long vacation that important that it cannot be delayed this year?
We have all heard the term flatten the curve by now. Let’s help delay the spread of the virus one family, one community at a time so we give our most at-risk patients a shot of survival versus pushing our medical system into a situation where they have to take a decision on who to treat and who to let die.
- Be prepared for self isolation.
Make sure you have food and supplies in the house. Please don’t wait for the fridge or pantry to be completely empty before you decide to do the next round of groceries. (I know, every once in a while, I do like to do that to make sure no food is going to waste). This however does not mean that you buy 40 cans of chickpeas, 8 cases of eggs and 10 bags of bread for your family of 2 from one grocery store, leaving everyone else high and dry.
Make sure you have your medications so that if it takes two weeks because your medicine is backordered you don’t want to wait till the last day to fill the prescription.
- Be prepared for the mental toll of self isolation.
Come up with a plan for how you are going to take care of your mental health. We are going for walks out in the neighbourhood trails till we are allowed and able too. Brought some card games and board games out from the basement to play with the kids as they are going to be at home for some time now and there is a limit to how much screen time they are going to get while mum and dad try to work from home.
Staying at home and then going to a crowded mall or the movies kind of defeats the purpose of social isolation. Luckily in this age of kindle, Netflix, social media and tablets we are much more connected with the outside world then within our own network. This connectedness may actually now be a blessing. Use this blessing to check up on friends and family who may be alone at home during their period of quarantine and isolation. Having spent some time just interacting with the little human beings at home without adult interaction, all I can say is it can get pretty lonely. So be prepared for it and find alternatives that can keep the blues at bay without defeating the purpose of the social isolation.
- Be aware of your community.
If you are in a financial condition where you can help out, please check and donate at the foodbanks in the area. There are many families that rely on foodbanks for their monthly food supply. For people living in regions where having maids and servants is common, please make sure you help their families out also.
Similarly check in on your elderly or immuno-compromised parents/ neighbours/ relatives. See if you can help them with groceries or supplies so they don’t have to be out unnecessarily. Leave a number for them for emergencies.
Also be aware of where your closest testing center is going to be. Are there preassigned testing facilities or are there specific numbers you need to call which will assign you to specific hospitals or send health care workers to your home for testing?
And lastly, please be responsible at the grocery store. Please don’t be the person who takes all 15 bottles of hand sanitizers even though there are 6 people standing behind you or fights with someone else over the last piece of meat at the grocery store or pushes the elderly away in an attempt to beat them to the last of the breads. You may have the luxury to go to another store but they may not. Be gracious. Remember, these trying times can either bring the best out of humanity or the worst. Which part of you do you want to share with the world? That is your choice.
- Talk to your children about it.
The children have heard about the Corona Virus and Covid-19. Someone may have heard silly jokes about it, some may have heard that it doesn’t impact kids and therefore they should not worry about it, or alternatively that everyone is going to get sick. At this point in time, no matter how much our teachers try and control the spread of incorrect information, children will hear things from their friends and will try and make sense of things in their own terms. Help them understand the situation and the importance of community responsibility and what they too can do about it. Let them feel safer knowing that children are less severely affected, while still having the responsibility towards their parents, grandparents and neighbours. Let them realize that not having a huge party on their birthday, or multiple play dates with friends during spring break is a privilege and something we need to be grateful for. For sometimes it is the unusual circumstances that make us appreciate all the little things around us that we seem to take for granted.
Stay safe everyone and remember to wash your hands!
About the writer
I’m a conflict transformation consultant. I graduated from the University of Notre Dame, have worked in tracking infectious diseases at Georgetown University during the Pandemic of 2009 and run my own conflict transformation practice ( Empower Aces) with a focus on positive constructive change. You may ask what does this have to do with the virus and why am I writing about it? I don’t study the virus or its symptom, I study human behaviour and what humans do when confronted with a conflict. When people move away from normal times, the chances of conflict go up. Its what we do with the choices we face that matter.
Desi in DC 
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