Disasters may have things to educate the entire nation

Author: Zahid Raza

In late, February, the timing was terrible as one of my friends had just reached back to home from China. It was supposed to be Chinese New Year which is a happy time.

Within a short space of time, news of the virus and its harsh reality spread and have sounded global alarms with China. The epicenter of an outbreak originated in a vet market of the central Chinese city of Wuhan has since then spread to more than 212 countries of the world and globally as of 9, May 2020, there have been 3,822,382 confirmed cases of COVID 19, with 263, 658 deaths have been reported But, unfortunately, the world is still in the foothills of this virus. At the time of filing this story, Pakistan’s nationwide tally climbed over 8,562 with 623 deaths.

Pandemic, in some way, brings regulatory or legislative change. But it should never come off as glib when we’re talking about a disaster somehow being useful.

We always have to be attentive to the fact that how many lives were ruined and what effect did catastrophe have on the rest of the survivors.

If we look at its dark side, disaster is something you pretty much always and only see when the richer and more privileged people in a society get hit. You see a lot of “useless” disasters when the people who are affected are disproportionately poor or minoritized. Their problems are seen as not the problems of those in power or of all citizens, and they can be pushed to one side.

The coronavirus disaster is not mere a discrete event but a combination of systemic, infrastructural failures over a period of years. The outcomes we’re currently coping with may appear sudden but have been designed into our health-care, political, economic, and social systems.

The price of heading off disaster is this constant process of trying to mitigate harms and plan systems that don’t scale in harmful ways.

In the current situation, it seems like we have a good handle on the root causes of what’s going on. There could be a lot of trouble mobilizing support for potential fixes, but one thing that’s really difficult about public health disasters is that even in democracies, public health measures have to be coercive to a great extent, that is, without top-down public health measures, you can’t mitigate and stop the spread of a virus.

As this global tragedy is neither first nor most deadly war with an infectious disease, though this coronavirus Pandemic jumped the toll to 1.4 million confirmed cases and 81,000 deaths worldwide as of this writing.

A century ago, the flu epidemic of 1918 swept the globe, killing as many as 100 million people—5% of the world’s population—before social distancing helped curb its spread. In the early 1780s, smallpox ravaged the American West, ripping through indigenous communities with case fatality rates of 38% or higher and leading to the development of the world’s first vaccine less than two decades later.

Other outbreaks—from cholera in the 1830s to HIV-AIDS in the 1980s—brought xenophobia along with disease and revealed that fear and blame can distract from efforts to find a cure.

Drawing from past experiences and avoiding past mistakes, the world can respond more effectively to every disaster.

Here’s a look at some of those lessons:

Virus usually describes as name

The flu epidemic of 1918 commonly referred to as the Spanish flu did not originate in Spain, but likely got its start at a military base in Fort Riley, Kansas.

Similar themes resonate today, It was described Coronavirus as “Wuhan flu” and “Chinese flu”

Making sure quick action, social distancing and test widely

Health experts agree on the same measures for containing the outbreak – test widely, isolate those infected and encourage social distancing. Such measures are being adapted to varying degrees in the West now – but a key difference is that many countries didn’t act as quickly.

Isolation is only way that works

In 1918, as in 2020, travel swiftly spread the virus.

That’s not unlike this moment of massive globalization we are living in now. Without the luxury of today’s high-tech microscopes and genetic sequencing, researchers wrongly assumed it was bacterial, and efforts to treat it or vaccinate against it failed.

In all, 675,000 people died in the United States, more than died in World War II. But it could have been more.

“The only way to prevent its spread was to isolate people from one another. Some communities did that and fared well. Others did not and suffered high death rates.

Virus never discriminate the young

In 1918, influenza hit the young and healthy, felling people from ages 15 to 45 with swift lethality.

While the demographics of coronavirus are very different, it’s hitting older populations and the immune-compromised the hardest—its behavior in the young and healthy is eerily similar to that of the virus a century ago.

Avoid Cursing the sick

It is happened over and over throughout the history to blaming the people who get sick. In the 1980s, blame was placed on the LGBTQ community for spreading HIV-AIDS.

While, today, we can learn and act upon the fact that global cooperation and sharing of knowledge will help us deal with these outbreaks.

Keep the nation encourage and well informed with accurate data

Unless you get the co-operation of the public, your policies may not be adhered to, and enforcement only goes so The important thing is to keep nation encouraged and update with accurate figures.

Time to pay attention

This is a time to pay attention and learn what this illness reveals about us.

The coming months will no doubt be painful, but with social distancing in place, herd immunity building and collaborative work underway to develop treatments and a vaccine.

Natural disasters have social and political consequences for communities. The role of community learning in disasters is seen to be increasingly important. However, the ways in which such learning unfolds in a disaster can differ substantially from case to case.

Mysterious virus is not going to disappear. It’s going to be around for at least two years.

People these days are scared for their health, but just as importantly, a lot of people are for their wallets and their money.  So instead of wasting time let’s have a start to do for the future.

Avoid to spend money unnecessarily

Do not spend money on anything you don’t need.

Avoid having Pizza and expensive food.

Do window shopping instead of buying a car.

Do not rush to the stock market.

Don’t even buy branded or extra suit you don’t need.

Get skill that can make money fast.

Make ready yourself for next plan instead waiting for the lost job. Who lost job do not sit calm and quite coming back. It’s going to take at least two years to get the same number of jobs, So in this free time you should spend on Education, get a skill that can make money fast.

Try to  hire people but people with internet skills, people who know how to edit videos, people who know how design websites, create a sales funnel, people with an IT degree or at least IT expert  and these skills going to be so much more important in future.

Create your own job

Pakistan has 3.03% unemployment rate in the fiscal year ended June 30, 2019, it’s going to need a sustainable minimum 8% GDP(Gross Domestic Product) growth to provide jobs to almost everyone. So instead of enjoying leisure time awake and create your own job.

Go online and teach your expertise

Go online and offer your design service.

Traditional city jobs are pretty much dead.

And much more you can teach.

Studying Medicine

If you are not sure about studying medicine then this is the time to do it.

COVID 19 taught us the world needs you.

The doctor and nurse,  the world doesn’t need me, it doesn’t need GUCCI, it doesn’t need all these travel ” influence” we are not essential but You are

Time to think different patiently

Once physical lockdown ends new one begins and this one is going to suck because it’s going to be for 2 years.

No more large gathering, No more group tours, No more busy offices , No more fill airplanes, and no more flying around.

This is the time to think differently.

Everything I mentioned above is possible.

If you are lucky, but if you are in the bottom 10% of the society, it’s simple.

Not everyone can afford to up skills or to even have a computer there why income inequality is about to go up.

The rich will stay rich

The poor will get poorer

And the gap will go even wider.

For the first time in decades millions of people will enter poverty and not escape it.

So there is one thing we need to do for life after COVID 19 is to have more compassion. Look after yourself first and then look after your neighbors odds are, they are having a harder time, this is not the time to spend money but it’s definitely the time to give it and maybe that’s how we are going to beat this pandemic together.

I do not feel hesitate sharing that there are certain pandemic that could make you convince all kinds of things to be corrected only on the condition if there is serious determination among exist among ruling authorities for the betterment of the nation. Instead of engaging in war of words about the pandemic, Governments and political leaderships should show transparency in their seriousness during the crucial moments of coronavirus.

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