Some epidemiologists say that COVID-19 is everywhere. But that doesn’t mean that everyone has it or even if they do, that they have symptoms. I don’t know anyone with it–I’m not counting Tom Hanks since we’re not exactly on a first name basis. Its spread has been worldwide in that there are people from all over the world who’ve tested positive. True, but…

Is the corona virus a world disaster? Has it touched all of humanity? Or is my headline a bunch of bullsh*t?

How about compared to other disasters/tragedies in the recent past around the world?

Hurricane Rita was a big one here in the U.S., affecting a lot of people, not only in New Orleans, but all over because it shut down the ridiculously popular tourist destination for months. Some say it took years for the Big Easy to bounce back. But still, it wasn’t exactly a world-wide disaster given the small geographic area of the hurricane and didn’t affect hundreds of millions of people who remain perfectly content to never have gone and never plan to go there.

The tsunami in the South Pacific was big, but again limited geographically. The earthquake in Haiti was also big, killing hundreds of people and affecting everyone in the small country physically and financially. But it too was limited geographically and had little global financial impact.

The recent Australian wild fires were big and disastrous for large chunks of Australia, but most of the country remained in tact. Insurance policies cover fires and they’ll rebuild. Not a world-wide disaster.

9/11. That was a world-wide tragedy. Or at least those of us with the image of the collapsing towers forever branded in our minds would argue that it was. The human, physical and financial loss was large but limited, but the psychological impression and repercussions were massive. Except for some regions of the world, non western allies, who thought the tragedy was cause for celebration. So, still not a world-wide disaster/tragedy.

The impact of the Corona Virus is everywhere because the response to it is everywhere.

The response has affected everyone. ALL of our day-to-day lives have been impacted. Every country is taking precautions of one kind or another that affect us.

Social distancing

I’ve come to hate the term and we’ve only been at it a few weeks here. I like people. All human beings need people. It’s in our DNA. We’re what’s known in anthropological terms as social animals. Combatting the social loss, my friends and I used a video conferencing app to get together yesterday and chat face to face. Sort of.

The Corona Virus has affected us in a variety of ways, limiting our comings and goings at the least and at the worst, caused death, made us sick or caused a job loss or business shut down.

The financial impact alone is massive, at least in the short run. Hopefully it won’t turn into a longer term problem. Governments everywhere are looking for ways to alleviate the loss of GNP, the shutting down of large sectors of the economy, like tourism, restaurants and some non-essential production of goods.

Though it’s a good time to be a grocer. Yay!

I agree with the POTUS, though let me state flat out that I’m not a fan of his character or leadership, when he said that there will be pent up demand when this is all over. We’ll be dying to get out and get together, at restaurants, coffee shops, movie theaters and to go all those places we were supposed to travel to like the Statue of Liberty and Disney World and (poor) Italy.

So when this is all over, or over enough to return to life as normal, don’t hold back. It’s your duty to the health and well-being of humanity and the economy to get out there and be with people and do all those things you couldn’t do during the COVID-19 shut down.

In the meantime, there’s always books. Just sayin’…

Stephanie Queen Books