We are tired of counting the losses and updating the toll of casualties and new infections. We have exhausted our ability to mourn and lament. We have gotten used to the times of cruelty, watching cities betrayed by death, losing their colors and fading like dark caves. Despair casts its dark shadow over the streets, where you can only hear the sad echoes of sirens.
We are tired. This global war that emerged from China’s Wuhan is too much for us to bear. Humankind did not commit a sin worthy of such a merciless punishment. This is worse than everything we have read of the fiercest and cruelest imaginations. As if a mysterious leader of an endless army was invading cities and countryside, lands and seas. It is more horrifying than Hulagu and harsher than Genghis Khan.
The options are limited. Immediate death or systematic agony. Falling into the grip of viruses is more severe than being trapped by intelligence agencies in the custody of torture masters.
We are tired. We got used to applauding the achievements and sacrifices of the medical body, which are enormous and mighty. This war is intolerable. It’s pure killing without any compensation or sympathy. You numbly receive the news of the death of a lover, friend or stranger, but you can do nothing. You are not allowed to bid them farewell or hug them goodbye. No flower is thrown and no mother, sister or a friend can caress the coffin. This global war is tougher than everything we have ever known or read.
The world is preparing for an unprecedented workshop. The number of deaths has exceeded two million, while infections have topped 100 million. It is difficult to provide an accurate figure for economic losses, as they accumulate with the passing hours and exceed even those scenarios that we had described as exaggerated at the beginnings of the ordeal. Experts, who said months ago that the current crisis was more dangerous than the financial collapse that the world saw at the end of the first decade of the 21st century, go further today in reading the numbers.
Some of say that it’s the worst crisis to hit the globe since World War II, while others stress that the planet has not known anything like it in over a whole century. It does not take much effort to prove the horror of the disaster. Human losses are countless, as are the pictures that will be hung in homes, serving as reminders of those days that were burdened with feelings of fear, isolation and separation from loved ones and friends.
The human being was confident and busy with his daily life when the epidemic broke out and raised difficult questions about safety, danger, life and death, the efficiency of the health system, and the ability of scientists to allow the world able to confront the deadly beast. What we are going through is not easy at all. Every person is a potential source of danger. Every encounter can lead you to the hospital, or possibly farther. Watch out. This is not a time for handshakes, nor a time for hugs. Cuddling your grandchildren is a danger to you and to them. If feelings of longing prevail, your son comes to the garden to greet his mother from afar and behind his mask. The mother keeps herself collected and is overwhelmed with the broadcasters’ advice and experts’ warnings.
You have no solution but to be confined to your home. When you go out, you are armed with masks and disinfectants. Let go of the talk of eye contact and body language. You are a source of danger to your colleagues, as they are to you. Danger is everywhere. In your car. In the parking. In the elevator. In the office…
Worst of all are the newspapers – the simplest of all pleasures – that have in turn become a source of threat rather than the news.
Danger is the master of the city and the lord of judgments. Going to stores is alarming. Restaurants closed their doors to clients. Cafes are tired and waning, as they wait for customers. In front of shops that must be opened to ward off hunger, people are spaced out in gloomy lines, exchanging cautious looks, as if everyone is trying to find out where the dreaded virus lies. The number of those venturing out to the nearby park decreased. They are frightened by stories of virus mutations that have an exceptional ability to kill and spread, as if they were new strains of missiles preparing to strike civilian targets.
Nothing lights the darkness except for the hope that the vaccine will arrive and the hour of immunity approaches. This nightmare took the world by surprise. People did not expect a danger of this kind to arise at a time when man continues to unravel the secrets of the universe, shrinking the space that separates us from the hidden and the unknown.
People believed that these continuous scientific and technological revolutions can have a decisive and swift response to any danger. It is the confidence that the people of this century had in the scientific breakthroughs.
We are tired of mourning and lamenting. We need light to get out of this tunnel. We need a vaccine drop that will help us fight the virus that caused panic and death. Scientists did not disappoint and are preparing vaccines at record speed. We need a drop of hope from respectable governments to restore the effectiveness of the fractured economies.
We need efficient and honest governments to address the massive waves of poverty unleashed by the pandemic tsunami and to derive lessons, especially since experts warn that the coronavirus will not be the last killer.
