Since the corona virus pandemic started rolling, I believe the most disturbing photo about its impact that I have seen up to now was done by a drone. It shows a long wide trench. In it, coffins were being placed in rows of two, close to each other, and perhaps shortly afterwards, more coffins were going to be heaped on top of them.
What was horrible about this photo was that it had been taken to show ongoing activity in New York, supposedly one of the wealthiest metropoli in the world.
So many people had died that needing to bury them quickly, authorities fell back on this procedure. One is reminded of what happens when there’s a war on or when a natural disaster strikes, like an earthquake or a tsunami.
Indeed, that is what we are experiencing – only with this difference: a natural disaster happens in just one region of the globe; this one of today has spread worldwide. If even New York was obliged to carry out mass burials, what could happen... what indeed has already been happening ... in other cities, with a population as big, or even bigger, and where poverty is much more overpowering?
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WHEN TO OPEN THE GATES?
It is hardly possible to conceive a decision more difficult than the one that will have to be taken about whether and when to give people the sign they can freely leave their homes.
On the one hand, should that signal be sent too soon, the risk will be great that the corona virus pandemic which would not yet have been broken, will find a new opportunity to proliferate. Should this happen, the death rate could accelerate to a pace that it would be difficult to contain.
On the other hand, the longer the command to relax controls is delayed, the greater the economic damage And that would not just be a matter of financial losses for governments and businesses. It would also have a great impact on the lives of families, on the sense of security among those approaching poverty levels, and on unemployment...
No matter how you see it, the sword is double edged.
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THE POOR
Some predicted that when the corona virus pandemic reaches Third World countries, the poor ones, a total disaster will ensue. There would be a lack of adequate sanitary facilities; an absence of trained medical personel; insufficient equipment with which to control infections... all factors that indicate how the situation in the wake of the disease will be hugely ugly.
But perhaps not... by way of statistical measures. For the build up of deaths compared to the mortality rates of recent decades might end up being considered as not so out of this world. There were wars and massacres, other epidemics, famines, immigration, deaths in impossibly dangerous work stations... all these gave a push to data that show how people in the poor countries have been constantly living under very difficult conditions.
The corona virus disease will be viewed as another element in a series of burdens and woes offloaded on the peoples of the Third World. For some time it will feature for what it is – a calamity. In the longer term, all it will do is maintain the press of destruction and feel bad that has always been there.