There is very little that I can say about the Corona (COVID-19) virus that isn’t already said. So I will desist. But I would like to consider the immorality and unfairness of social distancing.
This outbreak, like all tragedies, affects the most vulnerable in our society. While it is easy to prescribe social-distancing as a solution to control the spread of the virus, let us stop and consider its implications.
In the last month, we have stopped using public transport, have been asked to work from home, have avoided going to salons and spas, and have avoided eating out. Due to the reduced footfalls in places of common social gathering, there is a drastic reduction in requirement of, what like to call nicely, housekeeping staff. Translated, it means we no longer need these people picking up and cleaning after us. By working from home, drivers of taxis and other forms of personal transportation are no longer needed and can be dispensed with.
These are people who are most at risk, maybe we have protected them from the Corona virus, but what about hunger, loan repayments, and the many other things that we cannot even begin to imagine? As usual, they will be left behind as “rich” India (and the world) protect themselves.
Even more worrying is the closing of schools. Again, the schools that our kids go to are putting in place OTT learning and e-Learning solutions. On the other hand, government schools do not have such luxuries. If predictions about this downturn going to last two years is right, the children in these schools will fall behind other children by two years, carrying the income gap into one more generation.
So what is the solution? It is to take the onus on us. Don’t avoid tea shops and restaurants. Don’t avoid going to malls. Don’t avoid salons and spas.
Instead patronize them as you normally would while also carrying your own sanitizers and gloves.
Finally, I have one last argument against social distancing – finding a cure. If mother nature got us here, she can get us through it too. By adopting social distancing, we are robbing our best solution provider of the billions of labs at her disposal to find a cure to this virus. The math is simple, hundreds of labs versus billions of labs.
What about the lives that will be lost you ask? Well, the only choice we really have is not if lives will be lost but which lives are lost?
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