Even if you don’t get sick, the choices you make about where you go could be the difference between life and death for someone else.
– Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus,
Director-General of the World Health Organization
During these uncertain times, it’s not a rare sight for us to see tons of news about the Coronavirus pandemic regularly. We see hundreds of people getting infected. We see countries that are forced to do a lockdown. Added with the large amount of schools, offices, and other public spaces that are continuously shutting down.
These significant changes everyone is facing can feel somewhat surreal. In result, almost everyone began to panic over the pandemic. Which I don’t necessarily blame by itself. But sometimes, these uncontrolled panic may cause a whole new set of problems.
Just yesterday I saw videos and pictures showing people from many countries who are panic-buying. Stocking up on household items and groceries excessively as if there’s no tomorrow. For a short term result this may seem like a good idea. Since people who did this reasons that they won’t need to go outside anymore for a long period of time.
Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as that. The problem in this kind of solution is that in our economy, higher demand will eventually lead to the product getting harder to find, and even higher prices. So in addition to the condition above, recently there are other pictures showing shelves that are usually filled with food ingredients being empty. Also screenshots of online stores that tried to sell masks and disinfectants nearly 10 times more expensive than its initial price.
Now as a result, health workers, those who are sick or actually in urgent need of the products are having a hard time just to get it.
I believe that in order to make the Coronavirus pandemic to be under control, the world needs people who still care. People who genuinely support each other in going through this crisis, by at least being mindful with their actions. Shop sufficiently, do social distancing, take care of your personal hygiene, etc.
In reality, not everyone is like that. While some people already tried their best to do all this stuff, some others are still careless about it. By refusing to do social distancing, stock up on months worth of food, some news even reported patients who ‘ran away’ from the hospitals where they were treated.
We need to have an understanding that everything we do will have an impact on ourselves and others. Especially when we’re talking about Coronavirus that has a high rate of transmission, and already infected around 250.000 people around the world. So hopefully by having this mindset we can take parts in reducing the damage of this pandemic.
Ayunda Damai 
