With over half a million deaths and the US having the most cases worldwide (over 200 thousand and counting), COVID-19 has been rapidly changing millions of American lives, as well as taking thousands of them. There is no doubt that this is the biggest crisis since WWII (according to the UN), and it should not be taken lightly. It is rational -- as well as expected -- for many of us to freak out and panic, as many lives are on the line. We definitely have not experienced anything like this; sure, SARS, H1N1, and Ebola were big threats, but none escalated the way the novel coronavirus has. But is this virus really what should worry us more? Is it opening our eyes to a bigger picture? This new pandemic is shining light on obvious problems we had before, from societal behavior to the true idiocy of America's leaders.
Among the most ridiculous claims regarding COVID-19 was that of President Donald Trump, who initially never believed in the virus (or the potential threat it posed for the American people), and even went as far as to call it the Democrats' "new hoax" back in late February. There is even a whole list put together by The Guardian that touches on Trump's most ridiculous and misleading claims regarding the pandemic. He was one of the many people that gave the virus an ethnicity -- constantly (and mainly) referring to it as the "Chinese virus" -- and never gave it the attention it deserved. Not even when the virus touched American soil did he ever take it seriously; he dismissed its danger, refused to get tested at first, and even claimed that it would disappear "like a miracle". He publicly shrugged off the severity of the virus and has recently tried to convince any idiot that believes him by saying he "knew it was a pandemic long before anyone called it that", and still tries to say he always took COVID-19 seriously even though, again, he has said the opposite to the public view. Let's forgive all these lies and not blame the American President, after all, the man is under a lot of pressure -- but there is a lot more to look at. Many states, including: Massachusetts, Oregon, New Jersey, Maine, and Colorado, received less than 15% of the aid they requested to keep their citizens alive, meanwhile Florida received two full shipments and was even expected to receive a THIRD as of March 23. This may seem irrelevant to a few, until you notice that the previous states mentioned are of little electoral importance to Trump meanwhile Florida is the only state of those mentioned to have a Republican governor and be of vital electoral importance to Trump; of course, this is OBVIOUSLY not political and Trump is working sincerely, like he ALWAYS does. All this aside, there is the fact that both the US and South Korea had their first victim on the same exact day; USA is currently leading with their number of cases, meanwhile South Korea has less than 10 thousand cases and only 165 deaths (as of April 1, 6:02 p.m. PST). South Korea acted immediately, imposing national quarantine almost right away, while the Trump administration did not believe the new "Democratic hoax" and has sacrificed thousands of American lives.
Straying away from politics now, it hurts me to have to point out the blunt stupidity in which the younger generations have handled the situation. Starting with an eruption of memes (which always make a serious situation seem unimportant and comical), many began taking part in "coronavirus challenges" which consisted of the idiot (or group of idiots) licking door handles, toilets... you get the point. This was not taken seriously from the start, and even an influencer (by the name of Larz) caught coronavirus... if not as a result of the stupid challenges, then life found a way of being funny (see how not everything is funny? Comedy is subjective, though; I laughed because an idiot tasted Karma, you laughed because of the stupid things he did prior to that). Not only was this not taken seriously from the beginning, people (not just younger folks) still won't listen. There are those in Florida who refuse to stop going to the beach, those who have hosted parties and still have the audacity to record authorities as they end their party and fine them, and at least a fourth of the population is not following the simple quarantine rules. How can we flatten the curve if we aren't willing to contribute? The virus won't just disappear "like a miracle" (unless you believe in the wise words of President Trump).
Now I'm turning to the age group that pains me the most: students (mainly high school students). Why are we rejoicing in the physical closing of our educational institutions (at least in California and a few other states)? This experimental online learning will continue, regardless of the physical state of the schools. There are those of us who actually value a quality education, and these are terrible news. There are also those students who are celebrating school closures, as their vacations have started prematurely and they are glad they can "do their own thing". First of all, these are not vacations; classes are still in session and you are expected to stay up to date with everything, no excuse. And most importantly, you should not be so self-centered and egocentric. Yes, you may have the rare privilege of having an amazing home life and of not caring about others when you brag this "perfect life", but the vast majority of us do not. There are those who have abusive or neglectful parents, those who are alone and suffer from anxiety and depression, those who are alone and have to travel hours on a bus to get to school and see their friends -- those whose only mental escape and distraction was school and don't have the perfect home life that you do. There are also those who are homeless, runaways; those who don't have a roof over their heads and the only meals they received were at school -- school was a home to these people, and it's painful that all of that was taken away. I am in no way qualified to judge another individual, but from a human point of view, you should be ashamed of yourself... which leads to my final point.
The last group I target is us... me, you, your friends, your neighbors; everyone. We are the scariest part of this virus. We are our biggest threat, and COVID-19 should be opening our eyes (a quick mention, as I don't want to make this too long: pollution levels have been dropping drastically and nature is looking a lot more beautiful since countries have gone into quarantine and stopped harming the planet as much. Coincidence? I think not). It all started to show with the hoarding. We started fighting in supermarkets, taking 8 cases of water and 12 sets of toilet paper for our family of 3, fighting over the last case of canned tuna even when we already had 5 of them stacked in our cart, taking unnecessary piles of essential products and restricting other considerate individuals from obtaining these items, who probably needed it more. We will uselessly be throwing away hundreds of pounds of unopened food gone bad due to the unrealistic amounts we purchased. Not everyone has the amount of money necessary to go shopping for essentials in bulk, and the hoarding made it really tough for everyone else being thoughtful. Hoarding aside, we still stubbornly refuse to abide by the quarantine guidelines. We want to go see our significant other, we want to see friends, we want to chill at the beach; we are unwilling to change our lifestyle for the greater good. We are egocentric, selfish, self-centered, and reluctant to change because it is inconvenient to US, because it will make US change and sacrifice what WE hold dear, which is mainly not essential. We took everything for granted when we had our normal lives and complained everything was too normal; now, we either yearn for our past lives or are more selfish than others and refuse to accommodate for the bigger picture.
Without a doubt, the mere mention of coronavirus on the news is enough to grab our attention, asserting the fear-based dominance the new pandemic has on the global population. However, the scariest part of this is not the number of those infected or the number of deaths, the scariest, most dangerous part... is us.
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Trump calls COVID-19 a Hoax: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-calls-coronavirus-democrats-new-hoax-n1145721
7 of Trump's Misleading Claims of COVID-19: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/28/trump-coronavirus-misleading-claims