What if [insert name] was COVID positive?
In love, there is no disgust. Just empathy.
Disclaimer: In my current state, I am healthy and living in a place where there is no local transmission of COVID-19. This is only a personal view in lieu of the present issue. This does not reflect the views of anyone but myself. Please treat the views with utmost discernment and prudence.
It’s been almost three quarters of a year since the pandemic began. As we go along the year, we have witnessed one of the annals of history where multitudes of people were killed by a microscale (or nanoscale) sized lump of biomolecules. However, the problem that is supposed to be solved through a scientific basis becomes so complicated due to the disturbances in the norms of the society. As I, a chemist whose work is not even related to virology, has been frustrated by the chaotic reactions and disturbances created by false information, pseudoscience, and shallow and imprudent thoughts that could even destabilize governments and social structures. This chaos has proven one of the principles of our evolution as beings: we try to do something to keep living. However, while we try to stay alive, we also lose our humanity and values. This is the reason people who segregate themselves based on the differences between each other are skyrocketing recently. The worst part is, segregation happens between those who (may) have it and who don’t have it yet.
In the idealistic post-modern sense, it should be different because we learn already the science of viruses at school. Yet the reality is that, there is disownment when we found out that someone we know has the virus. Admit it, the dread we feel when we learn someone has COVID is like he became a leper. In the Old Testament times, he is unclean and must be cast out of society. Disgust has controlled us and placed the emergency bulb to destroy our love and endearment to them. It sounds exaggerated and morbid, but it’s true.
This disgust is implanted in our minds. If someone has it, we disgust them. If we have it, we also disgust ourselves. If we know someone dealing with those who got it, we also disgust them. Yet this disgust may go overboard and throws out our humanity aside. Because we fear that we will not be socially accepted, we try to not disclose our symptoms even though we have it. Once we were discovered that our relatives have allegedly contracted it, we avoid them and treat them like we don’t know them. No empathy. No love. This microcosm of things are rooted in the fabric of society, that it blew to catastrophic proportions. The numbers have become unreliable in time because of non-diagnosis due to fear of rejection.
If this culture is not removed, there will be no end. No wonder AIDS is still spreading because of the same paradigm. We are taught to hate the sin, not the sinner. Yet we manifest that we hate the sick, not the sickness.
With all of these happening, where is the love we were taught? Do we really even care? We display charity, but sincere charity is absent. We give them sad and heart reacts on Facebook, yet we do not show true empathy. We just scroll it down after to eliminate the omen. Yet, our God gets close to the lepers, the outcast, and the sinners. He does not place judgment on the living because he gives them a chance to live better. As God told us to love others as how God loves us, should we still love them as how He does it? Or even just love them just the way we love ourselves?
Let us think of it, there is no use if we do things without love. It’s simple, yet people do not act on it due to inconvenience. But if we believe in love, we should act it out. It may not take the whole society to act out, yet “only one match can make an explosion.” Let’s restore humanity, shall we?
[Physical distancing, wearing of masks, and frequent handwashing does not prevent us to show respect to our elders and say kind words to our loved ones. Do not sacrifice your humanity or think of them as lower lifeform because they contracted the disease. Just a friendly reminder to everyone.]
