Why Should We Care
Why It's Difficult For The Poor To Stay "Five Feet Apart"
Devanshi P. April 4, 2020 (K11)
According to John Hopkins, social distancing is a public health practice that aims to prevent sick people from coming in close contact with healthy people in order to reduce opportunities for disease transmission .
In countries like India, where even strangers in the public bus become "close acquaintances" through accidental physical contact, social distancing is difficult to achieve, especially for rural communities where living in a close knit community is more of a necessity than a bonding exercise.
It is easy to dismiss maids and local workers with the thought that this would ensure their safety as well, but this might do them more harm than getting the coronavirus itself . As urban settlers it is easy for us to work from home and still earn our pay, but rural laborers can't do so and will only sink further into the ugly trenches of poverty and hunger. Hunger is a virus which has a vaccine , still kills thousands of poor, and isn't taken seriously because it doesn't affect the rich.
While the world battles coronavirus, the poor may as well suffer from hunger and COVID-19 further decreasing their chances of survival. Along with hunger they also will experience worse conditions of hygiene if they don't receive income, which in turn could lead slums to become hotspots for the coronavirus to bread in. Practicing social distancing is important, but maybe distancing rural workers from their livelihood is not the best way to do it.
Who are you putting at risk here, yourself or others? People might say, "The Coronavirus mortality rate chances are very low. I don't care because I'm not going to die". But you don't realize that as much as you're not putting yourself at risk, you're putting others at risk even more. Especially to those who are older than you. If you don't overlook the dangers that come, then you could be less prepared and more at danger than anyone else. (Aayush V. (K5)
Coronavirus has taken over our lives. It governs how we spend our time, our physical space, even what we buy. Life is not normal. For me personally, this is the first pandemic I have experienced. It is a big thing that has happened in my life. We should care about coronavirus because of the amount of control it has over us. We should hop, not cower. Look for solutions, not wait for others to find them. The future is changing, all we can do is try to change it for the better.
(Aarith V. (K7))