A Letter to Covid-19

Dear Corona,

110 years ago in northeast China, your name was the Great Manchurian Plague. You were born from the fur trade of the Tarbagan marmot hide making its way across the region by rail. Your birth brought worldwide virologists together while agriculture and fur trapping was put on hold in the Chinese, Russian, and Japanese communities of Manchuria immediately. Railways and ferries were halted at once and turned into quarantine facilities. Mass cremations and burning down contaminated lodging was routine. Dr. Wu Lien-teh initiated the deal breaking face masks while politicians examined you from a medical standpoint. There was no one playing childish games or pointing fingers at you.Too bad for you, Chinese New Year was fast approaching and your time was running out like sand in an hourglass. In early 1911, your time was up. In less than a year, you took away the lives of about 63,000 and we all thought that you taught the world a lesson. The International Plague Conference in Shenyang was held on your behalf where world health leaders were determined to find out how rigorous restrictions and collaborations confined you to one region and made you go away in less than a year (French, 2020). 

But you came back. You’re still a respiratory disease attacking the lungs (French, 2020). Except you’ve changed this time. You’re like a misbehaved child who likes to play and doesn’t discriminate. The frightening thing is that you’re not the only one that changed. The world changed. It’s not the world you used to know. It’s been almost half a year since you were born from “bats in a Wuhan seafood market” and your birth has brought racism and attempts to open the country on your 5-month birthday. We’ve finally been trapped in the confines of our homes away from the bustling 21st century, realizing that it may be too late. Airlines are being limited and subways are being sanitized. Why is it that the world is letting you grow before disciplining you? Masks, sanitizer, gloves, and self-isolation are slowly becoming the norm and to tell you the truth, there are still people who refuse to admit that masks can make a difference. Families are struggling to put food on the table while kids are making memes about toilet paper. Doctors are working endlessly trying to put you to sleep while politicians are playing the blame game. To this day, you’ve taken almost 350,000 lives and have made over 5.4 million realize the importance of air (“COVID-19 Map”, May 25, 2020.). When will your time here run out Corona? I wonder where you will go next. 

Sincerely,                                                                                                                       

2020

Cites Used:

“COVID-19 Map.” Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center,        coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html.

French, Paul For Cnn. “In 1911, Another Epidemic Swept through China. That Time, the World Came Together.” CNN, 19 Apr. 2020, edition.cnn.com/2020/04/18/china/great-manchurian-plague-china-hnk-intl/index.html.