OPINION
THE TIME OF THE DOOMSDAY PREACHERS AND HOPE Yet, as pathetic as may it seem. in terms of the number of deaths, the Covid-19 pandemic has managed to literally shut down the world and bring the economy to a standstill in less This is the time of the doomsday preachers, than two months. No war ever has managed to the moment when all those who predicted and do this. The THING has turned the economic preached the end of the world (as we know it) world upside down and inside out: we are could stand proud in the middle of any empty encouraged to stay at home, to work from home square in any empty city and shout to the empty and away from the traditional world “I’ve told you so!” “working place”, to keep “social This is the time when The Evil distance” against our natural One sacrificed the lust for instinct and so on. Some are even grandeur at the altar of efficienpaid to stay at home and not turn cy, opting – in his battle with the up to work. Good - for a minuscule yet deadThe tiny THING that has killed ly virus rather than a magnificent over 30,000 people has shown and brilliant war. So far, the how much we depend on each THING is doing its job with an other as individuals and as infectious competence: almost nations. We are in it together, we two billion people around the live on the same planet, no matter world confined at home, in selfwhat country or town we come imposed house arrest, a quarter from. The traditional borders are of a million people infected (as no longer there even if politicians we write), 5% in serious condiare clinging on them in a despertion, and 30,000 killed during ate attempt to hold on a certainty the first three months of the confrontation. But what makes OVIDIU CONSTANTINESCU that in reality does not exist. The true meaning of the sentence that the fight against Covid-19 different when we wake up from this nightmare “the from similar situations in history is that DEATH world will no longer be the same” is this: we are on medical grounds has become somehow one. We may not have the faintest idea of what unacceptable, and we are valuing LIFE of the the world will look like at the end of the Covidindividual more than ever before. 19 pandemic, but for certain we will prevail. Until now the Covid-19 pandemic looks There will be losses, there will costs and it will be pathetic in comparison with previous ones: (165 hard, but we will prevail. AD) the Plague of Galen – five million people The bad news is that economy will take some dead; (541-542 AD) Plague of Justinian – 25 miltime to get started and we are not talking lion people dead; (1346-1353 AD) the Black months, but years. Many years. There are entire Death – anything from 75 to 200 million people; business sectors that have been affected: trans(1889-1890 AD) the “Russian” Flu – one million portation (the aviation industry is all but flatdead; (1918 – 1920) the Spanish Influenza – tened, with 70% fewer flights than in December 500 million people infected, up to 50 million 2019, ground operation providers have followed dead, (1956-1958) the Asian Flu – two million suit); the hospitality industry (hotels converted people dead; the HIV/AIDS pandemic - 25 milinto quarantine centers and food outlets that lion people dead (and still counting, with no vaccater for them do not really count); retail is gone; cine in sight).
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BY OVIDIU CONSTANTINESCU, FACE PR AND NEWS
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