Well, as inappropriate the pun is here, it is intended. To catch your attention and perhaps,point out what gift it is to have your BREATH. Stop right here. And bring your awareness to your breath. Breath in. And let it out. So simple.
And very rarely, are we aware of our own breath.
This insidious disease that has already changed the course of history, takes that away from us.
This disease takes our own breath away from us, unapologetically. Without much warning, and without much that can be done to restore our breath back into our thoracic cavity
Do not take this disease lightly. However mild your symptoms could be, remember, the R number means how many people YOU have potentially infected, if you tested positive. The R number tells us also about how many other people they (those you have passed the virus onto) have subsequently infected. And so on...and so on.
And it is clear and logical, that out of all those people, someone will get their breath stolen away from them by the progression of this disease. Someone will end up sedated, intubated, naked, on a hospital bed, plugged onto a machine that is pushing air into their lungs so they don't go brain dead due to the lack of oxygen.
And, this is not all. This virus has the potential to cause multi organ failure, and does not stop just at one's lungs when it reaches them.
This virus also has a 'long haul' effect even on people who initially had mild symptoms only, and seemingly, recovered.
So if you are waiting for a vaccine, to 'Bring things back to normal', don't hold your breath for it.
If a vaccine that stops the progression of the disease is formulated, the doctors, nurses, care home workers and the vulnerable population (those who can receive the vaccination, not everyone who is vulnerable is even capable of whitstanding the vaccination) will be the first to get it. To help prevent those, who save our lives, from dieing of this disease
This doesn't mean that this type of vaccine would stop the spread of the virus. Those vaccinated, theoretically, can still catch the virus and spread it to others, even if their immune systems are strong enough to stop the progression of the disease towards more serious outcomes.
If a vaccine, that does BOTH, is developed...If...Then, just imagine the sheer volume of the disposables, and staff, that would be necessary, to distribute it, to everyone.
Can you imagine this?
There is a shortage of health care staff pretty much everywhere in the world. And they are not only overworked now with caring for COVID and regular patients, but they are also dieing from this disease themselves.
And who do you think is qualified to administer such an important thing, as a vaccination, during a pandemic?(Imagine: every single person that would be distributing the vaccine would have to COMPLETELY decontaminate and change their PPE between each household)
Can you really imagine there is enough staff and equipment for this? Anywhere in the next 1,2,3…years?
I can't.
So...
Don't hold your breath. Be responsible.
Have empathy.
This is a critical moment in our history, and how we behave now, is literally a matter of life and death for someone else. If not, ourselves.