Everyone is Affected by the Coronavirus (Covid-19) - Are you Not?

Almost everyone in the world where the news about the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic has reached, is seriously affected by the disease.

I am affected by it much the same way as you are. Do you know that you are affected by it? I shall tell you how you could possibly be affected by it as I write or as we speak.

As I don't want fellow Ghanaians to be quick to react before they slowly come back to think, where they will have started talking and heaping insults on me or going into self-isolation, before they realise the import of this publication, let me make myself clearer here before proceeding any further.

Note that being psychologically or emotionally affected by something is not the same thing as being actually physically infected by it.

Watch the video below to see how an Asian family has been so psychologically affected by the current fatal strain of coronavirus (Covid-19) that the family has turned their apartment into a shop/store for their own use. They have been panic-buying and stockpiling food and other essential commodities in case their country or the world goes into a total lockdown.

I have been going out buying a few items with the same motive in case everyone in Britain is ordered to remain indoors for the next few weeks to avoid the continuous spread of the fatal coronavirus disease.

If you have been stockpiling food because of this disease, then you have been emotionally affected. If you are living in fear of the disease, then you have been psychologically affected. If you are witnessing sudden increases in prices of goods and are buying them at the current hyped-up prices come about because of Covid-19, then you have been affected. If you have been asked to stay away from your workplace, not for being personally infected but people not patronising the services of your company, business etc., then to some degree, you have been affected.

You are now washing your hands with soap and water more often than you used to do, applying hand sanitisers all because of the government advice given in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, then you have become affected in a way by the coronavirus.

Businesses are collapsing or closing down temporary with most airlines grounding their airplanes because of international restrictions on travels following the outbreak of the disease. All these businesses and their workers have indeed become victims of Covid-19 much as all pupils and students whose schools have been closed down by governments because of Covid-19 pandemic.

Those that are infected are those who have contracted the disease such that their cough or sneeze releases uncountable number of the viruses able to infect other people.

Now that you cannot greet in accordance with your custom by shaking hands, you cannot attend public gatherings, you cannot conduct your show-off costly funerals, you are affected by the scary deadly coronavirus.

If you are forced to work from home, or are stopped from attending work, because of the disease and the attempts to control its spread, then I say, you are a victim of coronavirus in a way.

Therefore, let us all work collectively conscientiously to rid the world of the ugly but fearfully fatal coronavirus come with its many attendant conspiracy theories. Some people are alleging it is laboratory-created with intention to harm some economies; as a biological weapon; as a means to reduce the world population, etc.

Now is not the time to yield in to conspiracies even if they were true. Let us first work towards finding solutions to stop it or cure it then we shall come back to digest the conspiracy theories to determine the real cause and reason behind the disease to solve it once and for all.

I am the biggest psychological victim. I have had to cancel my holiday flight to the Americas today, 20 March 2020, without still being able to reach the airline to discuss the refund of my air ticket. I also frequent the street markets and supermarkets but still can’t lay hands on certain basic essentials since the outbreak of Covid-19 with its concomitant mass panic-buying of essential commodities.

Presidents of nations are all victims because of the sleepless nights they spend seeking solutions and meeting their contingency committees appointed to help contain the spread of the disease.

We are all victims of coronavirus, whether we accept it or not hence all hands on deck to solve it. Solving it should not be the responsibilities of only governments but the responsibility of all individuals acting concertedly.

Let us obey the government's advice informed by scientific and medical researches and observations to help kill coronavirus within the next coming few weeks to extricate ourselves from its emotional affectation and physical infection.

Rockson Adofo
Friday, 20 March 2020