The Cure for Sanitized Hands
I sit here at my home in Kerala, where the weather could kill coronaviruses and, where I can barely make it to the end of the day. I read jittery WhatsApp messages and nonchalantly scroll down the bottomless Facebook feed. Lazy days actually, but feels like a gallows humour. I move from newspaper articles to scientific journals about the epidemic and then as a reprieve to a book and to memes, like an old man trying to get across the room clutching one furniture then the other. It is depressingâbut this time, not the cosmic variety of depression to which I am often prone to.
I mean, the situation is grimâ the reality of it.
From what I gather, an epidemic like this happened in 1918, when a less-racist Spanish flu swept the world. Death was more than the numbers of the two great wars put together-- between 50 and 100 million people.
âThink about thatâ, says the Guardian writer, Â implying that a pandemic is twice as deadly as a World War III, if it were to happen, and adds that it would reshape history like no war would. Did you know that Gandhi was affected by the flu in 1918? And the poet TS Elliot too?
The Coronavirus is deadly, because it is deceptive: many would show mild to no symptoms but would act as carriers. In fact, we are actually fighting an enemy we donât fully see. The fatality rate for India with a feeble medical infrastructure will be quiet high. Even if a lock-down would bring down the rate of fatality, by taking the pressure off the healthcare system, we may have less intense âsecond-waveâ once the lock-down lifted.
The situation is unprecedented in the living memory.
Another Guardian article quotes 107-year-old Joe Newman of Florida, one of few remaining survivors the Spanish flu, telling NBC News, âThere are those of us who say, well, this too shall go away. And it will. But at what cost, at what expense?â
His words are terse and sobering.
Those who survive the pandemic, the economy will kill. All major economies are going to a slump. With careers, and along with with-it peopleâs identities at stake, many will begin to ask existential questions. It would be a time many will increasingly turn to spirituality for succour, not necessarily of the established religions.
Amid all the cacophony, one thing wriggles out its headâthe communal nature of this crisis, that it is not a matter of me âstaying safeâ, but a matter of we as a nation helping each other out.
I know, this sounds like a cheesy government PR campaign. But like all truths, it is simple and when I realized it made me say, âHow could I have missed it.â
Washing hands with soap and avoiding crowded places are analogous to driving safe, it can only take you so much. When you obey the traffic rules you make the road safe, not just for yourself alone. And when you drive rashly, well you get it.
But what I want to get at is this: Â a person drives with a high beam on a single lane road and thinks that this would make him see better and consequently, helps him to be safer. But we know that this is not the case: the high beam blinds the driver of the oncoming vehicle and makes the road less safe. Similarly, much of our precautions often work against us.
Case point: panic buying.
In the nearby towns, people jostle each other in supermarkets to stockpile on what they think would make them comfortable during the doomsday, should it come. Police had to intervene and the queue stretched out into the pavement.
Fear is its fuel. For a moment imagine that the doomsday has arrived. And like we feared, there is scarcity. And then, people who donât have enough to eat will resort to looting. How those of us who have hoarded, leaving nothing for others claim to have better behaved that the those who have looted? Can we say with honesty, âI brought the stuff with my moneyâ, like in ordinary circumstances? Â All semblance of culture and civility will be stripped off at this point. In fact hoarding not only doesnât work for anyone, but it works against everyone.
In another instance, at a live chicken shop, they grabbed whatever chicken they could, skinned it and handed it over to those who would first raise their hand into the crowded shop. It feels like a society in the throes of anarchy.
This frenzied buying would kill humanity in us before the disease could strike our body.
One thing is clear from this: people are more scared of an apocalyptic end like in the movies than actually contracting the disease. If they had feared the disease more, they would have avoided crowding the shops.
One of the first cases of corona in Kerala was detected in a small town called Ranni, some 30 odd kilometres from my home. A family had returned from Italy, the epicentre of the crisis, and didnât report of their travel history. They were asymptomatic and went about their business as usual. They and a neighbor of theirs, were later confirmed to have the disease. All their secondary and tertiary contacts of around 800 people have been isolated and those who showed symptoms tested. However, others in the area who even didnât have any contact with the infected people are being shooed away from shops, like dogs. These people, have no symptoms nor were in the primary or secondary contact, are starving.
We have returned from Bangalore in the neighbouring state of Karnataka. In the city there is no incidence of local transmission, yet we informed local authorities and have isolated ourselves till everyone can safely assume we havenât smuggled the virus into the state. Our neighbours, when they came to know that we have arrived, on the sly informed the health officials about the âsuspectsâ in the neighbourhood. The officials came and found that we are already in their records and have not stepped outside since we came. Â
Well, if you didnât get it, this was an insult to us, who were too scrupulous to have taken the situation lightly.
One more story: in our neighbourhood, a person who has come from the middle east was in home isolation. He had asked his wife and children to move out and quarantined himself after informing the authorities. His neighbours informed the health officials that he was seen roaming around, when in fact security camera footage installed in his home proved otherwise.
Part fear, part malice, part ignoranceâa crisis not always brings the best in people, especially if heroic acts cannot have an audience.
In the famous lecture delivered by Canadian author Sheila Heti in March 2006 at New York, (the title of which sound cruelly rhetorical at the moment) âWhy Go Out?â, she talks about how you can quit people, like you would quit smoking.
During this time of âsocial distancingâ many concede that friends are equally bad, sometimes even worse.
Except, people are not cigarettes; they are not what we use to get a false sense of satisfaction. Heti demonstrates this through a charade game her friend organised in London, as an alternative to concerts, bar and house parties. The aim of the game is not to get together and have âfunâ, or learn the game, but to get âgoodâ at it.
To be good at charades one needs to have a better sense of what the other person is trying to communicate for which empathy, interpersonal skills, creativity, being a good communicator and also requires you to be a good listener. These are not exclusive charade skills, but essential life skills. Essentially, what it says is that if you are not good at charades you are not a good person. By getting good at the game you naturally transform your psyche.
It demolishes what we intuitively think about friendshipâas a way for us to unwind, a means to celebrate our miserable birthdays and anniversaries, a crutch when we lose our jobs and to have conversations that make us feel good.
We could stay at our homes, smelling of hand sanitizer. We would be healthy, we can watch TV eat our favourite food and think how nice we are unlike the people who went around spreading the disease. Hati says,
âWe could be demi-gods in our little castles, all alone, but perhaps, at heart, none of us here wants that. Maybe the only cure for self-confidence and courage is humility. Maybe we go out in order to fall short⊠because we want to learn how to be good at being people⊠and moreover, because we want to be people.
âSocial distancingâ does not mean we âquit people.â If we do, we do it at our risk. It is a pandemic and it should be viewed not just as a matter of personal hygiene. Personal hygiene is important primarily not because you donât want to get the flu, but you donât want others to get it. Unless we see the well being of other people as our well being we will not succeed in overcoming the crisis Think about the health workers who keep this monster from swallowing world all of a sudden. Just think.
When we deal with people there is the risk of getting the disease, being rejected, and most of all it confronts our own stubborn believes about our own goodness. But the risks we take far out-weighs the benefit we reap.
So, what can be done? Obey the official guidelines, trust your government when it says essential commodities will be made availableâdonât fall for panic buying, donât go out unless it is absolutely necessary, wash hands⊠should I go on?
Then, above all care for others. Call people who are in isolation, provide food or whatever you can provide, yet do it all in a safe way.
Here are a few more tips of getting yourself ready, I lifted from the website of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Create a household plan of action:
1.   Talk with the people who need to be included in your plan. Meet with household members, other relatives, and friends to discuss what to do if a COVID-19 outbreak occurs in your community and what the needs of each person will be.
3.   Plan ways to care for those who might be at greater risk for serious complications. There is limited information about who may be at risk for severe complications from COVID-19 illness. From the data that are available for COVID-19 patients, and from data for related coronaviruses such as SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, it is possible that older adults and persons who have underlying chronic medical conditions may be at risk for more serious complications. Early data suggest older people are more likely to have serious COVID-19 illness. If you or your household members are at increased risk for COVID-19 complications, please consult with your health care provider for more information about monitoring your health for symptoms suggestive of COVID-19. CDC will recommend actions to help keep people at high risk for complications healthy if a COVID-19 outbreak occurs in your community.
4.   Get to know your neighbours. Talk with your neighbours about emergency planning. If your neighbourhood has a website or social media page, consider joining it to maintain access to neighbours, information, and resources.
5.   Identify aid organizations in your community. Create a list of local organizations that you and your household can contact in the event you need access to information, health care services, support, and resources. Consider including organizations that provide mental health or counselling services, food, and other supplies.
6.   Create an emergency contact list. Ensure your household has a current list of emergency contacts for family, friends, neighbours, carpool drivers, health care providers, teachers, employers, the local public health department, and other community resources.
