T.K. Naliaka: author of In Times of Peril
Are you an Effective Force or a Stubborn Wall?
I have been thinking a bit about COVID-19 and how it has entered our lives. I am not preoccupied or paranoid...probably just the opposite. Yesterday we handed the gas attendant cash without thinking of what we were doing...we hand sanitized our hands afterwards and just assumed she would do the same. I retrospectively felt very regretful for that action and assumption. It got me thinking about the lesson this virus leaves us with and how we can handle it.
Not All About "Me"
The wonderful thing this virus can teach us...is to get beyond our own sense of "me, my and mine" and to think of others... To stand together, connected, as One human race in protection and support of all parts of it. We do not need to stand "against" the virus, fight it, resist it, make an enemy out of it or deny its presence in our world...but we can stand together and take precautions to ensure wellness of our species.
If you have a healthy immune system...the virus will likely just make you...in your individual body... feel yucky for a couple of days and it will be over for you...no big deal right? But your neighbour may be older and less likely to recover like you did. Your cousin with COPD (Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease) can not risk getting a pneumonia like infection. And the person you may be handing cash to may have a weakened immune system because of chemotherapy, AIDS or for some other reason...they may not survive such a viral infection.
So what does that have to do with "you" and "me" with healthier immune systems? Absolutely everything...you can pass it on! You can create a wonderful bouncing board for it to spring from your body to the next, from one section of your community to the next...from one community to the next...from one country to the next. You get that right? This is pandemic meaning that it is an infection that is jumping from continent to continent.
It is all so New
The thing is...we do not know exactly how the human host will respond to such a viral visit. This virus is new and when it began there was absolutely no herd immunity...no way for a host to build up antibodies against the onslaught. Viruses, especially corona viruses, are virulent and very adaptive. They therefore spread easily. They also have the potential, like any virus, to mutate and create more virulent strains.
Epidemiologists will have a very hard time predicting what a new virus will and can do. That's why National Public Health organizations and WHO make such a fuss over a new virus like this one. Creating international panic was not on their agenda. They just wanted to make sure everyone ...every single one of us little beings in bodies that could become hosts or spreaders...did their part to contain it and prevent its spread.
Because the virus is so new, scientists have yet to create a vaccine or antiviral to limit its ability to speread or cause fatal morbidity. It is going to take time for a natural response of herd immunity to develop and in the mean time there will be fatalities. We want to limit the amount of fatlity globally, do we not? We therefore need to reduce the spread. And that is where each and everyone of us plays a very important role.
Learning From History
Many of us probably don't remember first hand how small pox wiped out large populations of people who were never exposed to it before right? Or remember the Spanish Flue Pandemic in 1918 and the cost to human life that entailed. Not that this virus is as life threatening as these two, especially when we consider the advances in health care since that time. Still... we cannot take the chance. There are still many third world countries in our shared world where health care and public health education are not adequate. There are individuals, even in countries that are known for their excellent health care ( like my own) who do not have the innate or acquired immunity to handle a visitation from this virus.
Not a Time For Unconsciousness
Unfortunately, there are some unconscious individuals who do not think about spreading it. It is not a concern for them for whatever reason. Many are concerned about how it will effect "them" and knowing they will be okay , are not thinking about their potential to spread it to a nursing home full of vulnerable residents, for example. There are others, who may be well meaning in their convictions, that believe we must let nature do her thing and are more afraid of what modern science will add to this in terms of vaccines and antivirals than they are cooperative .
Understanding this as a part of human nature ...governments have to step in and order closures of heavily populated institutions and sometimes even force a quarantine. (I am not sure about border closures to protect one's own national identity when I believe we are all One World but I can definitely see the need to limit travel. ) It may seem "excessive" but I believe it is fundamentally imperative in order to protect the human component of what it means to be human being.
I thought you said there was no such thing as illness, crazy lady?
What I actually said was that there is a means for us to get to that understanding and to transcend a belief in illness that will make illness unreal. Very, very few of us are there.
If you still look outside your Self and see it all as real, ( like most of us still do) the virus is real, illness is real. The virus is real...it is nature doing her thing...as wise and as brilliant as she is. It is an external event that is blowing into our lives and will just as quickly blow out of our lives. Whether or not we "get sick" again puts my new theory that I am testing to the task but if you believe that you are in a vulnerable body and have not yet evolved to the state that so few have...we need to do the following to protect the One human race we are all tiny droplets of:
- Breathe !!! Take a big, beautiful breath in and a breath out...focus on your breath. Be here and now. Get out of your monkey mind and all it is telling you about this pandemic. Do your best to limit thinking all together for a few minutes and when you are ready begin to see and think clearly. There is no need to panic and panic has never done anyone any good what so ever! So breathe...just breathe!
- Start meditating and praying if it is not already a part of your daily routine. Add these wonderful "stilling" and mindfulness practices to your day. And not because it is a time to be desperate but because forced quarantines and restrictions provide a wonderful opportunity for you to practice how to truly heal yourself and the world. Reconnect to your source...find moments of solace and peace in amongst the global panic. If you find peace, others will be more peaceful around you. If others are more peaceful...the world will eventually be too.
- Limit your time on the news and social media sites. Don't allow yourself to be swept up in collective panic. Man...the ego loves all this drama. It hears, "a state of emergency has been declared" and is in its element. Just make sure you are not thinking or seeing through ego here. Okay?
- Don't make an enemy out of this virus. It is not your enemy. It is just nature doing what nature does. It just is. Most of the suffering that arises from this is not due to the virus but what our minds tell us about the virus...we are getting swept away in the drama, the fear, the paranoia and the resistance. That doesn't do anything but keep us suffering. If you choose to see this virus as an evil thing out to get you, well you are just making the whole thing worse for yourself and others. Choose differently.
- Allow and accept. The virus just is...it just is. It is nature doing what nature does for a wise reason we will never understand in these human forms. We do not need to understand. It is blowing through our lives and I am convinced for some reason, that it is just as quickly going to blow out of our lives. The best thing we can do is just stand back ( take precautions) and watch it. Resisting it, denying it, struggling against it, will not make it go any faster. It will just make it worse.
- By all means, take precautions:
- Follow the mandated precautions. If you are asked to stay out of public places...stay out of public places. If you are asked to keep you and your family in quarantine for a time period ...do so.
- Wash your hands...wash your hands...wash your hands. Viruses are usually transmitted via droplets that come from coughing and sneezing. These droplets can travel a short distance in the air (6 feet) and they can land on fomites ( objects that help to spread disease) and live for a period of time....like railings, door knobs, glasses, taps, countertops, money etc but the most obvious fomite is your hand. Just wash your hands after you touch potentially contaminated objects or other people. Wash your hands before preparing food, before and after you eat, after using the washroom, after coughing and sneezing into them, after touching your mouth...you get the picture right? And wash for twenty seconds with normal soup and water. You do not need antibacterial...in fact right now you probably want to conserve as much normal bacteria on your hands as you can. I would also recommend putting perfume free hand lotion on your hands if they become dry from the extra washing to prevent cracking and breaking of skin. Keep those finger nails short if you can! If you do not have access to soap and water you can use a hand sanitizer.
- Cough and sneeze into the crook of your elbow rather than on your hands.
- Avoid touching your face...get someone in your family to act as the "face police' to help you monitor and remind us we are doing so
- Avoid using public services...drive throughs, churches, restaurants, banks etc as much as possible to limit your ability to contact or spread the virus.
- Use Debit card/credit card with tap rather than cash. Limit that ability to transfer by limiting shared handling of anything.
- Stand farther than six feet apart from acutance's you meet when talking
- If you do not know how to use masks and gloves correctly, don't use them. They too often give people a false sense of security and if used incorrectly can actually do more harm than good.
- Avoid visiting others, especially the elderly and those who have compromised immune systems. This is a good time to get your grandmother to learn how to Skype or Face Time so you can keep in touch without actual physical contact
- Stay away from nursing homes and hospitals as much as possible.
- Keep surfaces clean. Man I hate this one...lol...more housework! Keep counters, sinks, faucets, door knobs, toilet surfaces clean and disinfect regularly.
- Keep yourself healthy: rest, drink water, limit your work hours, eat healthy food that is rich in antioxidants and vitamin C. Exercise and get plenty of fresh air.
- If you develop symptoms, (fever, dry cough, sore throat and shortness of breath) quarantine yourself for 14 days. The incubation period is believed to be 4-14 days, meaning that is the time between contact with the virus and until you are no longer infective. Call the number set up in your community to get tested. It is important to public health that all cases are confirmed.
Just think...you are an important cog in that big, beautiful mechanism. How amazing is that?
All is well!
No real citation here but what came from my head from years of nursing and teaching and a fact sheet or two...sorry.
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