Psychological Deaths of Corona

Imagine you are living in a neighborhood for ten years; all happy and sound; you have no issues with any of the neighbor, everyone seems kind and gentle. All of a sudden, one day you come to know that your neighbors are actually not what they appear to be, they are actually criminals involved in serious crimes. You were already living with them for ten years and nothing ever happened but because now you are aware of the reality, suddenly you become anxious and you loose all your peace and can’t live in this place anymore.

Allah has not created a single grain on this earth without a purpose; but He purposely hid many things from human beings because if we were to know them, it would have created chaos; a glimpse of which we see in the modern world. We will focus on medical science. The more human beings have explored the human body, the more sensitive we have become. People before us lived in deserts and forests with no hygiene, no medicine, no X-rays etc. Kids played in sand and mud; adults worked under the sun and lived in open places without any fear of germs and that’s what made their immune system much stronger than the current generation. Your immune system gets stronger when you let it fight the germs. Being over hygienic simply makes your immune system idle and hence even a small disease affects you badly due to your lack of strength in fighting the disease.

It’s not like people weren’t falling ill back then; but because their illness wasn’t diagnosed and their bodies were not addicted to artificial medicine, there was no fear and their natural lifestyle and peace of mind automatically fought the disease. Remember, it’s not just a snake’s venom that kills you, it’s the fear.

Even in today’s time, not everyone is privileged enough to have a good healthcare so there is a huge majority that still stays away from hospitals simply because they can’t pay the bills. And it is a fact that even if you take a healthy person to a hospital for checkups, he will be diagnosed with several complications which aren’t dangerous but because now they have appeared, the person’s lifestyle will change because of the fear.

One of my friend’s father had Malaria and they didn’t even know about it; the family is not heavily into medicines and follow home remedies in routine; so when her father fell ill, they simply did what they always do and her father recovered. Later one day, someone was discussing about Malaria and its symptoms and upon hearing, the family recalled the symptoms of her father and came to know that he was actually suffering from Malaria.

We all know conditions of Pakistan; if medical checkup of all Pakistanis is to be performed, half of the population will come up with several serious diseases; but because they are hidden, everyone is living a good life.

I gave above examples to explain how psychological aspects are more dangerous than the disease itself. Now let’s talk about the current pandemic.

I am not denying the severity of this virus but my stance since the beginning is the same that it is being over hyped and more than the virus, it’s the fear that’s killing people. Let’s keep all conspiracy theories aside-which some of them I tend to believe, but not blindly- and let’s assume all the numbers are right. Even then, the constant focus is on dead bodies instead of recoveries which are far more than the deaths. Even one death is unfortunate but let’s be practical, people die all the time; if media starts reporting about deaths from traffic accidents on daily basis from around the world, people will stop driving due to fear.

With all these horror animations and 24/7 reporting of deaths, fear has become more lethal than the virus itself. If someone will test positive, he will die 25% immediately because his mind will play all those horror animations and consequences of not being able to meet loved ones, not being able to have a proper funeral etc. 485,362 people have recovered in contrast to 126,830 deaths but because all the focus is on the death numbers, the person’s first instinct will be among the dead people. Then he will die 25% because of the family; a person can be strong for himself but not for the loved ones so when the patient will see panic among his family, it will further halt his inner strength of battling the virus; so 50% a person dies internally upon hearing positive result. Now 25% he will die upon admission to the hospital because of the vibe. When you go to a music concert, you feel energy or peace of mind-depending on the type of music. Similarly, hospitals have their vibes; even a sound person will feel uncomfortable lying on a hospital bed due to the environment. And in such chaotic situation, the psychological effect will be even worse. So the person is left with just 25% of his will to fight the battle.

Now if the world hadn’t over reacted, the situation could have been much better. And I am not saying it out of thin air. I did some research. And before you give examples of any particular country, don’t forget that governments have always used catastrophes for their own benefits.

The first confirmed case of Coronavirus is reported to be confirmed in November 2019 and Chinese Government started taking measures in February 2020. For the first three months, there was no lockdown in Wuhan, no precautionary measures taken, no proper diagnosis; in fact, Chinese reported in January- which WHO also tweeted- that this virus doesn’t transmit from human to human. So, one theory which raises eyebrows is that how come such a contagious virus didn’t spread outside Wuhan city without lockdown and precautionary measures for three months? Well, may be the virus did spread but the fear didn’t.

Wuhan has an international airport and thousands of passengers travel daily, domestically and internationally both. There are direct flights from Wuhan to major cities such as London, New York, San Francisco, Paris, Tokyo, Rome, and Istanbul etc. So the virus had spread throughout the world since at least December 2019 but because people weren’t aware and there was no fear, the virus didn’t kill them. Again, I am not saying it out of thin air.

I came across a Facebook page and read some comments of American people; they told that they were having these corona symptoms-some people in December, some in January- which they never had before, and they went for checkups but the doctors couldn’t find anything and they were told that as it is a flu season, may be it has hit harder this season and were prescribed normal drugs and were told to have rest and everyone eventually recovered.

How come deaths suddenly spiked in March, four months after the first case? Because of the sheer amount of fear and panic which is being spread by media continuously. And remember, there are authentic reports that the numbers of deaths are being exaggerated for personal benefits. Imagine this, someone is running a private hospital and the government announces that financial aid will be provided to the hospitals for their services; has the world changed overnight that no one will think of using the panic for personal gains? And remember that World Bank and IMF also announced huge financial packages for the countries worst hit by the virus and soon after this announcement, we saw a huge spike in cases.

I am not advising to take things very normal because the fear is now widespread and will affect all of us and like I mentioned above, you might have the strength to fight the battle but your loved ones don’t. Sometimes it’s not brave to dive against the tides. Take the precautionary measures and glide in the same direction as others for everyone’s comfort. But, don’t let the fear overcome your conscious. No matter how extreme measures we take, the only power that can save us is the power of Almighty.