Lessons That We Should Have Learned From The Pandemic.

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2 years ago

Lessons that we should have learned from the Pandemic.

The covid-19 Pandemic is perhaps the longest and the worst crisis the world has experienced in recent history. 

The deadly virus not only threatened the lives of everyone, but it also disrupted the operations of almost all business entities; grounding all means of transportation. Whether by land, air, or water. 

It's already been at least eighteen months since the first case was reported. Here in the Philippines, it's almost sixteen months since the President declared a full lockdown for Metro Manila, where the highest concentration of the infected was. The other provinces followed. 

Hello, dear readers. A few months after the Coronavirus pandemic started, I thought this catastrophic event is trying to teach us something. 

Most of the time when we get sick, it's because we repeatedly did something that is not healthy and our body is telling us to stop and make a change. The question is, do we listen to our bodies? 

This event is telling us on a global scale that we need to do something. 

And these are my thoughts… 

The Covid-19 Pandemic

The pandemic has affected all of us in different ways. As of the time of writing, the deadly virus has already taken more than four million lives. 

Most businesses around the globe were forced to stop operating for a long period that many had to close permanently. 

The Cause and How it Spreads. The coronaviruses are not new. They were known to exist in animals. The Covid-19 was believed to have been transmitted to humans from bats in Wuhan China. 

The virus is known to spread through the droplets coming from an infected person who sneezes or coughs or even just while talking. 

A person could get the virus if:

  •  the droplets containing the virus land on his/her eyes, nose, or mouth. 

  • Or if a person touches the surface where the droplets landed and then touches his/her face. 

It's also known that the virus is not airborne and can't go farther than six feet when secreted. 

Common Safety Measures

  • Wear a face mask when public places

  • Social Distancing- stay six feet away from others. 

  • Avoid crowded and poorly ventilated places. 

  • Wash your hands frequently

  • Clean and disinfect surfaces daily

  • Cover when you cough or sneeze. 

  • Keep your immune system strong. 

Before we go through the lessons let's take a look at how the Pandemic affected us aside from the threat to our lives. 


Effects of the Pandemic To Personal Finance

Aside from the threat to our lives, the pandemic has affected most of us financially. 

A lot of small and even medium-scale businesses have stopped operating. Since travel is restricted, public utility vehicle (tricycles, jeepneys, taxis, and busses) drivers and operators have lost their means of income. 

I work as a freelance IT consultant in our city. I was working on the second phase of the redesign and rehabilitation of the IT infrastructure project of a hospital when the Pandemic hit. The next was to redesign and upgrade their wireless connectivity. 

That phase was put on hold up to now. And with most business operations are put on hold, I could not get a new client. Thus no income. 

I was also teaching part-time for a private school. The summer program was canceled and the school reopening was moved from June to August. So from April to July, I had no income. 

My emergency fund was depleted rather quickly. 


I posted a question in Noise. cash about this. The question was:

"How did the Pandemic affected you financially?" 

I got two answers. 

@Anonymous23 said his father had to get a loan to get by. 

@sweetiecha shared that for the first three months they relied on the finances of their relatives. But that too stopped. And cryptocurrency is a great help for them. 

Effects of the Pandemic On the environment

Not everything that the covid-19 has brought was bad though. With the minimized human activities, air and water pollution were greatly reduced. 

Images from the NASA Earth Observatory show a stark drop in pollution in Wuhan when comparing NO2 levels in early 2019 (top) and early 2020 (bottom). 

Source: Wikipedia

Read more at Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the environment

Now let's go through some of the lessons that we should have learned from this pandemic in terms of:

  • Personal Health

  • Personal Finance

  • Environment

Lesson For Our Health

In my opinion, our best defense against this virus is not the vaccine. I believe that our best defense against this virus and any other diseases is boosting our immune system naturally. And we can do it by maintaining a clean and healthy lifestyle. 

  • Eat a healthy and balanced diet. 

  • Have enough sleep every day. 

  • Exercise daily. A short walk will do. 

  • Always have a rest day. Our body needs to rest and relax to be productive. 

  • Maintain proper hygiene. If you take a look at the basic precautions, washing of hands, disinfecting, covering when sneezing or coughing, they should have always been and should be practiced with or without the covid19 virus. 

  • Social Distancing requires avoiding crowded and poorly ventilated spaces. Imagine this-you are in a crowded space. The room is airconditioned but not well ventilated. Someone sneezes. And that someone is sick with a yet unidentified virus. What do you think would happen? 

The Lesson:

Stay healthy, and your body will have a better fighting chance against any diseases. 

Lesson On Finance

Our finances were greatly affected by the virus. Those who are living from their day-to-day income felt the effect almost instantly. 

But even some of those who were prepared are affected.

The Lesson:

It pays to be prepared. Save for at least six months worth of your basic monthly expenses. It will take time and require a lot of discipline. 

Lesson on the Environment. 

I believe the environment is the biggest winner in this crisis. With the lessened human activities worldwide, air and water pollution has lessened. This pollution reduction has a positive long-term effect on the environment. 

The Lesson

Mother nature needs to take a rest from time to time. Even in the  Bible, the Israelites were commanded that the last must have a sabbath year. 

But in the seventh year, the land is to have a year of sabbath rest, a sabbath to the Lord. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards.

Leviticus 25:4 NIV

https://leviticus.bible/leviticus-25-4


Just as humans need to rest, it appears that the Earth needs her rest as well. And for the same reason. With rest, the human body is rejuvenated, and within the year that the human activities were minimized, Mother Nature has slightly recovered from all the pollution caused by humans. 

The Lesson

Perhaps this is quite difficult to apply. And "not working the land" has its repercussions in this era. 

But if we continue in our fast-paced lifestyle and we don't slow down from time to time, mother nature will always find a way to disrupt human activities and let the Earth heal.

Final Thoughts

These are just some of the lessons that I think we, humans, should have learned from this Pandemic. 

If we have not learned anything and will not change our ways, even with the vaccines, mother nature will soon find a way to disrupt our way of life. A super typhoon, earthquakes, and other calamities, or another killer virus.

Our responsibility is to take care of the planet. Not abuse it.

Thanks for reading.

Image Credits.

No To Covid 19. - my own work that I uploaded in Pixabay.

Covid Can't Jump-my work

Financial Report - unsplash

Pollution Image Map- Wikipedia

Nature takes over - my photo

References:

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/coronavirus-causes


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2 years ago

Comments

Less carbon footprint. Laki nga ikinaganda sa air pollution nung lahat mga nasa bahay. But there was an increase in plastic consumption due to online shopping. Then the disposals of face masks, face shields and PPEs.

Hindi ko naman nilalahat pero kasi nakakainis talaga dito sa atin lalo yung iba dura everywhere. Isa na diyan tatay ko naku nakakagigil. Minsan pa sa may garden dudura. Tapos mamaya nakikita ko yung mga aso namin may dinidilaan. Gigil ako. Kaya sinasabihan ko talaga ng yuck. Katwiran niya nagtitipid sa tissue or tinatamad pumunta ng banyo. Tapos sinabi pa hindi airborne. Pero ako feeling ko airborne yan. Kasi droplets pero ang naiinfect madami.

Isa sa naturo ni pandemic is magtipid ng sobra. Nagtitipid naman kami noon pero yung ngayon mas matindi ang paghihigpit ng bulsa at sinturon. Hehe.

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2 years ago

Indeed, it taught us a lot of lessons and realizations. Everything is still uncertain though.

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2 years ago

Our life has turn 180 degrees, but I find this situation still teaches us in some ways.No matter what happens in this life, we should always be ready ,God has prepared for us better days

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2 years ago

yes, the pandemic had brought positive effects to the environment...

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2 years ago

In fact, the Pandemic really thought me a lot especially having to find a source of income. It helps me value my health and I maintained my health while locked inside.

It also teaches to be prepared for the future. Many people regretted not saving when they had the chance to and now, it's a great lesson to them and I hope they will make amends and start saving for the future.

$ 0.05
2 years ago

Yeah, it's always better to be prepared.

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2 years ago

This is a fantastic article. If you look in history there have always been disasters that have culled humans, Spanish Flu, the plagues, however we are now more advanced medically, so as horrific as the death toll has been, if this was a hundred years ago it would have been so much.

There is a positive to be had as you point out. Mother Nature has used the time to help heal herself from our actions, although a long way to go, at least it helped cut down on pollution etc.

$ 0.05
2 years ago

True. And if we don't learn from the past... Mother nature will give her children some mean spanking again in the future.

Thanks.

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2 years ago

haha yes she will keep doing it again and again

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2 years ago