@JLoberiza 9 July 2021 more from that month

Lessons That We Should Have Learned From The Pandemic. **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****.*  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_of_the_COVID-19_pandemic_on_the_environment Read more at **Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the environment** https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/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. Check out my other posts in **Read.Cash** https://read.cash/r/JLoberiza Check out my other Articles in **Publish0x.com** https://www.publish0x.com/?a=YRdG5RZyaD Join me in **ForumCoin.Com**  https://forumcoin.com/index.php?r=2628 Follow me in **Noise.cash** https://noise.cash/u/JLshub Follow me on **Twitter** https://read.cash/@JLoberiza/my-painful-ordeal-continued-5113f2db#bad-link

**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**