A global panic attack, that’s what it was. As 2019 approached its end, news of an airborne germ sent the world into a handwashing, disinfecting, mask-wearing frenzy, and a place called Wuhan, China was named the epicentre.
Prior to this, other than the people who lived in China, only a handful of us had ever heard of Wuhan, but now the name was imprinted in our minds leaving a feeling of connection.
For most of us, it was our first experience of a pandemic; after all, none of us were around at the time of the Plague of Justinian or the time of bubonic plague called the Black Death. Those being the first two epidemics, the latter occurring in the fourteenth century, shows clearly that we have always been walking on thin ice at the mercies of germs. Tuberculosis and HIV/AID were the last two, which some of us, who experienced the 2019 epidemic were aware of, but it was clear that awareness did not equate to preparedness because, boy, were we lost for a solution.
Named the Coronavirus of 2019 and coined COVID-19 as a highly contagious disease caused by a severe acute respiratory syndrome, this one was sneaky and tricky to handle because although positive indications of contracting the virus were listed as having a fever, shortness of breath and loss of senses, there were cases with no symptoms at all.
So, it was clear that Scientists and all the world’s medical professionals had their work cut out for them. And as usual, they got busy trying to do what they always do when there is a mistake, an accident or a problem, they sought after a solution.
In this case, it was like grabbing the bull by its horn……for a long time too. An entire year went by and it felt like the world literally stood still.
Gripped with travel bans and quarantines, our lives adjusted to virtual realities of education and work, but it being the first pandemic for most, was impossible to sail smooth, interruptions to overnight-drafted protocols occurred often, most were out of ignorance, selfish acts and others were deemed necessary, in one or two cases, sacrificial.
Despite trusting world government and medical advisers to practice social distancing as a preventive measure, humanity continued to propel in its worst and best ways, so when George Floyd was killed in the USA, in an inhumane manner, the world thought it was a worthy cause to break protocol in protest of social and racial injustices.
During this time, millions of people around the world exercised zero social distancing and remained virus-free.
This along with other incidents, cast shadows of doubt on the truth about COVID-19, its existence, its transmission level and whether or not it was fabricated for the purpose of an experiment or world control. Meanwhile television and social medias showed news of people dying from the virus every day.
Speculations merged with conspiracy theories equated to confusion, mistrust and doubts. And by the time a recommended solution was introduced, it only heightened the uncertainties even more.
The year 2020 ascended with the introduction of a two-part vaccine, which was said to likely aid the problem of COVID-19, but because the manufacturers of the vaccine mandated a ‘no liability’ clause which was supported by most governments, some people were extremely hesitant of its use.
A ‘no liability’ clause interpreted to TAKE AT OWN RISK without actually stating those words, and those who were able to decipher its translation went into immediate protective modes.
Many people took this position, but no other groups of humans were more obviously apprehensive than those of the Black race, and rightly so; after all, they had an unfortunate and unforgettable history with vaccine.
Between 1932 and 1972 in Tuskegee, Alabama in the United States of America, the black race was targeted and tricked into believing that they were being vaccinated to improve their health while the truth was that they were being injected with syphilis, a bacterial infection, as a study of the infection and the biological reaction of the infected people. Considering that this study was of recent times, approved and permitted by a branch of government, the US Public Health Services, it is evident why most black people are weary about taking a vaccine for COVID-19.
© Ian T. Sebàs 2021
Bleeding Pen 