Coronavirus: Highlighting the best and worst of society
The coronavirus outbreak has taken thousands of lives and affected many hundreds of thousand more across the world. It has also allowed us to put society under the microscope and enabled the best and worst aspects of humanity to be seen.
From the early onset of this pandemic, we have seen communities come together. Hundreds, if not thousands, of support groups within communities have come together through social media and phones to make sure the most vulnerable and isolated are not forgotten about.
Volunteers from the smallest of villages and largest of cities have stepped in to deliver food, medicine and company to those who need it most. They are not within the key workers category, but these local volunteers could be a lifeline for people living alone during this epidemic.
The overwhelming volunteer services provided by local charity and community organisations are vital cogs in the machine which will fight coronavirus. The sickness is not the only danger during this pandemic, loneliness could be almost as bad for many. Luckily, it has become apparent that the milk of human kindness if far from going sour.
Videos of NHS staff being applauded and cheered at work/ preparing to go to work are heart-warming enough to make even the sternest individuals emotional.
At the other end of the humanity spectrum, however, there is plenty to be angry and ashamed of.
In the last week, NHS staff have been attacked, had their houses and cars broken into. All of this during a time when these people are working ungodly lengths of time to prevent more members of the public suffering at the hands of this virus.
Whether it’s a lack of common sense, basic brain faculties or an accumulation of both and more reasons, the people carrying out these crimes are at the lowest of the low. They are simple minded people who will most likely get through this unscathed, to carry on their uncaring ways in normal circumstances.
News of NHS staff being victims of theft and abuse are infuriating, especially during a time where 99.9% of the population are coming together. Crimes are being committed against the very people trying to protect the public. These criminals are, to quote the ever quotable Malcolm Tucker from ‘The Thick of It’, “so dense that light bends around them.”
A challenge for anyone who claims the pandemic is getting blown out of proportion by the media is to take their views to an NHS worker or to one of the thousands of family members across the UK who has lost a loved one. Gutted your local pub is closed for a few weeks? Just think of people living in isolation and can’t see their loved ones for an unknown amount of time. We’re all getting affected by this and we need to be in it together.
The authorities have said that the lockdown is gradually beginning to work, but word of group gatherings and people travelling across the UK is still circulating. Until everyone stops, then life as it is now will remain the same.
The few morons who are attacking NHS staff are just that, few and far between. The positive news of communities rallying together and helping out those most in need outweighs the instances of embarrassing behaviour. With this kind of attitude the period of time in which the country is gripped by this virus, however long that may be, will be made easier for those most isolated.
