Since December 11, 2020, there have been FDA approved vaccines available for use. Since then, the virus has only spread further and broke record after record of new cases and deaths. Brazil, India, and even Sweden are seeing rising numbers of confirmed cases and their health systems are on the brink of collapse, if they haven’t already faltered. At the same time, some countries are emerging from the crisis. Israel, for example, has had a day without Covid-19 deaths for the first time in nine months. The US is also seeing diminishing numbers, though it is still not out of the woods.
Nevertheless, even countries that now appear to be winning, have other blows waiting in the pipeline. The pandemic has landed on humanity for a reason: to force us to understand that we have to change our attitude—first toward each other, and then toward the rest of the world. But despite nearly 150 million cases, and more than three million deaths, we have not learned a thing. Until we understand that the problem is with us, and not with the virus, we will keep suffering blows. If we don’t understand it through the coronavirus, we will understand it through some other crisis.
Besides the illness, Covid has far-reaching consequences that are even worse than the disease itself, which is horrible enough. Widespread joblessness, other health issues, and social crises are all consequences of Covid, but there is more. The climate crisis is worsening, political tensions are rising, and the future of humanity seems bleak on all fronts. The initial lockdowns were actually helpful in moderating some of the adverse effects of humanity on the climate, but that moderation was short-lived and repeated lockdowns proved detrimental on other aspects.
Until we realize that the problem is not with Covid, but with us, and specifically with our relations, we will not be healed. Each country, even those that currently appear to have defeated the virus, will suffer their own blows. We will be healed only when we realize that our attitude toward each other is our real sickness, that this is the real plague. There isn’t, and cannot be a vaccine for human cruelty; we can cure it only through sincere efforts to build positive ties, to transcend our mutual alienation. Covid-19 is one way to convey this message to humanity, but nature can land plenty of other blows that will force us to acknowledge that we are dependent on each other. The sooner we learn that the healing is between us, the sooner we will overcome the virus.
[Fire department staff draws COVID-19 Moderna vaccine from an ampule into a syringe during the event. Facilitated by the Reno Fire department and the City of Reno, The Mexican Consulate of Las Vegas have partnered up to hold a COVID-19 vaccine event at Evelyn Mount Northeast Community Centre to engage the Mexican and Hispanic community in the vaccination effort and encourage people to get immunized. (Photo by Ty O’Neil / SOPA Images/Sipa USA)]