by Andrada Costoiu

Photo: Gerd Altmann, “Covid-19”

In the morning I read the news, it is one of my routines. I want to see what has happened in the world while I was asleep. When the pandemic began, I started studying the statistics in search for patterns and explanations. I gained a lot of insight, at a cost.
Today I found myself sinking in my chair, crying. When the statistics came in I felt as someone punched me straight into the heart, if there is such a thing…
I was crying because Italy’s numbers went up again. For couple of days they went slightly lower. New daily deaths were around 600/day (which is a lot!) and I thought that they have reached the peak and that they were going down. I was cheering in my heart for them to be better and for their numbers to get lower and lower!!

I think Dr. Strange has skewed the reality. I feel as I live in a bad dream and I am waiting to wake up.  I wonder how everybody feels? 

I know that above all, hope must prevail. I know that this will be over, but I want the loss of life to stop. I don’t want old people to die alone and be buried without the attendance of their families.  I don’t want people to die.

Human kind has been through bad situations. Many of them have happened before we were born, but many happened during our lives. To mention few of the latest: the Syrian war, the genocide in Kosovo and there are many others that I will just leave aside.
What have we done to stop them? Why is there always an international struggle for power, when we all are humans living on this planet. Why do we spend resources on warfare instead of spending them on development, cures, better lives for people and eventually, making our way in this vast universe because this planet might not be enough?

This virus doesn’t recognize borders. Maybe this pandemic was a wake up call. A call for people to become better, a call for nation states to become better. I hope we will learn. I hope we will become more compassionate, more loving, more supportive, because these qualities and more are in each and every one of us.
On this little planet called Earth our story, as humankind, should be a story of survival. A story of love, because it makes us all feel good. A story of compassion and support because we all need each other.

Here is to all of you, to all the doctors and nurses, to people working in all domains, to our elders, to our young people. Keep pouring whatever you have good in your cup in the cups of others, become their miracle.

We will get through this together.