For at certain amount of time I have been thinking of sharing a blog post about COVID-19. However, I had too many thoughts about the content of this blog post and there are simply too many angles of the crisis I would like to share with you.

Believe me there are many stuffs about COVID-19 I would like to assess. I want to discuss about: 

• The strategies the different countries are executing 
• The usefulness of wearing masks 
• How to use a mask 
• How citizens are behaving 
• Discriminations 
• How people should put health and safety over economy and leisure 
• How people are underestimating COVID-19 

These are not the only topics I want to share my opinion on and who knows I might publish more posts about COVID-19 later this year. For a long time I thought this specific blog post would be a political one, but in the end, I ended up with a more “down to earth” blog post. 

I started reading about COVID-19 right after a great Christmas Eve celebration when I saw some articles before I went to bed (back then it was not called “COVID-19” yet). At that point I was already concerned and my memories about SARS were reappearing. I did not want it to affect my mood, so I decided to just enjoy the holidays and not think too much about it. 

Sadly, more and more international articles about this mysterious disease and Wuhan were appearing through different channels. I started getting seriously concerned around mid-January when I cancelled all my vacation plans for spring and Easter. I was really looking forward to another Hong Kong trip in spring and visiting Japan while there are sakura during Easter, but as a person I am really safe. From my perspective COVID-19 was already getting out of hand and I knew it could potentially already be in different countries when people can travel so freely. 

Mid-January was also the start of my journey of buying masks, hand sanitizers and disinfection items to prepare for “battle”. It was not like I wanted to use masks right away, but I wanted to make sure I had some in case the different governments do not take this potential crisis seriously enough.

Not long and around end of January the whole crisis started escalating (even more). Around Christmas and New Year I was already skeptical and was feeling that it could turn into a crisis if it is not properly dealt with. Deeply I was also hoping that the whole world had learned from SARS and that it would be possible to restrain COVID-19 with the right moves. At the same time, I clearly felt that the public did not receive all the information about COVID-19 considering how problematic it was. I was also convinced that COVID-19 could be transmitted from human to human early on even though it was not announced back then. I was certain that it was a problematic virus even though it was claimed as something minor. 

As you now know COVID-19 has created a global crisis and even today there are still people who do not take it seriously enough and consider it as a flu. I honestly do not get how people can be so carefree against COVID-19 when countries have executed curfews, lockdowns etc. I do not want people to be or feel scared, but you can at least take precautions and do what you can to avoid getting infected and to avoid infecting others, because if we all take it too lightly this crisis will never end.

I also want to point out that I do not understand why people keep saying COVID-19 is not dangerous. Have you not noticed that young and healthy people are dying too? As far as I know there are no one in this world who has a clear and full picture of COVID-19. Scientists and doctors have many discoveries about this virus and they all have their own theories about it. We have to remember that this is a new virus and we have no experience with it. Why else would we be in this situation? Also be aware that we do not have any knowledge about the side effects and if there are any long-term health problems. Remember that SARS gave some health problems in the long run. 

I understand that people have a hard time in limiting their lives, but at the same time I did what I could to be safe. I stayed home for almost 60 days and I did not go out at all. I also bought groceries online, because before the lockdown I could tell that many people in Denmark do not keep distance. If I had the choice, I would have stayed home for at least 100 days, but I also felt guilty towards some of my responsibilities. This is also why I did not reach exactly 60 days at home even though it would have been some sort of a milestone. Currently I have reached another milestone, because I have not got a haircut for 3 months now. 

Lastly, I just want to say that some countries acted fast against COVID-19, but most countries did not react fast enough. In general, I think none of the countries outside of Asia were fast enough and they clearly do not have any experience with something like COVID-19. At first it was claimed that COVID-19 is not troublesome, but you could still clearly tell it was getting out of hand if you followed closely. My point is that even though the official statements were unclear, the western countries could still be better prepared to fight against COVID-19. Maybe I can elaborate on this matter in another blog post. 

Stay safe.