In Wake of a Pandemic
I believe that some people have come across an ad about a game named Plague Inc, a once-popular game where you control diseases and try to infect the entire human population. One popular strategy in the game is to raise your infectivity as much as possible while trying to minimize your disease’s severity, having your disease infect as many as possible before cranking up the lethality with all the mutation points you have. The first part of this strategy, in many ways, is like COVID-19. While Plague Inc is not a completely accurate disease simulator, it is close. With now 1 million cases worldwide, you can understand why many health professionals declaring this “flu-like” disease a pandemic.
Impact of COVID-19
As of today, there are 319 cases of COVID-19 in the state of Hawaii. Many residences here including myself have limited our activities outside for only essential tasks like getting groceries or supplies. While most of my courses can be incorporated online with minimal issues, some of my courses have to cut some of its content. I likely fall into the category that has very little impact. However, for students that live in dorms and work to pay rent, this pandemic might just have flipped their life upside down. I’ve heard stories where students were laid-off and now can’t afford to pay their rent.
Trump’s Downplaying of COVID-19
Since my family is originally from China, we have heard from our relatives about a disease spreading back in January. My mother’s company, which specializes in tourism, foreseen the upcoming financial hit and closed down; leaving my mother unemployed. While my mother’s company foreseen the impact of COVID-19, it’s honestly frustrating to see Trump downplay the situation to the way to March. I don’t believe he have done a great job, but a terrible job at preparing for COVID-19. With the ever-increasing cases of COVID-19, Trump still values the market more than the potential thousands of lives in this country.
Recent News Reporting
I think many would agree with me that worrying about the disease is already frustrating enough, but now, many Asian Americans will have to worry about their safety. Recently, there has been a report of an increase in racism against Asians in America over the fear of COVID-19. Our President Trump’s remark of the disease, calling it “Chinese Virus” surely isn’t helping with the situation. More worrying, a few days ago, there’s a news reporting of a man attacking an Asian family. While I doubt there would be such cases here in Hawaii, that’s a different story for my relatives living in other states whom my parents would check-up every night to make sure they are ok.
In the face of the pandemic, we should listen to professionals about the disease instead of panicking and buy out an entire store, leaving no personal protection equipment for healthcare professionals; and not shift the blame upon us, Asian Americans, for the outbreak of COVID-19. In such dire time, we should be trying to help each other and not pointing our fingers at each other.