A Needle in a Haystack: A Little Kindness and Positivity, the Strongest Armor Against COVID-19

A Needle in a Haystack: A Little Kindness and Positivity, the Strongest Armor Against COVID-19
-April Anne B. Costales

“A needle in a haystack” as they say, something extremely difficult or impossible to find. All the bad news that we all have received for the past few weeks has placed each and everyone in a dark place. Every single article, post and comment on social media has been tainted with toxicity and negativity. Come to think of it, instead of working together to fight this pandemic, we have been working against each other. Instead of working against a virus, the fight is now among neighbors, friends, political sides, religions, and what not.

PANIC BUYING, whether it be surgical face masks, alcohol, sanitizer, food and every little thing we find in a store. Ever since news of this disease came out, I can’t ignore the fact that everybody has been buying supplies more than their families can consume. It started with wiped out shelves of alcohol and surgical masks up to food and paper towels. Yes, I get it, everyone is trying to prepare for possible lock downs and closure, but up to the point of wiping out an entire shelf for a family of 3? This, I cannot fathom. Then, some people decided to resell products, bumping prices up to 3-4 times their original prices, just pure evil. Positivity? where does this come in now? After all these? A needle in a haystack for sure. Only if, we try to pause, breath and think. Buying surgical face masks and disinfectants will keep ourselves protected, but since our neighbor ran out of stock it would be all and the same, we will be at risk. Please buy supplies only needed by the family, offer help to the less fortunate members of the community. One or two surgical face mask or a bottle of alcohol would not hurt much, wouldn’t it? Helping each other is essential in this times, It is humanity’s battle against a virus after all.

HEALTHCARE WORKER BULLYING, for the information of everyone, our front-line workers are being bullied around since this has started. How do I know? because I am a nurse, I’ve experienced it and I’ve heard a couple stories from my colleagues, especially those who use public transportation. Yes, we understand, we work at a hospital, we might carry the virus, we are high risk for contracting the disease, but we are doing this to help the rest of the population. A couple of co-workers were not allowed to enter public transportation by some of the public utility drivers just because they were working at a hospital. Some of their rides were cancelled or was not accepted because their drop off point was at a hospital. Health workers get stared at, isolated and hear negative comments just because their company I.D’s are showing. If only people realized how this health workers sacrificed so much to serve the rest of the population. If only they know, that healthcare workers are now living in the hospital away from their families, serving patients in need of health services while they risk their own, choosing to be in the front lines while everybody else stays at home to watch, and taking care of complete strangers. Yes, we are paid but we can resign anytime we feel we are not safe and yet we are here. So if you are still reading this, take a break from facebook, tiktok, youtube or netflix and take a little time off to say “Thank you” to all healthcare workers you know.

LOCKDOWN, COMMUNITY QUARANTINE, ISOLATION as social beings this is a hard time for all of us. Being away from work, friends and some family members is challenging as it is within our nature to go and socialize. Despite announcement from the government that this will be implemented, we still push ourselves to go out and do whatever we want. We even have the guts to go out in public in big groups to go against the goverment announcing that what they have done is Martial Law. Yes, I get it, you are being advised to stay at home and limit travel by the government but this is a medical emergency and the government has to lead us through this. (P.S POLITICAL STAND AHEAD). In a health workers stand point, we are currently experiencing a medical emergency not only in a country but the rest of the world, in order to contain the virus, community quarantines have been implemented to aid healthcare. This is not about the government trying to control our freedom, this is about containing an enemy that we cannot see. I’ve seen post such as “Healthcare force instead of Military force for a medical problem”, the military work hand in hand with healthcare, as everyone should know, hospitals cannot accommodate everyone right now. So a kind message from the healthcare community “We stayed at work for you, Please stay at home for us”.

BLAMING THE GOVERNMENT, all of us has our own opinions with what is happening at the moment and again negativity is taking over each one of us. The first case of coronavirus enter the country, “it’s the government’s fault they should have closed off earlier”. The number of cases increase day by day, “it’s the government’s fault, they should always be ready for this kind of situations”. Lockdowns and community quarantines have been implemented, “It’s the government’s fault, we cannot work, we don’t have money, we can’t eat, we will die of hunger”. The government decides to help oppressed member’s of the community, “This is their fault, why are a chosen few given help and the rest, no assistance”. The government encourages all companies and businesses to extend bill due dates, release 13th month pay earlier and more, “This is the government’s fault, Don’t they know that this is not enough for our family” and the list goes on and on and everybody always has a negative comment. All these negativity when we can all just say “thank you for all your help”, and instead of focusing on all the negativity why don’t we all be part of the solution and follow whatever the government and the healthcare community is trying to tell us all. A needle in a haystack indeed, focusing on all the positive things and blessings presented to us, instead of focusing on all the negative things.

I may not have mentioned all the things that you may be thinking of right now, but I hope my message gets across. A simple act of kindness and a little thought on positivity is all we need right now while the healthcare team leads us through this hard time.