Corona Virus: To Read When Feeling Hopeless

Staying positive during these trying times is hard. The uncertainty makes the anxiety spiral. Media does not help. I recently went into my first mediatic anxiety ridden search. I was reading all the possible catastrophic consequences this viral outbreak could cause; economic crash, mental health issues soaring, years of normal life being taken away. I remember contacting my friends in a panic frenzy.

Optimism is a hard perspective to maintain. However, we must. This fight cannot be won with a negative bleak view. We must believe in the human species now more than ever. My friends started sending me all the possible positive articles they could find. I felt better. There was hope. This post serves this purpose; without lying and giving hopeful but misleading messages, I intend to give trust-worthy information about humanity’s chances of overcoming this crisis.

Let’s start with VACCINATION

Positive fact no. 1

An article by The Washington Post claims scientists have found the virus is mutating rather slowly. This means that when the majority of people will have been vaccinated or will have had the virus already, they will be relatively permanently immune to the virus.

Positive fact no. 2

An article by The New York Times underlines how humanity has started a global race towards the development of a vaccine. The reason behind this, the article asserts, is nationalistic competitiveness. Probably true, I won’t disagree. However, millions are being spent by single countries, and thousands of scientists are working non-stop. Whatever is pushing them, they will find a vaccine, and surely it will be shared internationally.

Positive fact no. 3

The National Institutes of Health informs that phase 1 of clinical trials is already taking place; a vaccine is being tested on humans. As a video by Digital Trends explains, this vaccine is a messenger RNA vaccine, as Moderna Inc., the Massachusetts company that developed the vaccine, works mostly with RNA vaccines rather than DNA vaccines. Digital Trends states that RNA messenger vaccines are more successful than DNA based ones.  

Moving on to TESTING

Positive fact no. 4

An article by CNN communicates that The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has authorized the use of a new test developed by California based company Cepheid. This test gives results in 45 minutes. An article by NPR  voices that these tests will not be available until the end of the month. Yet, this remains to be incredibly good news. In less than a month we will be able to quickly test the immunity of people.

Positive fact no. 5

The Guardian wrote an article about the forthcoming availability of at home finger-pricking tests. The article clarifies that these are not antigen tests. Antigen tests are diagnostic; the results prove the presence or absence of the virus. The tests The Guardian mentions are likely antibody tests. Because the body takes time to build antibodies when exposed to an antigen, these tests might result negative even if the virus is present. However, the ones that result positive claim the immunity of the individual.

Positive fact no. 6

Digital Trends,in the video mentioned above, describes the new technologies developed to test fever; Thermometer guns, and drones that scan masses are some. The latter is particularly efficient as it does not necessitate human interaction which spreads the virus.

FINALLY, I HAVE ONE MORE POSITIVE FACT!

Positive fact no. 7

Due to the reduction of transportation – on land, water, and air – carbon emissions have gone incredibly down. The BBC wrote an article illustrating the massive reductions.  Other things have happened. The water of the Venice canals is now sparkly clean! The earth is taking back control, and selfishly, I’m excited for the natural beauty to come, in these dark and unstable times.