COVID-19 coming to Ja is not inevitable
THE EDITOR, Madam:
It is always judicious to expect the best and prepare for the worst when facing ominous situations. Here in Jamaica, some individuals of appreciable profile and influence are calling it, just as how political pundits are calling it (as I am writing, 2/3/2020) for Pearnel Charles Jr in South-East Clarendon. They are sure that the virus will hit Jamaica.
It may be that these disaster pundits are gradually distinguishing the flames of optimism that some of us are struggling to fuel. I would like them to make the distinction among rationality, possibility and probability. They could make it simpler and less frightening by just talking about chances or likelihood. I would not like Jamaicans, especially at this time of adversity re crime and violence, to be further crippled by the COVID-19 fear.
I include the following report to inspire some hope while still being rational. The report is contained in the 2008 Annual Gift Edition of Our Daily Bread, a daily devotional guide booklet. The topic for Sunday, November, 9, 2008, is ‘The Great Pandemic’.
UNWELCOME
Report: In March 1918, Albert Gitchell, an army cook at Fort Riley, Kansas, was diagnosed with the flu. Before the year was out, it had spread around the world, killing as many as 40 million people. The highly contagious virus became a pandemic – a global epidemic. One physician reported that patients would rapidly show flu-like symptoms, developed the worst type of pneumonia he had ever seen and then suffocate within hours. Fortunately, the influenza disappeared as mysteriously as it had begun. But doctors remained baffled by its cause and were helpless to find a cure.”
I hope the pundits are not hoping to gloat – “I told you so”. The nation will be best served by the authorities being on the alert and generally proactive and the citizenry being calm, cautious and cooperative. Tenets of gloom and doom are at this time unwelcome.
HENSLEY PINK