Human cost of coronavirus should give us a different perspective
If we meaningfully contemplate what we fear and hope, wisdom can emerge from times like these
This essay was originally appeared in The Tennessean on Friday, May 15, 2020.
In recent memory, little compares to the tumult and devastation of our recent past and near future. And amid the stunning commotion of crisis, it’s easy to become transfixed by the numbers and objectify the damage, in part because that is how we protect ourselves. But it’s never been more requisite for us to find a moment of pause — to contemplate the tremendous human cost of the pandemic unfolding before our eyes.
Lest we forget, the equivalents of entire cities have succumbed to COVID-19 thus far, and a similar fate awaits thousands, if not millions, more in the days and weeks to come. If that fact alone does not reach the depths of your being, consider the reverberating emotional calamity afflicting so many across the globe as a result.
Families are making end-of-life care decisions for loved ones from afar, robbed of the small solace that comes from experiencing their presence and knowing their pain will soon turn to repose. Imagine dying alone. In other places, where visitors are still allowed but strictly limited, families are being forced to choose who exactly will be the single visitor allowed. What a terrible choice — choosing between a grandparent’s life-long partner or beloved child when in ordinary times it could and would be both.
These physical restrictions are of course well-warranted, but we mustn't forget the emotional damage they impose. Many aspects of this time of pandemic are indeed too horrifying to contemplate with any depth, but we have a moral responsibility to do so.
“Courage,” the neurosurgeon Atul Gawande writes, “is strength in the face of [the] knowledge of what is to be feared or hoped.” Wisdom is the sum of what we gather from these visceral parts of human life. And wisdom is the byproduct of the courage. So if we meaningfully contemplate what we fear and hope, wisdom can emerge from times like these.
The coronavirus pandemic is slowly bringing our frailty as humans to the forefront. People are right when they say we are all in this together, but we are not all in the same boat. The risk posed by COVID-19 is unequal across a range of demographics. The young and old, the sick and healthy, the rich and poor, the nurse and the accountant — they are at once the same and different. That presence of mind compels empathy.