Tuesday, July 28, 2020

Golden Rule In the Corona Era

In the era of the corona19 pandemic, everybody is wearing masks. With carelessness, we have groups that continue to appear with the virus. The writer is a health environmentalist who writes in the Peace Weekly's Diagnosis of the Times and believes this will be recorded in the history books as the great disaster of our era and has three questions.

First question, how long will this situation continue? Some say we will continue to live this way in the future, others that eventually we will recover, and return to normal. The question will be how well the individual, social, national, and international levels of prevention work, and when a proven vaccine is reliably delivered to everyone.

The second question, why did the pandemic happen? It was reported that the virus spread from camels in the Middle East during MERS and from bats in Wuhan, China during Corona 19. People know it's not the fault of camels and bats. They originally lived with the virus without any problems. It is humans who have spread the virus of camels and bats to the world.

Earlier this year, when Corona 19 began in Wuhan, China, it spread quickly to the whole world.  Newspaper columns written by scholars reflected on why this was happening. Unanimously it was pointed out the wrong relationship between humanity and nature. Words such as reverse counterattacks in the ecosystem and
a disease that can be transmitted to humans from animals was often heard.

The words that made the most sense to the writer were globalization and climate change as the passports of the virus. Globalization is a phenomenon in which the number of overseas travelers is breaking records every year,  money and corporations are found in every corner of the earth. Climate change is a natural response to excessive development and consumption of resources. The virus of the wild animals passed through each country with a passport issued by globalization and climate change and spread to humans.

Do people really think this is true? 'What do you think about the point that the root cause of the Corona 19 incident is climate change that causes the common epidemic, and this will continue to happen frequently?' The Environmental Health Citizens Center celebrates Earth Day on April 22nd. 1,000 people over the age of 19 across the country were asked these questions: 43.2% 'very much agree' and 41.4% 'somewhat agree', more than 8 out of 10 respondents agreed.

Third question, what should I do? He mentions an article written in a daily newspaper at the end of March by a priest who has been involved in labor and environmental movements. "Each country in the corona situation needs to find a solution that suits their situation, but each person is not the solution."

The priest's article begins as he recalls Pope Francis, who prays alone in the empty Vatican Peter Square and quotes his words. "Even if I protect my home with high-tech equipment and build a  high fence, I'm still afraid and don't know when and how I will get the virus. After diagnosing the phenomenon it reveals the limitations of pursuing my own safety by separating me from others."

"If my neighbor is not healthy, it threatens my health. It's good to share what I have with my neighbor who is poor but more important to understand that I am not separated from my neighbor."

These words of the priest he has often heard in his parish but the article made it more alive and went deeper. China and Japan need to be healthy if Korea is to be healthy. The adjacent city needs to be healthy if we are to be healthy. Everybody is my neighbor and we all need to be concerned about the health of others if we are to remain healthy.

This is the spirit that is needed by us who are living in the corona era.