We need to stick together to fight the pandemic, not blame or discriminate someone
By the time we are writing this article, India has witnessed more than 2500 COVID-19 positive cases and 72 deaths due to coronavirus. This number may have increased by a big margin by the time you read this article. The COVID-19 has made victims from more than 200 countries and territories and the total number of positive cases have reached more than a million. More than 50 thousand people have died due to the deadly outbreak in these countries.
Coronavirus spreads mainly from person to person contact or contact with the contaminated surfaces or objects. It could infect anyone, it doesn’t discriminate between people on the basis of their religion, caste, creed, race or ethnicity. Still, infected people are made to feel like criminals instead of being treated as patients.
What happened at the Tablighi Jamaat or any other gathering, is a totally different matter and the people responsible for the gathering must be punished. But that doesn’t mean that everyone infected with the pandemic is a criminal.
We have shown blatant racism and discrimination
The country is last few days has shown blatant racism and discrimination against infected people or a certain ethnicity. What was that – A guy in Delhi’s Vijay Nagar spitted Paan on a Manipuri girl calling her Corona.
A Delhi’s COVID-19 patient who was cured talked to a news channel and said that he started receiving phone calls and messages from unknown numbers while he was admitted to a hospital. He was made to feel like a criminal who went to Italy for the sole purpose of contracting this illness.
In a time when patients need empathy and strength, we are giving them discrimination at a time when they and their family are already suffering.
On one hand, we are helping the people in need and government by donating fund and on the other hand, we are not ready to accept who is placed under home quarantine. He/She may or may not be positive.
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Even 1 per cent chance of someone testing positive is enough for people to isolate their family members and empty their house. Many reports suggest that quarantine stickers outside their home are the reason they were refused groceries.
Same was the case with the doctors in New Delhi who were asked to empty the rented house by their landlord. Staffs of airlines were also excluded and ostracized by neighbours for saving people from infected countries.
#FlyAI : We would like to appeal to all,particularly the law enforcement agencies,to ensure that AirIndia crew are treated with respect and freedom that every citizen deserves, especially those who have been discharging their duties in selfless manner for return of fellow Indians pic.twitter.com/Uthlk57jG3
— Air India (@airindiain) March 22, 2020
Have some humanity people .. Listen to Amrita..crew with @IndiGo6E ,she is broken from being discriminated,for wht?? For doing her duty ?When she is gone for her job, her mother is even refused groceries in her society.
This is highly unacceptable #COVIDIOTS #Covid19India pic.twitter.com/3p3EhYto1j— Priyanka kandpal/प्रियंका कांडपाल (@pri_kandpal) March 24, 2020
We all are scared and want to be safe but we should not forget that we all are against this disease together. The fight is with humans vs pandemic , not just the infected vs pandemic.
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