Open your eyes Melbournians! Wear masks and stay indoors when it’s still not too late.
How to become COVID-less before the second wave
I don’t know about you, but I really wish the lock-down could end tomorrow and that I could go back to the office after being made redundant. At some point today, I came to the realisation that staying at home is starting to become boring and unhealthy as I scrolled to the bottom of my Netflix page and suddenly found out that the excessive screen-time has gnawingly increased my dioptre.
If there is one thing that I have learned through the painful strain of what seems like an endless quarantine period, is that we are all in this together. Not in the “hotel-fling-COVID-transmission” way or the “COVID-mass-job-redundancy way”, but rather through a sense of realisation that in a proceeding glocal health crisis, everyone should be held accountable for their reactions as our actions have consequences. Sometimes the penalty of these actions may be our fellow Melbournian’s lives.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, there are so many buzzwords sprouting out there due to increasing health regulations — social distancing, masks, sanitizer, cabin-fever, etc. — but somehow these words are only utilised online. The true meaning behind these terms cannot even strum a single chord of actualisation. Regardless of how popular the coronavirus-realted hashtags are, people consume them the same way as they consume AFL games — for entertainment purposes only. With pouring memes and gifs online creating a pandemic frenzy, people rarely walk into Westifiled with masks on or embark on the bus and keep a 1.5-meter social distance.
The most dramatic chapter during Victoria’s pre-second wave is PM Andrews’ Twitter post comments. With his online polls highly correlated with the infection rate, the bipolar online reactions he receives in every post can certainly be adapted into a short film, with a zigzag chapter twist. Let’s just temporarily name these: The Haunted Posts
We have long been informed of the potential resurgence of COVID-19 cases and of the second wave as the descending weather temperatures in Victoria may aggregate the situation to an unexpected level. Well, the theory is eventually attested by the desk-banging, jaw-dropping 108 new cases during the past 24 hours. (The to-be-invented vaccine, please bless my anxiety levels.)
What to anticipate next? Maybe a second total lockdown? I certainly hope not!
If you are bored with online streaming at home, try to binge D Andrews’ twitter posts. The PR content was full of positives until it’s not. From “Victorians are doing great” to “we are still on knife’s edge”; as a leader of a party, he was just simply doing his job to advocate the state’s policies like a relentless bumblebee. Without the efforts made by you and me, his twitter content will become a form of mouth-work, a hashtag trend like ‘scottyfrommarkeing’. All because our beloved Victorians are doing exactly the opposite of what we have been encouraged to do.
We have to admit that we are mindful of the possibility of the second wave. Albeit the prevalence of repetitive safety regulations that needed to be adhered to, whether it has been involuntarily exposed to us on our digital gadgets, we simply didn’t care. Wearing masks, washing hands regularly, and disinfecting everything you touch in public seems like endless chores. With the deep belief in our immune system and the anti-vaccine movement, some people still believe the whole pandemic is a conspiracy.
Like many people out there, I, too, miss having lunch outdoors with a cup of latte and enjoying a book or simply staring at the sweeping clouds. Before my luxurious wish comes true, let’s just endure the uneasiness at home and stare at the weathering leaves outside our balconies and stay positive. Good things are yet to come.
Just like @manya82489350 said on twitter: ‘It’s not government failure but our failure. All Victorians failed to stop the virus. We all should do a better job. All should ask themselves what wrong they have done. Do the right thing and stop blaming others’.
