How will COVID-19 affect humanity?

What scares me about the Covid-19 is not the actual virus. Most of us will recover the same as we would with a cold or flu, and certainly, we do not want to infect anyone who could die if infected with the virus.

I am fearful of how this mass hysteria will affect our humanity and compassion towards others. We already see people fighting over toilet paper for goodness sake. How about buy the damn toilet paper and share it with the person with whom you are fighting?

The lack of touch has me concerned. Contact is a basic need for humans. Not only are we asked to avoid handshakes and hugs (I am personally a big hugger), but we are asked to keep 3-6 feet from the person to whom we are communicating. Will practicing these impersonal behaviors have a long-term effect on how we interact with each other? Will we become a cold and distant society?

I will do my best to be aware of approaching people and restrain from giving a hug or a caress on the arm. Not because I am afraid of the virus but because I don’t want to be ostracized by society because giving someone a genuine hug is now considered being inhumane and reckless.

We are controlled by the fear that is currently instilled in us daily. Such a high level of conforming may be necessary for managing the spread of the virus, but it is unnatural. Once the virus becomes contained, how does society come back from fearing human touch? I am afraid of a cold and withdrawn community.

Cassie Monaco, Whitefish