Corona or Covid-19 has returned with venom never expected by anyone. Its infection capacity is far higher than the first surge seen last year and its felling people with a rapidity that is swift and not discriminating. Neither the rich and the famous nor the ordinary poor are being spared. While headlines are mentioning the celebrities when they die, the burden of the suffering is on all. The biggest tragedy of the situation is that people seem unable to grasp the severity of the crisis and most are ambling along as if it’s no problem at all. Yet in human terms, this could be much worse than the one before.
Data shows that the death rate remains largely limited to the elderly or the post 60 years people. Hence the clear demographic discrimination mark between the two can be made easily. But the infection is largely haunting the young or those who go out. And it’s these who have become the greater spreader of the virus.
The irony is that the virus is brought back home and then spread by the young and the elderly who may not even be venturing out but are falling prey to the virus. Hence the elderly have in a strange way are becoming victims at the hands of the young. The virus seeks out the elderly, the enfeebled, the ailing and the infirm. The virus has actually exposed the divide that exists in society, even within communities and of course within families along gender and age lines. It’s a reality that needs to be recognized because most prefer to live in a fiction that everyone else is the same in such social spaces.
The other divide that exists in society in times of corona is the economic divide. Barring a few sensationalist reports which gather knee jerk attention, few comprehensive reports on the topic has been made. Most research outfits produce reports which are not touched by the readers and the poor and vulnerable unless they carry sensationalist content. Thus while some attention has been paid to sex workers who have suffered hugely due to reticent commercial sex demand, much less reporting on the causes and impact on the many segments of the poor who populate Bangladesh is obvious.
Ignorance of our own society is incredible. Ignorance is fine but it’s causing deaths, damage and wrecking society now. At the same time, blame gaming is active and criticizing the Government has become a major task of many. Most reporting has been more superficial than not which is because our media is not an in-depth information production machine. Let’s say that we have become lazy media and that is one problems that ails us all.
The sense that we are all in this one is missing. Our state, society, community and families are so divided that we have lost that vision. Best is to accept that we are so but we can work together. Instead of this fictional unity, we need to focus on the empowered variety without which most will drown.
