Worse than the Virus

I am using this poster from a Korean movie called Train to Busan. It's a real masterpiece. Unlike other movies of Zombie Apocalypse, this is not just an action film. It's not about killing zombies, it's more about how the goodness and evilness in people are amplified during an apocalyptic event. In reality, there are people who are more scary than zombies.   

Wuhan’s Quarantine

January 19^th, it couldn’t be any more ordinary. People went to work, went to school; others were shopping, getting their hair done, making reservations and planning parties for the Lunar New Year. The traffic was as congested as ever. The street was crowded as usual. Though people heard about some kind of disease from here and there, Wuhan is a city of 10-14 million people, who would care about a few dozen cases? No one wore mask.

January 20^th, people suddenly received alarming messages through social media and TV broadcast asking them to prepare for a potential outbreak. They immediately received notices that schools are closed and people should avoid going to public places. People started to search for more information. Photos and videos circulating on social media caused a lot of confusion and panic.

January 21^st and 22^nd , grocery stores were as chaotic as you could imagine. All masks, sanitizers and robbing alcohols were sold out in minutes.

January 23^rd at 2am, Wuhan’s official Sina account (like Twitter) announced that they will quarantine the city. That’s when people truly understand the severity of this outbreak. People try to decide what to do. Some people intuitively fled the city, some did not know where to go, a few had a glimpse of hope that it wasn’t that bad and the rest, they were asleep.

January 23^rd at 10am, all measures of the quarantine were implemented. The city became an island. All public transportation grounded. All exits out of the city were barricaded. Parts of the highway were demolished. But before that, 300,000+ people fled the city during those eight hours. Wuhan is the second biggest city in China. It has 1.5 million students and 2 million labors from other provinces. Those non-locals had gone home in early January, weeks before the quarantine. Therefore, most of the 5 million people were “innocent”. They didn’t know they were potential carriers.

Day 14

I have been following 3 Vloggers who live in Wuhan. They are regular civilians chronicling what life is like inside the quarantined city. People would only go out to buy food and usually it’s the husband that goes out because they only have a few masks left. One man almost couldn’t recognize his neighborhood, for one minute he was lost because the deserted street looked very different now. One man had sore throat for a couple weeks. He believed it was just a cold, but he had been staying in his small room for two weeks. He shot a video of his son’s panicky reaction when he suddenly stepped out of the room; it was funny and sad at the same time. Another couple was talking about how boring and suffocating the “home arrest” was. They were desperate to go out for one breath of fresh air. There was an event organized through social media that asked people to open their window at 8pm and scream together, “ADD OIL WUHAN!” It was supposed to be therapeutic, but it was quickly discouraged as it could be a way to spread the disease through spits.

There has been a lot of controversy about the quarantine. Some think that it should have done much earlier without giving people a heads up and others think that it would not play a big role in containing the disease since it had already spread to other parts of the country. Only a few people commented on the 8-9 million healthy populations that are still in there. Because of the shutdown of all public transportation system, there are many people who cannot reach their elderly parents who live at the other side of the city or in neighboring towns. And what about the people who have a medical emergency like a stroke or a heart attack. What about women in labor? How do they get to the hospital if they need an ambulance or any kinds of transportation? The virus is killing others who don't have the infection! The saddest situation is when there is an infected person among the healthy. In one tragic case, a sick man moved out to stay away from his wife and child, he went to the hospital every day to seek for hospitalization, after a week of no avail, he had nowhere to turn and eventually took his life. I tried to commit suicide 17 years ago, I know how hard it is for someone to do that when they don't want to die. 

The 5 Million

The 5 million people who left Wuhan are in a very different situation that’s equally dire. For the first pack of people that left Wuhan in early January, they had become public enemies in their own village or home. Neighbors forcefully sealed their door without making sure they had enough food to endure. Some returned home and found out that their family would not receive them and they couldn’t even return to Wuhan. There are videos of people calling the police when they see a car driving on the highway with Hebei’s provincial plate, though it doesn’t mean they are from Wuhan or have been to Wuhan recently. For the 300,000 that left on January 23^rd, they couldn’t find a place to stay because their social ID card indicates where they are from. As soon as someone yells, “these people are from Wuhan”, like a fire alarm, others either flee away or beat them up.

Of course, among them, there were people who already knew that they had contracted the virus and they were recklessly spreading it to other parts of the country and the world. There was a man who was bragging about taking Tylenol to bring down his fever so he could pass the temperature test at the airport. Afterward, he posted pictures of his feast in the name of celebrating his “triumphant accomplishment”. There was another man that took the train along with hundreds of people to Tibet. He immediately sought for medical help when he arrived. Prior to his arrival, Tibet was the only province that did not have a confirmed case. Out of all the provinces, he had to choose this virgin land. There was also a Taiwanese businessman who had already shown symptoms, but he went to a morning market and a night club before going to the doctor the next day. He asked directly for a CT scan of his lung. The doctor was suspicious as to why he needed a CT scan right away, he then reluctantly said that he had been to Wuhan recently. There are many cases like this where people are assholes. What’s more disgusting are the ones who try to make money out of this by scamming people's donation or selling fake or used masks!

Help?

If this was written a few days ago, I would have ended the article by asking someone, anyone to do something to help. But today I realize that there is probably nothing that can be done to help the people in Wuhan. As of yesterday, many more major cities in China have been quarantined with even more strict and extreme measures. The reason why Wuhan’s hospitals couldn’t receive enough medical supplies is because other cities are dealing with their own hot potatoes, even though not much has been reported from those cities. 

Aids from other countries are definitely needed ASAP, but how much can we expect from others when they are preparing for the worst? Japan has a shortage of masks after they donated a million to China. Their first death that’s directly or indirectly related to the corona virus happened to a government official who was in charge of the evaluation process. He committed suicide after being blamed for exposing Japan to a potential outbreak. . .

Final Thoughts

This crisis has changed most Chinese people’s value on what’s more important in life. People suddenly realized that the thick pile of cash in their hands couldn’t buy them a thin mask. While I am an ocean away from the epicenter, this crisis has changed me as well. These two weeks, I found myself being less envious, less resentful and less regretful about life in general. I ponder more on the value of life and the well being of my loved ones.

Lastly, please pray that this won’t be a global pandemic, please pray for the health care workers who sacrifice their lives in this war and please pray that we can save lives by preventing the virus from infecting our humanity. Though we as ordinary people have very little control on how the outbreak eventually affect us, we have more ability to prevent the loss of life due to causes that we cause.