Remember the wandering soul

It’s been tough stretch. The department is getting increasingly unbearably busy. The waits are long and the front line staff are all overwhelmed and exhausted. Morale is extremely low. A few of our docs are down (one injured, a few are off due to COVID), and many have been tasked to pick up extra shifts and have less off days.

So today, I was off after working a stretch of shifts. It was a welcomed addition. Or it should have been.

But instead I was restless all day. Irritated. Unsettled. Borderline annoyed.

At nothing in particular. My mood was just flat, and sour. Even when the weather was seemingly beautiful. I wanted nothing to do with it. I stayed inside all day, only occasionally staring out at the sun through my semi darkening blinds.

I just became irritable at small things. It’s like that when I was at work. But when I’m off, I have no excuse. My short mood must have carried over to my off days.

Then gradually, over the course of my evening (undoubtedly helped by seeing a facebook friend post some travel photos and by rewatching an old Jason Bourne movie with scenes of Eastern Europe…), I started to remember that at times like these, sometimes what digs me out of my flatness, my restlessness, would be an inspiration and perhaps a desire to go somewhere. To wander. To explore. To be inspired by new surroundings. The possibilities of a new destination always seems to bring an once of excitement and hope.

I have forgotten, that I miss travelling. Sometimes, when you don’t do something for a while, you forget how it can make you feel, even simply thinking about it.

For two years, with COVID, the prospect of travelling was non-existent. I’ve never been a fan of tourist-destination hopping. I prefer to drop into a destination, perhaps ANY destination, and just wander, to see nothing in particular, but just, be somewhere. Soak up the scene, let myself sense something I wasn’t so used to. Let new thoughts enter my mind. New imagery to my soul.

And it’s not like all those possibilities are rushing back. Not yet. (Although for many others in the world, it seemed that they have already accepted the risk of travel and picked up their bags and went.) For me, the implications are still far too heavy (work obligations, family well being) for me to feel freed of those transmission concerns and to simply fly off at the first destination that pops into my head.

But hopefully, in the not too distance future, I will be freed and capable to do that again.

But this reminded me, that I like to wander. That is my nature. That is what makes me feel alive. Part of the beauty of my job (to balance out with all the negativeness of it), is at least the flexibility to travel. In fact, for the longest time, I didn’t want any of those fixed obligations that would make me feel tied down (such as having to look after a detached home, or even a dog…). Living the life or an ER doc, doing shift work with the occasional gaps off, living in a condo with a concierge that I feel somewhat carefree to leave behind...  to some extend I’m living the perfect life for a wandering soul.

And that made me wonder.

Do I really want to give that up?

Yes, I have given a lot of thought of leaving my work, or at least to start contemplating viable exit strategies in my near future. The stress of the job. The hectic pace. The impact on my mind and body. Most days, it simply wasn’t enjoyable anymore to even THINK about work. If I didn’t need the income, I would have probably left. Recently, my department head had asked me to consider taking on my administrative duties, and maybe even if I wanted to take over from her spot. I had seriously been considering it as a way to off load some clinical hours, at the risk of losing some of my work flexibility that I so enjoyed.

But perhaps, if I once again allow myself to indulge in the perks of my line of work, I would be more ready to accept its shortcomings, and maybe even find it in me to continue to devote myself in it. So I could be as best as I could be at my work, and allowing myself to be as best as I could be outside of it.

Let me not forget about the dream of what makes me feel alive, simply because I’ve spent too much time stressing about the work that has me feel so much less so.

It’s not over. But it is. (Well it’s really not).

I haven’t written in a long long time. Not since some of my latest rants on the overall situation and approach our early days of the covid years. (Many of which, sadly, have continued to ring true as the pandemic drags its heels into the third year and counting. But by this point, what is the point of counting..?).

Indeed, we have arrived at the critical junction of what I felt long ago that we would eventually have to face. However, the correct path forward, from an ethical and societal and economical and sustainable point of view, is still largely debated and unclear, as it shall remain so.

When a topic is this large, one would be naive to expect that a simple, elegant, mutually agreed solution is ever gong to exist.

But isn’t that part of the game plan after all. Halt and reassess and aggressively develop protections and therapies when the illness was at its deadliest peak, to buy time for nature to hopefully run its course to bring the illness down to a more “tolerant” (still highly debated) level, and then eventually allow life to carry on as much as they can with some slight modifications of our new world with our new viral friend.

I am not here to debate our current covid policies or lack thereof. There are thousands of smarter people with better experiences and more powerful positions to do so. By this point, I have largely became a passenger in our covid fight. Sorry, perhaps more a foot soldier. As I don on my PPE, N95 masks and face shield, time and time again with each patient regardless of their medical complaint or presentation, it has became a redundant, tiring routine. And each day, I go to work and come home, carefully evaluating myself for possible symptoms, before I make the conscious decision of whether it is safe or socially responsible to go out do run errands or see my family (and very, very occasionally, my friends).

How I Iong for the days when a cold is just a cold, and we carry on with our plans as if it’s no significant deal. How our lives do not get turned upside down because of a little sniffle or a scratch in the throat.

But of course, covid have changed all that, and some for the better. Never was it really all that responsible to go out and mingle when you have an illness anyway, and in parts of Asia, the use of masks during cold and flu season, ESPECIALLY with those who have minor symptoms, have long been an accepted custom and rarely questioned (in fact, one would draw dirty glances if they were to step into a crowded subway and let out a sneeze, god forbid, upon their naked, unmasked face..)

So if anything, the heightened sense of awareness and caution against easily transmissible disease is likely here to stay, and hopefully a welcome change at that. As with not showing up to work sick, modifying tasks to allow work from home, and a general increased tolerance for everyone’s different risk aversions are likely positive steps in our increasing dense societies.

But no, this entry is about none of that. For I am sick of covid. (Literally, as I recently caught the illness myself, luckily mild, after a brief trip to Ottawa. More on that later.).

I am writing again because I’ve realized that my life feels emptier when I don’t. Life continues to pass, events come and go, covid lingers, and I go to sleep and wake up checking my work schedule and collect pay checks (well, auto-deposits). I miss the self reflection and the narrative story-telling that writing allows for me. In short, in adds significance to my days, my weeks. And more and more I am realize that, perhaps for me, that is what give life meaning. When you have a chance to pause and reflect, and solidify your experience into a memorable narration (even if it’s just to myself), it takes a symbol of significance inside a storage box into our mind’s memory banks. And perhaps that is the true meaning of life. A collection of memories, made significant by the collector.

And so I’m going to try to keep writing. On nothing in particular, as quite evident from my blog over the years. And to no one in particular, other than myself. Because it helps me make sense of my world.

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Oh, and for those of you who may not know, ironically over these covid years, I’ve met someone, from halfway across the country. :) (yes yes, it’s been a while..) It has not been easy, though, to develop and grow a relationship, over 4000km or close to 5 hours of flying, in the middle of what might be the hardest two years of air travel restrictions and sickness-implications ever in our lifetime. But through our natural silliness together, our witty and comical chemistry, and our what seems very innate understanding of each other (at times it does seem like we were both cut from the same cloth, although a decade part), we were able to maintain what has been a wonderful companionship and at times, when we are lucky enough to visit, some heart melting intimacy. I cannot wait, for when the impacts of covid finally fades (although not the virus itself), and the chance for much easier visits and interactions presents itself to us in the near future, for us to spend even more time together than we have manage, and nurture this seed that we have been trying to water and grow via internet links and FaceTime movies and late night video chats. (And on that note, the image above at the title of this post would make a little more sense to those who are reading. It is perhaps one of my favourite photos of our time together so far. We were sitting on a beautiful deck waiting for our morning coffee on the banks of the St. Lawrence at old Quebec, groggy from the morning sun, when she cheekily snapped a photo of our feet in parallel when I wasn't aware..  ).

Looking forward to a new kind of normal. (And happy lunar new year to all...)

It’s been a while since I have written since the earlier days of the pandemic. Because, quite frankly, it’s been somewhat uninspiring.

We’ve motored along. Widespread restrictions in place. Fear of contracting the virus ever present. Social activities to an almost non-existent minimum.

At work things have been steady. Visitations to the ER has risen once again, partly because the fear of visiting the hospital seems fading, partly due to the seemingly inability of physical clinics to actually see physical patients.

I’ve had my first jab. Sore arm and all. Waiting for the second.

All and all, it seems I kept being asked the same questions, “when will this be over?”

And I think it is time, we all put away that line of thought. Stop this waiting game. That’s not the right question.

Much of what we have done so far in this pandemic had been emergency measures. To stop or lower the spread. To keep everyone safe. To allow time for the science. To resume life when this is over.

Humanities have been tested so many times before, we were reminded. This, too, shall pass.

But will it? Maybe that isn’t quite the correct expectation. And I do believe, in most people’s minds, that they must be slowly realizing this as well.

Yes several vaccines had came at astonishing pace (although administration of them had been trailing expectations). Yes it seems we are less heavily indicted with ICU level cases in many jurisdictions. Yes it seems many countries had encountered second, or third, or fourth waves, and continued to work hard at squashing them with some degree of successes.

But it is becoming clear that none of these efforts will effectively remove the virus from the human race. There are too many variables. Vaccines will never be 100% effective. It will take years, if not impossible, to vaccinate everyone on earth. Evolution of the viral strain constantly threaten medical process thus far. And it is unrealistic to expect everyone to take the shot, or even the majority, at all.

I don’t think anyone can see a path in which this entirely leaves us behind. Not now, not next year, perhaps not ever.

So what are we to do?

For one, we should believe that although this will unlikely leave us, things shall get very much better. That part I do believe we can expect. As people get vaccinated, as cases in the vulnerable population continues to fall (as we have seen in vaccinated areas), as we get a better handle on timely diagnostics, and as we get more comfortable in dealing with this now “old” threat, things will get better. Our lives will get better.

But we should stop expecting to wait for the day when all that we knew before could return to normal as we had remembered.

Ultimately, it will be a decision of tolerance. How much, as a society, are we able to tolerate and manage the cases among us. How much influence, of such daily threats, can we accept while resuming as much of the life we missed as we could. Ethically and socially, what is the bar that we shall set in order to maintain some degree of livelihood, or as some would consider, to maintain the things that we have “to live for”?

Us human beings are a social animal, which is why I never lost faith in the days when we shall gather again, eat together again, hug each other, high-fives all around, attend movies and sports games and concerts, fly across the world and make new friends abroad, cruise on the open seas, stay in hotels and hostels openly together, and allow our grandchildren visit their grandparents without overdue concerns.

How will each of the above be done, in this new normal, with the threat of the virus STILL among us, but with a conscious decision to mitigate those risks, maintain maximum safety, while allowing life, the way us humans are meant to live, to carry on as much as we had once desired.

Those are the many, many, unanswered questions. Those shall be the proper ones for all of us to ask.

And among them, in my mind, international travel is the hardest one to tackle. It is also one I am most hungry to figure out.

It isn’t enough to say we would continue to hold off a few years for the situation to improve. For all we know, it might not. And for many others in their golden years, they cannot wait that long.

It also isn’t acceptable to say that we would screw it all and do things anyway and see what happens. The world cannot sustain that degree of recklessness.

It is time to think of how we can create a happy medium. And the sooner we do this, the sooner we can arrive at a happy “new normal”.

Life will continue to thrive. We just have to be very, very creative in how it shall do so.

So for all of us, time to ask a different set of questions, and much, much brainstorming to do….

Allowing for the intangible...

It started off as a gloomy day. The sky was grey and the clouds weren't breaking. I was without much sleep as I woke up at 3am and couldn't fall back to sleep. It was one of those nights. By 4:30am I've had it with lying in bed awake and decided to ditch the sheets and tried to call up my friend, whom we were going to hang out on a small island daytrip anyway, to see if we should go catch the sunrise together. We did. Although there wasn't much of a sunrise to be had. A slight streak of orange hue peaked through under the layers of the uninviting clouds, among a scene of dull, uninspiring view off the lookout of Cypress. Coffee in hand, the moment was nice, but the scene was slightly disappointing. 

On to breakfast we go. My friend felt the craving for congee, so we grabbed some from the only spot open at that ungodly hour on a Sunday morning. The gloominess loomed at the Steveston Harbour over our warm soupy rice with peanuts and preserved fish and various miscellaneous pork bits and a serving of deliciously tender beef briskets and rice flour wrap. Our tummy was satisfied, but our eyes weren't so much. The clouds seem thick. It doesn't seem like it was going to break. The day destined to be one that would not quite reward our optimistic faith that the iphone weather report could be wrong (it has promised a 30% chance of shower and basically a persistently cloudy day..). 

Should we carry on with the rest of our planned day? We had initially contemplated a leisurely trip to the nearby Bowen Island. Something simple. Something close. Something that could be perfect for a Sunday, on the last official weekend of this unconventional summer. Sure, we decided. Let's go ahead and see what happens. 

Onto the ferry, it was a mixture of uncertainty and slightly upwards optimism. The day seems brighter (which, naturally, would make sense as we were indeed transitioning into the regular daytime hours from our stupidly early start of our day...). The seabreeze proved to be refreshing. If anything, the steady motion of the ferry and the shifting landscape around us brings a sense of promise. Maybe something nice awaits us on the other side. Our adventure, potentially, could still be fun. 

And with that glimpse of optimism the day slowly opened up to us. Un-docking from the ferry, we were greeted with the first few sunshine of the day. We parked our car and roamed around the pier. Ah, there's the cute little lunch place I saw on reviews, Branch and Butter.  With the sun comes a promise for ice cream later. Hey look there's kayak rental place. Again with the sun there's a promise that we could dry up if we get wet (we weren't dressed for the occasion, as both of us were in jeans and not the best kayaking attire...). My friend couldn't swim, but that didn't stop us from signing the waiver and exploring the waving coast along the nearby edges of the island. Blobbing up and down with the waves always seem to freshen up your soul a little. The gentle splashes of the paddles are always a calming influence. 

Two hours later, my butt completely soaked, we once again undocked and enjoyed some delicious tacos under the sun (and ice cream indeed). Onto the dry land we went, and explored a short nearby trail with a speculator lookout to Howe Sound. The clouds had cleared by that time. Blue skies and simmering waters as far as the eyes can see. The day was looking more and more beautiful with each passing hour. Unexpectedly, but welcomed. Now why did I ever doubted coming here in the first place? I'm glad we didn't listen to our guts.

By late afternoon, we decided the best view to soak up the rest of the day was by the west coast of the island, among the various quiet and seemingly private rocky or beachy fronts by the water. The day was ending beautifully, a far cry from the way it has promised at the start. With the stunningly peaceful sunset getting us with its warm rays complemented by the gentle cooling late summer breeze, it was a rewarding end to an unspectacular summer. Still drunken from lack of sleep, we waited until the sun had fully bid farewell, with bugs starting to chase us into our misery. We drove back, in the dark, dodging deers and squirrels and other unseen wildlife creatures. We ended the night on a starry ferry ride back to the mainland coast, even catching several glimpses of passing satellites that we pretended were shooting stars and made wishes anyways. 

 

Why did I write this? Apart from marking an unexpectedly beautiful day, it was to remind me of the many intangible factors in life, often altering the prospects of what we initially could expect from our calculations. For many of us, our intuition and intellect often drives our decision making, but our pride in such decisive thoughts can often rob us of the unexpected. The weather, for one, although highly studied and readily available (so it turned out that my app had been wrong, once again...), still manages to surprise us in good ways and bad, if we give it a chance. So sometimes, despite potentially strong feelings based on the available information at hand, life can still reward us if we give it a shot to serve us the unexpected. Allow some intangible factors into our lives, and they might promise to be rewarding. Let go, and be carried along by the waves, and see what happens on the other side.

“Be fearful when others are greedy…”

Warren Buffett once said, “be fearful when others are greedy, be greedy when others are fearful..”. (I think he said this, but cannot be sure, as it had be quoted and re-quoted so many times everywhere…)

Along the same token, is the much more commonly preached investing principle, of buying low, and selling high.

I think there is a lot we can take from these investing mindset into our current evolving precautions against COVID19.

Summer is here. Sun has finally sort of arrived. Restrictions are loosening (although some are tightening again..). People are getting outside. Activities are rising. Socializing back on. Meals with friends. Family gatherings. It’s been too long. We need this reprieve.

And yet, the virus is still here, and still we have no vaccine, or proven therapeutics (not quite there yet anyway..).

Really, nothing has changed.

Other than our mindset.

It is easy, in the midst of the optimism of summer, to let our guards down, and let loose our vigilance.

For, damn it, we needed this. It’s been too long, too taxing, too emotionally straining. And for those who unfortunately also suffered dearly in health or financial hardships, they really, really need more of this loosening of some restrictions.

Because we know that life cannot wait for the solution of COVID. Life needs to evolve to live alongside it. With it.

Yes this is the “dance” that we spoke of so much earlier in this pandemic. The long dance. With a song that seems not likely to end anytime soon.

So I think it is good for our salvation to breathe a little bit, to embrace this slight relaxation we had afforded ourselves from society’s collective difficult effort since the beginning of the crisis.

But yet, the numbers are rising.

Yesterday, I saw a remarkable number of 20-something-year-old patients, some with mild COVID-possible symptoms, some with more convincing versions of the same. They are healthy, and doing well. But that’s likely the beginning of the second wave, if there is such a distinction anyway.

In a few weeks, these healthy younglings can carry the potential virus to their dear families, and the older crowd will show up. And not long after, the even older crowd.

We must remember that everything with this virus takes baby steps in 2-3 week increments. The US has already been seeing a further rise in numbers, some in areas with patterns very suggestive of likely transmissions from their recent national holidays.

So let’s check our minds a little bit.

Just like with the stock market, what you invest in today likely isn’t going to bear fruits until years later. You carry a long term horizon with your finances. We should adapt the same with our social precautions and activities on a personal level.

In finance, it is likely unwise for one to be rushing to purchase all the latest hottest stocks (although this seems to be happening all the time..). Sure, some may carry momentum forward for some further gains, but history has shown us that would not be the sound approach. Instead, buying those that have fallen, and avoiding those that could be too hot, is much more likely to yield better returns over time.

So, likewise, it would be unwise for everyone to relax their social precautions and personal safety vigilance at the same time. Even though that is likely the easiest approach to take. It is easy, when everything looks safer around us, to actually believe that it is so.

In some way, it is precisely this time period, when everyone is coming out, starved of their social activities and all too ready to mingle, that the virus can easily mount a resurgence.

In fact, I think many of us are almost expecting it, in a few weeks time.

I do not mean for us to remain so stressed and anxious about the virus and not take in a bit of emotional reprieve. I think we just have to learn to balance that out with how we choose to live going forward. Humans are social beings. It will remain very important for us to have that available to us.

But perhaps, be a little bit fearful when others are greedy.

Maybe Buffett is good not just in investing after all.

Hope, but do not lose our heads.

I am fed up.

I am disappointed. In people. In us.

Several months into our pandemic, things have stabilized here locally of sorts. Our province had fared remarkably well. Due likely to luck, but also with a lot of good efforts by many good people.

As I mentioned previously, come summer months restrictions are being loosened, and with the threat of the virus fading slightly in our short term memories people are loosening their vigilance.

And people are no longer thinking critically.

As I posted in my facebook rant, I still have a substantial problem with people using gloves. I cringe every time I see one, walking around in the neighbourhood, or working in restaurants and serving food to us, touching multiple surfaces and used dishes with said gloves, then new food, without ever changing or sanitizing them.

They act as if they are doing due diligence. I wonder what is it that they think these dirty gloves are doing for them, and for others.

If this continues, I have no doubt we will see many more careless transmissions, brought on by these brainless servants of the glove-using “contact-less” service industry we seem to be embracing.

And the scientists, bless them for all their hard work in fighting this virus on all fronts. But please tamper your exciting over your discoveries, and do not forget the scientific process and scientific rigour of what made modern day medical science supposingly reliable and trust-worthy. This pattern of rapidly releasing medical “observations” or “findings” in press releases before giving the medical community a thorough review of your work is reckless and potentially dangerous. Indeed, there may be an ethical fine line in pushing positive data early in hope of benefiting more people. But this should be done right, such as releasing the details of your studies at least at the same time as such press releases. Having medical decision makers stand at a podium to answer questions about your work without having the benefit of scrutinizing it themselves is pointless, and misleading to the public. The public need good thoughtful information and education. The public is not a sounding board for all potential medical observations and discoveries. This is why we have a scientific review system in place. That is what defines modern day medicine.

I write this because just this week, we have biotech executives and industry leaders openly speculating that we will have an approved vaccine for COVID19 by November. I know nothing of how likely or unlikely for this to be true. But I do have heavy concerns about the process if it were indeed so.

It will be likely that the process of achieving this will be rushed, pressured, possible flawed, with potentially large oversight, or even an exaggeration of the benefits.  This is because we know this process will be heavily politically and economically motivated. And some may say, myself included, that the November election partly hinges on it.

Large amount of money and attention, as well as the hope of the world, has been put on the search of a vaccine. The world is essentially at a reluctant pause, to some degree, in waiting for it. They are ready for any such promising trend. Forces have already been mobilized and committed to mass production of any such successful candidates. It is as if they are setting the stage for a fully expected success, even though we know in medicine we have no such certainties.

There is a risk, therefore, that in order to fulfill their self-serving prophecies, that any slightest positive signal will be packaged in such a wonderful story to make sure they are able to deliver on their promise. Even if it comes with great oversights or flawed methodologies, or potential harm.

I am not trying to be a pessimist. I do hope today’s cutting edge science can surprise us in something we have not been able to achieve in decades. But I am a realist. And I know some parts of sciences simply cannot be rushed.

I look forward to any potential positive developments from the vaccine front, as well as in all other areas of the fight. But we must remember, with any new information in this COVID fight, that the filters have became very very leaky, and we must approach them with caution, and great thoughtfulness and critique.

Or we risk creating a monster whom we thought would have been a saint.

I know in desperate times everyone is clamouring for good news.

But we must not lose our heads in doing so.

Keep hoping, but keep thinking.

We get into trouble if we do one without the other.

As the world declares open season on China, be sure not to wrongly point the arrow on the Chinese PEOPLE.

There is a distinction. The state is the not people. In the midst of our growing frustrations and anger at the current state of affairs, this distinction can be easily blurred. We have to be careful where to point our fingers, if fingers are to be pointed.

As the world continues to rage war on the new virus, which, along the way, has gathered many unfortunate but often politically-driven and misguided names such as the “Chinese Virus” or the “CCP Virus”, resentment is growing in many parts of the world, including in my own backyard. Many such resentment, sadly, is increasingly placed against the Chinese people in general and, for lack of an obvious distinction, ALL Asians.

Unhappy times breeds anger and resentment. I get that.

People need to vent. They need an outlet. That I am aware.

But we all know that is not an excuse. Luckily, the majority of the good people in our country gets that. I know that for a fact, having lived here for the majority of my life and thoroughly enjoyed how multicultural, for the most part, this city and this country has been.

I am not here to talk about racism. That is the easy tag line towards any optically-racially-related incidents in our society. But tagging such a general and politically-correct label on the topic, and  touting the simple and diplomatic remark of how “racism will not be tolerated in our society”, although noble and needed reminded of, solves little.

I am here to talk about misplaced anger. And how that blurs the lines between poor judgement and racism, and how, if allowed to propagate, can tear our society apart in such a way that a simple political statement of “stopping racism” cannot repair.

For hate and anger, once brewed, only continue to grow on the inside. And even if suppressed, often become a nidus of infection, much like an indolent virus, waiting for the opportunity to resurface and boil over.

And for that, I am getting increasingly concerned about the potentially unintended consequences as politicians, especially in America, upon stabilizing their internal affairs, begin broadcasting their anger towards China, the nation. All the while, many of their avid listeners, keenly holding on to their every word, might widely interpret their messages simply, as anger towards Chinese, the people.

Sadly, for in America, while still in the midst of a raging infectious disease war, is also in the escalating stages of a raging political war. At the helm, a politically-insensitive president who is prepared to do and say whatever he needs to be re-elected. And one of his current playing cards, perhaps as part of his potentially winning hand, is to direct the suffering of the American people towards an easily identifiable target: China. He is a master of the political arena, and of the vulnerable American people’s emotions. I suspect that he is all too ready to turn his people’s despair into an emotional rally cry towards a potentially triumphant campaign. 

But sadly, it would appear, that even his opponent, Mr. Biden, whom I would have normally expected a more diplomatic approach, have equally identified this to be the correct angle to wage his political battle. For he, too, has clearly expressed his desire to unleash his diplomatic fury at the Chinese government.

So, deserving or not, in the next few months, we will be hearing a lot of strongly worded rhetorics against the Chinese nation. From both sides, among many other smaller voices.

To be clear, I, too, am angry at how this whole thing unfolded. As a front line health worker, I am perhaps at the most deserving spot of being angry at this outbreak. I also want accountability. I also want transparency.

But in the midst of all these rhetorics, I am afraid it will be the Chinese people who will suffer most.

For again, while there is a clear distinction, I am afraid that the general public will simply not be able to differentiate when we are raging a war on a government, and not instead against the people.

Very easily, therefore, if we are not careful, those very people, would become the mislabeled image of the enemy.

We can not allow that to happen.

We have to be smart in reading the messages carefully. We have to be smart in not letting their rhetorics drive our emotions. The speakers may not all be polished and crafted. Us, the listeners, will have to be held to a higher standard.

We have to remember what our values are, in our society, and of the people who helped built this society.

We have to control the outlet of our sadness, our suffering, and our anger.

Indeed, we all hate the virus. We hate the situation we are in.

But none of us, ever, should hate the people who this virus is here to infect, no matter where such infection happened.