Let's be clear on one thing here: I'm not the guy that thinks "this is just another flu". I don't go around throwing molotovs over the 5G antennas screaming that they brought over the Corona. In fact, I'm really into this nice movement called "STAY THE FUCK HOME!".
And that's not even only because of the virus...
If I'm going to speculate and become some monkey that throws crazy ideas instead of bananas it's going to be about some conspiracy theory while I'm having a big blunt in my kitchen; it's gonna be the one that considers the virus is released so that we reduce our environmental impact in a desperate attempt to save our species. Spoiler alert: it's not gonna work.
Because I could, I decided to get involved as much as I could... and help. So the easiest thing I could do in order to be useful to society was to put my 3D printers to work and consume what little plastic I had lying around in order to make face shields not only for the doctors around my city but also for the other administrative employees who had to get exposed during the time of quarantine.
Like firefighters... or policemen... or ambulance crews. I don't know how it was/is in other countries but in Romania, the government only gave real protection to some lucky doctors. The auxiliary personnel was left to battle COVID on their own. The first time I posted the announcement, the one that invited anyone working in this first line type of work to contact me and ask me for face shields, I got overwhelmed. Jesus Fucking Christ! I didn't want that attention, I didn't need it but people were seriously panicking, thinking about their life or the life of their loved ones. Crazy times and crazy media.
I'm not saying that the virus isn't dangerous but for fuck's sake let's make a bloody difference between levels of panic. The lack of education and the overwhelming alarming information coming through all the possible mass-media channels managed to baffle even the most prestigious doctors when it came to question their own understanding of how viruses work. During this pandemic, I sometimes felt like I was in an aeroplane and the captain, who is supposed to reassure me, would scream in the speakers "PANIC! PANIC!" while the plane is obviously heading towards the ground.
I think I managed to produce something like 400 face shields during this time and because I had to increase the production I bought another 3 printers. I'm still printing them, partly because there are people who still need them in order to protect them at work for the Government (who provides close to 0 protection to other than the medical staff) and partly because I KNOW this bug is going to be back. And if you ask me, in some areas that weren't so affected (like Eastern Europe for example) the bug will come back more fiercely.
But for some reason that I will detail below, I kinda like this bug. It's not so deadly like the Spanish Flu used to be (hopefully it will remain like this) but it's deadly enough in order to make our politicians fear it and see the need for the slow down of life. Come on... you can't be serious and say you see no benefit from this bug. If society will be changed forever, in its own mentality, after this period, I really hope that the change will be for the better. This has to start with the way we see work (in civilised countries that is) and day to day commute. Look at Twitter: they're never coming back to the office, which if you ask me, it's just great. A win-win situation that practically cuts down costs and at the same time offers a great deal of satisfaction to the employee. How will this impact our environment? If we really want to change something in this field, I guess that it's now or never. This is a unique opportunity that nature gives us, a powerful reason to see beyond our daily struggle to grow and enjoy slow living.
This bug can really change the way of 2-3 generations, those generations that may really be able to make a difference on the long run, in the perspective that our own existence as a species is in danger because of ourselves. This little bug may be the solution to a mental click that we all have to go through.
