Shockwaves: Pandemonium
At first, you ignore it. Then you label it a ‘them’ problem. They should have known better, acted sooner. You move on with your life. You only start to really pay attention when London and New York get affected. Not unlike terrorist attacks, lives seem to matter more in some places. Could this happen to you?
You look around you. People don’t seem to be taking this seriously yet. How could they shut down or control a country like yours anyway? No one follows rules. We don’t have the infrastructure or resources to deal with a health crisis. We’re ungovernable. Maybe we’re resistant. Our immunity is strong. The heat is a good sign. Maybe we’ll be safe.
It starts to come up more in conversations. Your friends are still joking about it, on the whole. Some are scared, they refuse to come out anymore. You laugh at them with your other friends, but privately you wonder: is it time to be more careful?
The news is changing. Papers are dedicating entire sections to this. Social media is flooded with crisis-related posts. It’s obviously trending.
Soon, little else comes up in conversations as powerful photos of pain and suffering of other countries- countries that you had labelled differently than those seen as backward, unfortunate, closed, poor- start to suffer more than you thought they would. Italy is the first global call to action.
