Lessons That COVID-19 Taught The Whole of Mankind

The COVID-19 pandemic is nothing short of a catastrophe. From a small incident in a Wuhan market to a global disaster taking innocent lives, ruining the world economy and forcing the citizens of the world to come home and theorize about the future, it has changed our lives forever.

For a long and unhealthy period, we spent all our time, exploiting Nature’s gifts. The fumes, the smoke, the pollution, the garbage that we just threw around thinking that Nature will consume it. We should have changed our ways, made an effort and listened to the people who knew better.  But most of mankind didn’t change their behaviour.  We were all looking forward to the year 2020 so much. We spent so much of our time in festivities and then when COVID struck, we changed our behaviour overnight! We can’t go back to our old ways.

 

When we withdrew ourselves, Nature got a chance to heal. The lesson that we can learn from this is that its possible to make changes to accommodate Nature. I, for one, do not believe that these are the only things we can learn from the Coronavirus.

For centuries, man has believed that he is the most superior animal. The truth, that there were other beings worth helping and saving from our selfish designs, was blindsided by man’s love for his position. We continued deforestation, poaching, killing and poisoning our fellow animals. We thought we were immortal, but it isn’t true. The virus showed us that our extinction could be near. We are tenants on the Earth, not its owners.

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. That has been made clear by years of research. This means that our actions till COVID struck equalled such a big reaction. It is clear that this cannot happen again. So, we must act ever so consciously and understand the consequences of our actions.

Albus Dumbledore once said, “Understanding is the first step to acceptance, and only with acceptance can there be recovery”. These are the building blocks of the next lesson. We must understand what we have done and try it to make it better.

Our world is fragile. We must apply what we have learnt to make it better and stronger.

(Ranked 2nd in Marble Arch School "Do it at Home Essay Writing Competition")