A COVID-19 Story

Since the COVID-19 outbreak, China became the epicenter which caught global attention. I was lucky enough to have a couple of my family members go to Wuhan and support the medical team there since they were surgeons. Although the situation in my hometown Xi’an was manageable, the people in Wuhan suffered great losses.

      When the TV footage of Wuhan central hospital was broadcasted everyone was shocked, people there seemed to be furious, they were shouting, screaming for help, and occasionally lying on the floor due to the pain. Doctors and nurses ran around trying their best to sooth the patients even though they were dressed up in nearly 30kg of protective gear. At first no one saw the epidemic coming, some of the officials from higher up even tried to cover this pandemic as a seasonal flu. The medical team would ask for help, but the response they got was the outside help would be here within “a couple” days. But the entire city of Wuhan was in lock-down and no one can either enter or leave.

      It was until other provinces also started to show symptoms of the disease that the central government paid attention to the pandemic. As a response to support Wuhan, my mother along with my aunt was sent there as the helpers of the Clinical Laboratory team. Their basic work each day was to test as many people as they could and identify the ones who need treatment. “It was a heart-breaking scene” my aunt said, “thousands and thousands of people were brought to Wuhan central hospital where we were stationed to test for COVID-19, some of them died even before testing began.” Soon after the first wave, medical equipment fell short and the PPEs (Personal Protective Equipment) were not enough, each doctor could only receive one mask and one pair of gloves per day. It was suicide even to work with the patients. My aunt further stated: “I saw doctors hanging on to their last breath to complete the surgery and collapsed in the operating room once the operation had finished.” Yet the Chinese media still claimed it was nothing to worry about. A dozen doctors lost their lives fighting on the front-lines and hundreds more of people’s lives were lost.

      When the west caught air about what is happening on in China they scorned and said such losses happened because China is a developing country with limited medical technology. However, when the western hemisphere was hit with the virus, their media exclaimed “How can this be possible ! How can China have such low death rates ? ” It’s not that our death rates are low, it’s just that we went through such a stage united. “President Trump stated that this pandemic is the democrat’s evil scheme to interfere his election, I definitely doubt that. And I don’t believe he would be able to make the virus disappear if he got reelected.” my mother claimed. That was the most interesting part of the interview. People who work on the front lines should be respected as they are the saviors of humanity.

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