‘My mind tells me I shouldn’t fear you, but my heart says you’re new, unknown, un-treatable, and I read the news…so I fear.’: Mom shares open letter to the coronavirus

“Dear Corona,

You win.

You came into our world unannounced, with your bouncy body and your fluffy spikes, and you took over our lives.

The scientific world chose to name you corona because those spikes create the look of a crown. They could have called you ‘spikey,’ or ‘terror,’ which would have been more accurate, but instead they chose to make you a queen.

This alone gave you a royal entry into our lives. A virus with a crown that sounds like a bear…who wouldn’t want to find out more about it? It was the green light that you needed to get all of our attention.

But a queen without a kingdom is powerless, so you worked hard to make yourself noticed. You needed to earn your title and boy, you did!

I bow to your determination.

You spread faster than any new disease we’ve heard of…and you took lives away. You see, viruses are like vampires, they earn their reputations by spreading terror and, as I type those words, you took 2,704 lives away.

That’s 2,704 families that have lost their loved ones.

That’s also the size of 4 Boeing planes crashing at once. The world would have watched this in terror because that’s a lot of lives… and a lot of broken families.

And you, my friend…you did this alone.

However, there is hope. I still want to believe that we haven’t lost the war against you yet.

You see: 27,840 fighters have recovered, and you’re officially out of their lives.

If you haven’t figured out the math yet, their number is 10 times higher than the lives you took away.

TEN TIMES!

Let’s be real, Corona, you’re not doing a great job after all. With 80,289 affected patients since December, this means you’ve lost 34.6% battles.

Why is no one talking about them?

Why are they choosing to keep us petrified this way?

It’s one thing to be cautious, and it’s another thing to spread fear. We deserve to know that so many patients have recovered. We NEED to know this, so we can go on with our lives the way we should be.

My mind tells me I shouldn’t fear you, but my heart tells me you’re new, you’re unknown, and you’re un-treatable, and I read the news…

So I fear.

You see, I’m a mom and I worry. My mind tells me I can go on with my life and take my kids out like there is nothing to worry about, but then my heart reminds me of all the guilt I would feel if anything were to happen to them because of a choice I’d made.

You’ve confused me.

You’ve confused the hell out of me, Corona.

But, in the end, I let my mind win as I don’t want my kids to remember the days when they were locked at home because of a virus. They’ve heard us mention it a couple of times, but we never implanted fear in their minds. This type of fear could stick in their minds forever, and I don’t want that to happen to them, so I choose to let them live a normal life, while I take the necessary actions to protect them.

And you know what? That’s how I would expect governments and media to react. They should let us go on with our lives while they take the necessary actions to let us go through this phase without installing panic.

But you, Corona…you have been so persuasive. You worked so hard and so fast, and you allied with the most powerful force: media.

You’ve left us breathless.

And for this, you win.”

This story was submitted to Love What Matters by Ghada Karam. Submit your own story here. Be sure to subscribe to our free email newsletter for our best stories, and YouTube for our best videos.

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