The 4 Stages Of COVID-19 According To A Privileged Woman, Beginning With Disbelief

No, no - not infection, transmission, community transmission. A privileged woman may look at the stages of COVID-19 very differently.

No, no – not infection, transmission, community transmission. A privileged woman may look at the stages of COVID-19 very differently.

When you’re a privileged woman safe inside your home during social isolation, your perception of the pandemic is very different from, say, that of a lesser privileged person.

What may these be? Let’s take a quick look.

Stage 1: Disbelief

“Oh come on! They would never shut down the airports! It’s just the flu, not the apocalypse you know?!”

Sounds vaguely familiar? Substitute airports with schools/ offices/ malls/ borders/ life and I’m sure most of us would have uttered something on these lines about a month or two ago. I, for one, surely did.

The new normal that we are all facing just seemed way too far-fetched – like something out of a Robin Cook novel that I used to devour when I was an over imaginative teenager. The perils of 24/7 news channels and social media is such that, for every wide-eyed ‘believer’ out there it has certainly made at least some of us cynics – we take any and every news, be it real of fake, with a pinch of salt and more often than not, simply roll our eyes and dismiss almost everything as nothing more than hype.

Stage 2: Paranoia

“Is my throat hurting?” I wonder as I try to swallow the non-existent saliva in my dry mouth in the middle of the night. “Aachooo!” goes my husband the next morning and I glare at him for not sneezing into his sleeve – never mind that he is sitting shirtless – the default dress code for work from home. (Well, although the scenery leans more towards gently rolling hills than Chris Hemsworth, at least it reduces the laundry load these days!)

Dig out all the hand sanitisers that have not seen the sun in ages from the bottom of my many handbags and place them around the house strategically.

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Read up obsessively on how to protect ourselves from the dreaded virus. And then discuss it to death.

Keep touching the offspring at random intervals to check if there is any increase in body temperature until she gets feds up and yells “Ohmygod, stop it!”

Stage 3: Guilt

10 days back I gave into my cravings and ordered biryani from Zomato. Even though I picked a restaurant which supposedly follows WHO safety standards, as I satiated my hunger pangs I couldn’t help but send up some prayers to the Almighty. On top of that one sees umpteen posts on social media about how everyone is cleaning up their fruits and veggies from the grocery store – most of which I’ve not been following.

We don’t step out of the house except for groceries and so I don’t sweep and mop the house daily either (Oh horror of horrors!). And let’s not even talk about the increased screen time! Let’s just not go there, ok?

Stage 4: The Philosopher

Que Sera Sera – Whatever will be, will be! If it’s coming, well then, it’s coming. We’ll cross the bridge when we come to it. This too shall pass. I guess there is nothing much to be done except to play by the rules and stay home, stay safe, sip your dalgona and try not to murder your spouse; you see, disposal of incriminating evidence during lockdown could just prove to be a tad bit difficult.

Which stage are you in?

Image source: shutterstock

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About the Author

Anne John

Anne John loves to play with words and calls herself a reader, writer, explorer & dreamer. She has a wide range of interests and has recently jumped onto the Mommy Vlogger bandwagon! read more...

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