The Newest Covid Strain

The first cases of COVID happened in January of 2020, where it has since taken on many names, mutations, and “variants”. Not to mention completely uprooting all of our lives. On one of my journalism travels in 2012 I visited Japan and China and while on the plane there I was curious as to why everyone was wearing surgical masks, then come to find out everyone in the country was wearing the same masks all around major cities. Even in the supermarkets and gas stations they had vibrant kawaii and anime designs packaged in fluorescent exciting kid like packagings. This was almost a decade before the first case of coronavirus. So this had been popular culture in the —- hemisphere long before. But this wasn’t because of a pandemic or a rogue virus, this was because of the extreme pollution and toxic fumes in the air stemming from the effects of living in such densely populated areas. It really brings up the question of our cleanliness and etiquette as a species and sheds light on the bad habits that plague our culture, society and infrastructure. It is being thoroughly embedded into our everyday lives, that we don’t even notice the drastic effects it is having on us and the planet we live on. Not until something as extreme as a global pandemic or the extreme weather climate change effects is that we start to take notice. We can not wait until it is too late to reverse the staggering scientific statistics and effects of global temperature increase, rising sea levels, melting ice sheets, and widespread ecosystem devastation. It is not only affecting our everyday livelihood, it is also violating our constitutional freedoms as American citizens. We are now being forced to inject ourselves with chemicals that have been shown to have severe side effects, and restricted from job sites or travel locations because of these new enforcements. A problem that is now threatening our human rights and American national security. Our Economic security is being effected because of high unemployment rates and economic shutdowns. Factory shutdowns, employee layoffs, and bankruptcies are stressing our resource and energy security.