A quick update. I hope you're all safe and well!
I've been so caught up in LIFE for a very long time that I didn't come here until now... and I have lots of things to report to you.
1. Samantha, the guinea pig in my icon, has gone to the guinea pig paradise and reunited with Deanna there, I hope. She stopped eating and drinking yesterday, and went to an eternal sleep sometime in the midnight. She had been fighting a vicious tumor on her breast for almost a year, and seemed hardly affected by it until the last day of her life. The tumor grew rapidly in January. We fed her lots of her favorite fruits and vegetables, and we hope she enjoyed her life with us except for that one last day. We buried her next to Deanna in the community garden.
2. Wuhan coronavirus. I live in Wuhan and not too far away from market from which the virus spread. Right now no one in my family has the virus. You may have read about Wuhan conronavirus and may be very concerned. I 'll share with you what I know and have experienced as a local.
The people in Wuhan was not informed of the severity of the virus until around Jan 21st. Most of us didn't wear masks until then. But specialists who invested the market have obtained the evidence that it is highly possible that the virus may be transmitted from person to person around Jan 10th. Highway in and out of the city was blocked around that time, and then public transportation in the city shut down. On Jan 24th, when most people were reuniting with their families and watching the new year gala on TV, we received the news that the city went into total lock down. From Jan 26th onward, private cars were forbidden on the road. We were told to stay inside as much as possible. We still have electric power, running water, gas, and Wifi. So we are lucky and fine, considering what's going on outside.
The virus may spread fast, but it should not be as deadly as the one that caused SARS. Though my family are all safe, some of the friends, colleagues and families of people I know, have caught the disease and even died. The main problem does not lie in the virus itself, but in the failure of the government and the authorities, both local and central, to disclose the information timely, to relieve the panic and lift the qualms in the society, and to mass and distribute the medical resources to the hospitals. The hospitals qualified to treat the disease are swarmed with people, and if you are diagnosed with the disease, you may still be sent home because there's no bed for you in the hospital. Many people suffered, some of them even lost their life, because they could not get treatment, and had to count on their luck to see if they could get better on their own. I've been praying hard that my family, my friends and all the people I care about, will not get any kind of illness, because it's likely that timely treatment is not available.
I still find it hard to believe that in 2020, our social systems are still so primitive, and that in time of crisis, some people in the government and authorities are still thinking about making a gain, instead of doing their job. I know our government could've done better, but it chose not to.
If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to leave a comment. I hope you all have better days than me <333