Thoughts & Facts about COVID-19

I am definitely not the type of person to spend my life on social media (to the exception of a few travel photos and updates here and there). Yet, I have been very introspective about the whole COVID-19 situation recently, as I am quite preoccupied about how things are evolving so nonsensically worldwide. In the last few days, according to varied reliable sources as well as my own knowledge, I have done my own study and introspection about the matter, and I want to share it with whomever may bump into it and may be interested in its content. After all, considering the current context, one may have more time to dedicate to such things by now.

Despite my long voyage around the world overland and all the relative freedom that it has provided me with for the last 7 and a half years, I am as confined as most of you are everywhere in the world. On the one hand, travelling is no longer up to me given that all borders are closed, and on the other, my situation is not so different from what it used to be a few months ago, in Ecuador and Peru, as I settled down there for a while in order to rest, teach yoga and write my book. As I now write these lines, I am completely stuck in Punta Arenas, in one of the Southernmost places in Chile and in the world, pretty much doing the same things (aside from the fact that I am obviously no longer teaching yoga, and I only do it for myself on a daily basis at my new local home). After all, I have always loved my own solitude and deliberate confinement through my travels, every so often, although it is always more agreeable when they are not implemented in a forceful way.

Whether we are aware of it or not, one of the purposes of a lifetime on Earth is all about reconnecting with the balance of our own freedom (both in a literal and figurative way).
I am quite concerned not only about the incapacity of our respective governments to properly handle the situation, but also about the inability of a majority of people to see how they are being manipulated by them once again. “Once again” stands for all the times this statement has been proven right in recent history for those who have already done their “homework”, as it seems that we humans have the redundant tendency to never learn from our individual and collective mistakes, or else to understand them when it is too late. However, I have never believed that it can be “too late”, and I hope that these lines can assist you in grasping some insights about what is taking place in the world at the moment.

The current COVID-19 situation is obviously affecting each and every one of us on different degrees and levels, directly or indirectly, regardless of wherever we dwell on our beautiful planet (or at least, on whatever our retarded Western civilisation has left of it).
Yet, it is somehow proving (once again) that our respective governments are not able to put themselves on the same page with one another. Every single one of them is stalking and copying the others' actions but the evolution of the situation proves that they are completely unable to properly communicate with each other nor with their own citizens. Consequently, it has given birth to a substantial number of incoherences and discrepancies through the overall individual and collective management of what we can now definitely call a worldwide crisis. Well, I think that the crisis has already started long before the commencement of the COVID-19 issue.
It seems that there is a considerable amount of latent hypocrisy about the matter, as the world has overall turned more and more sour in recent years. One of the reasons is because we are utterly unable to be emotionally honest with ourselves, hence with others. We have drifted light years away from the Zoroastrian times of striving to be in harmony with whatever we think, say, as by now, our motto seems to be about the exact opposite, for we are being so delusional with ourselves. And the idea of putting ourselves as victims to justify our actions and to be able to look at ourselves in the mirror without utter disgust is definitely not going to save us.
We humans tend not to never focus on the present moment; We easily get stuck in the past (instead of usefully transferring the experiences of the past into the present), and make fixed plans about the future (instead of taking them as flexible, changeable possibilities), which inexorably leads us to incredulous expectation, hence to disappointment and deception. Yet, paradoxically enough, whenever we think about the future, we mostly do it in a very individualistic, short-term perspective, and we are utterly incapable of seeing (or feeling) the flow of the “bigger picture”. This is one of the reasons why we have long been on the brink of destroying our own planet, whether it has been done by merciless greed or mere ignorance.

When it comes to COVID-19, we have to stop believing that this crisis is just temporary, and that everything will get back to “normal” afterwards (quote and unquote because I have never believed in “normality”, which I have always found utterly irrelevant and boring). Let's face the truth once and for all: Nothing will ever go back to “normal” because nothing will ever be able to eradicate this virus from the surface of this planet.
Why? Because even if things get better in Europe and the Northern hemisphere with spring and summer, they are most likely to get worse in the Southern hemisphere with the upcoming winter. Therefore, it would be very narrow-minded to believe that this coronavirus may ever go away. It will keep on spreading (especially as it now seems to even adapt to warmer climates, which was not the case in the first place), and even if we manage to limit its evolution for now, it will always be lurking around the corner to explode again like a time-bomb whenever the weather gets colder again.

So what could be concrete solutions regarding this matter?
Surely not forceful repression, as it seems to naturally take place everywhere in the world at the moment. When I say that we never learn about our mistakes, I point out the idea that, in our Western society, we always try to fix the consequences of a problem instead of fixing its cause. We are always trying to patch an issue, just hoping that it will then go unnoticed or even disappear just by magic. Or else, we try to make money from it as an ultimate priority, usually through blunt repression.
Overall, we hardly ever attempt to take the necessary time to understand why it does not work and what should be properly and efficiently done about it. After all, in a capitalistic societal model, we have to keep ourselves “busy” for the economy to keep growing, even when it can no longer grow due to its unsustainable patterns. Our society has become full of nonsensical repression all over the place.
For example, it is okay to drive at 119 km/h (when the limitation is at 120km/h), but it is “dangerous” to drive at 121km/h, so we get fined for it. We are not mature enough to vote at 17 years and 365 days old, but according to society, we wake up on the following morning and are suddenly mature enough to do so (I have personally never voted because I have never believed in the sustainability and genuineness of our political system). Laws and repression have replaced common sense and prevention, and we are so conditioned to blindly believe in this obsolete, repressive system that we no longer take the time to question its alienating approach.

Furthermore, one of the reasons why we are regularly prioritising repression over prevention is simply because our Western culture has become so distorted, as we have been prioritising the military over healthcare and education for centuries (if not millennia).
In most governments around the globe, the average yearly budget allocated to the military and defence is much higher than that allocated to healthcare and education. The current COVID-19 matter is merely putting this sad truth back to the surface. Some may argue that rules and laws exist because some people do not respect them in the first place, but come on, do you really think that they would actually exist if we were doing a proper prevention work beforehand? The COVID-19 pandemic has been spreading like crazy because most people have not taken it seriously in the first place, which is a mere reflection of our indiscipline in life. Yet, isn't it our governments' responsibility to ensure that the prevention information is conveyed properly and calmly, for people to really become conscious about what is going on?
Based on the same idea, if there were not any forced confinement rules, teenagers would surely keep going out and seeing their friends in the meantime. Yet, we should not forget that each and every one of us was younger at some stage and may have done exactly the same. It should actually be the responsibility of every single parent to take the time to explain to them why they should not do so, in order to prevent such acts instead of repressing them through blind authority or even by law. And it would be so much more efficient. Do not you think that laws would be more respected if the governments were rewarding people for following them, instead of punishing them and making more money on their back if they do not?

Criminality only exists in a system of scarcity and repression, and in this world, it seems that a majority of people suffer the rules implemented for a minority of them. It is a bit of a “chicken-egg” situation here. If people were properly educated, they would naturally understand that being careful about the virus is just common sense.
Yet, education is surely not just about piling up pieces of “official” university certificates, like many seem to believe. Never confuse education with intelligence. Yet, even the term “intelligence” is very relative here, for we tend to assume that being “intelligent” is all about the same purpose of ending up with the longest schooling curriculum ever. Education is about understanding the genuine values of life and their common sense, and emotional education (or intelligence) is all about being able to be honest about these values and to communicate and share them properly with our fellow beings, in a sustainable community perspective (regardless of its size). And emotional education is what we are truly lacking in this world.

Another fundamental issue in the COVID-19 matter is the actual sustainability of our healthcare system. If the healthcare system were sustainable, there would be enough room for everyone in hospitals, and not just for the wealthiest patients. Some people would not have to fake the symptoms of the coronavirus in order to be taken care of for other lingering diseases (like it has recently happened in the USA, which I still think is a ridiculous idea). Most people would not be turned away and told to stay home as they declare the first symptoms of the coronavirus, just because there are not enough tests or room available in hospitals.
Regardless of the COVID-19 issue, in most countries around the world, the have-nots are put on waiting lists and have to wait for months, if not years to get attended. Many of them die in the meantime. If the healthcare system were sustainable, the ultimate priority of the governments would be to make sure that everyone has access to hydro-alcoholic gel, recyclable masks and gloves (and not rubber/plastic ones), and especially to professional care.

Also, some believe that elaborating a vaccine for COVID-19 is the only viable option in the long term, which raises another issue.
In fact, many people (like me) are reluctant to getting vaccinated, for more than the idea of actually injecting a small dose of the virus (or other disease) into the body for us to generate the necessary antibodies to fight it afterwards, it has long be proven that vaccines sometimes also contain very dodgy, toxic substances. For instance, mercury is still found in some flu shots nowadays, and the true reason behind it is still very obscure (source: www.childrenshealthdefense.org). Or even worse, it has been proven that some vaccines contain sterilising substances that interfere with fertility and pregnancy (source: www.thrivemovement.com).
Now, the real question is: How to believe in the pharmaceutical industry when we know that is actually a 200-trillion-dollar industry owned and run by bankers? It is legitimate to doubt the genuineness of their overall intention, as they surely need people to be sick in order to recklessly make a colossal amount of money on their back. Otherwise, many common, severe diseases, such as cancer, would already be fully curable since the 1930s' (source: www.earth-matters.nl). Considering this idea, the worst thing we can do is probably to get vaccinated against COVID-19 in a not-so-distant future.

Also, would it really be necessary to get vaccinated, given that, although the death rate of COVID-19 is much higher than for a common flu (about 7% for the former versus about 1% for the latter), it is still overall very low if we take the 80+ year-old people out of the equation?
In effect, the death rate of COVID-19 is reduced to 1% in such a case. Some may be sceptical about these numbers because a few 40-ish year-old people have recently died from the coronavirus, but it is just part of the panic state intentionally conveyed by the government, with the complicity of the media. At the end of the day, these people are exceptions and the death rate for the 1 to 60 year-old people is still about 1% to date. Also, most of the younger people dying from the coronavirus already had underlying health issues. The age and death rate official numbers about COVID-19 can all be found online (source: www.worldometers.info).
Moreover, the global higher rate of death in Italy compared to China (7,2% for the former vs 2,3% for the latter) can be explained through the fact that Italy possesses a much higher proportion of older people in its population (23% are 65+ years old). “When stratified by age groups, death rates of people 1 to 69 years old in Italy and China look similar.” (source: www.cidrap.umn.edu)
We know that COVID-19 is much more contagious than a common flu, but we also know that it is much bigger (about 500 nano-millimetres), hence much heavier than the flu virus, which means that it falls down directly and does not linger in the air (which is also why a 1.5-metre security distance between people has been implemented). Again, the vaccine idea would not work unless everyone gets vaccinated, which is never going to happen, even if the governments manage to make it mandatory.

Yes, some people are going to die. After all, approximately 150,000 people die every single day on Earth, and so far, COVID-19 has killed 150,000 persons worldwide in 2 months. Even if it ends up being 10 times more (which is somehow very likely), it would still be relatively low according to what is happening in the world on a daily basis. Even if the strict confinement measures work and the coronavirus is relatively contained for now, it will keep going exactly the same afterwards. So, where are we going with this? Are we going to live like hermits for the rest of our lives?
Based on the same idea, why are we so afraid to accept our inevitable passing? This is the only common reality of a lifetime on this physical plane: regardless of our different beliefs, our physical body will die at some stage or another. Why can we not try to perceive the beauty of it, like all the ancient civilisations used to do, instead of having so many taboos and resistances about it? Why can we not be at peace with it? But this is surely another debate.
Also, because of COVID-19, it seems that some people get frustrated because they can no longer be close to the older family members, and they even celebrate their birthday from a distance. But do not they realise that it may be their last birthday anyway, and that they may want to be surrounded by their beloved people regardless of the virus? That they could die from another disease tomorrow, or else in their sleep? That everyone can die from anything, anytime?

Again, COVID-19 is not going to just disappear and we are all subject to catch it sooner or later.
So, is it really worth implementing a military lock-down just to keep our elderly people alive? Or else, to do so as a smoke screen of the failure of our healthcare and economic system? Instead of constantly talking about the number of deaths, why do the media not spend some time explaining what to do in case we get infected and develop the symptoms, since it is very likely to happen for a majority of people sooner or later? The answer is very simple; In a society in which the sensational has replaced common sense, the media have become the prostitutes of our own delusion, and they need panic and death to sell their papers. After all, we are not so far from the time of gladiators, as they were thrown into a stadium for the audience to get pleased through the sight of blood and death.
Yet, the COVID-19 could be handled in a much better way if we had competent, honest “leaders” managing our governments. Would it had been so complicated to express honestly and genuinely what is truly happening in the world without creating a state of panic? Of course, it is a very utopian thought, but at least, we may have been able to preserve the resources of toilet papers in our stores. I mean, this is the perfect symbol of the ignorance of our self-proclaimed “advanced” civilisation; “Dad, what do humans need to store in a survival situation? Toilet paper, of course!”
A shit-brained civilisation indeed, which has become utterly blind to the true sense of essential needs and community services.

Now, how can we believe that closing international borders and setting a military lock-down on people can solve the problem?
Governments are often talking of being “at war” against the virus, but why being at war against an enemy that cannot be defeated? It seems quite obvious that governments are also using the coronavirus to somehow justify their useless yet massive expenditures on the military, as well as to implement more control through fear. Also, it keeps on building up “separatedness” and discrimination between us, for the best way to conquer is surely to divide. Does it not remind you of something? This is exactly what happened after 11/09/2001; although it has long been proven to be an inside job, worldwide governments still implemented more fear and control afterwards, and people started losing their freedom accordingly, for the sake of an “invisible” enemy that has killed 40,000 times less people than cancer ever since. Yet, meanwhile, still more money has been injected in the military and in the invasion of petroleum-rich countries, under the pretext that they host a handful of so-called “terrorists”, while this money has been so badly needed in the healthcare and education systems.
Do not get me wrong; it is not my intention to raise a debate about whether the COVID-19 situation is an inside job or not. On the other hand, isn't it a bit bizarre that the whole thing has appeared completely out of the blue at the very time when many peoples around the world were slowly but surely rising against their governments? (Namely Hong-Kong, France -yellow jackets-, Venezuela -entire country in utter ruin-, Chile -violent riots-, Ecuador -indigenous people-, Colombia -indigenous people-)

Some may argue that closing borders prevents the people who are already contaminated by the coronavirus not to enter a country and contaminate more people. But what about those who are healthy and cannot exit it?
Since all countries are affected by now, it does not make any sense at all anyway. For instance, in most South American countries, it is quite obvious that COVID-19 has spread out from their capital cities, because they possess international airports. Yet, it has not been clearly defined whether it is because of infected foreign travellers entering the countries, or because of local travellers coming back from heavily infected countries.
For example, in Argentina, foreigners have been boldly thrown out of towns recently, just because they were pointed the finger at for bringing the coronavirus around, even those who had been living or travelling on site long before the first rumours that COVID-19 finally reached South America appeared. In Belgium, there is now a new law stating that pedestrians will be fined $250 Euros if they do not respect the 1.5-metre “security” distance, and another one stating that people could go to jail for a period of time from 3 months to 2 years if they ever sneeze onto someone else without putting their arm in front of their mouth. But seriously people, how on earth have we come to this, as a supposedly “advanced” and “intelligent” species?
And again, what is the coherence behind all this? In some countries, it is forbidden to go to the restaurant, but it is okay to go to the hairdresser? Please wake up everyone!!

This global crisis is the time, for each and every of us, to properly think of our purpose on this physical plane as human beings, and to how we connect to one another.
Throughout years of travelling and studying the world, I have long realised that the gap between those who are willing to be more conscious and the others carries on drastically growing. I have often heard that some people connect with some more and more conscious people everywhere, but I tend to disagree with this statement. Indeed, the only reason for which some have this impression is because we are drawn to naturally connect with those with whom we share the same energy frequency level. I try to avoid the crossing of cities I much as I can (unless I really have to transit through them), for I do not resonate with their energies very much, but anytime I do so, I cannot help myself realising that people have a lower and lower overall energy level, for they seem to be completely stuck in their life, and especially stuck on their dear technological devices.

A virus thrives in a low-energy environment because it has a low energy vibrational field. This is no far-fetched spiritual statement; this is Quantum Physics, hence rocket science, even if it is still not commonly known and accepted as such. What some call “aura” is no less than the electro-magnetic field that all living organism possess around their physical body (including animals, plants and trees, and the Earth as a whole). As we connect with one another, we exchange energy through this energy field, which vibrates on different frequency levels. If our energy frequency level is low, we are very likely to fall sick and be contaminated by a virus such as COVID-19, because we would match the low energy vibrational frequency of the virus. If our energy frequency is high, we either do not get affected by a virus or if we ever do, we may never develop its symptoms, which does not prevent one from contaminating other people though.
I believe that COVID-19 has a fast spreading rate because even though some folks possess a higher vibrational field because of getting more and more conscious of themselves, hence of what is happening in the world around and inside them, the human collective and Western society as a whole has inexorably sunk into total decadence in the last few decades. We have cut ourselves from Mother nature and from each other, hence from the very essence of our human experience. We have become the very virus of our own environment, and the current coronavirus situation is a mere reflection of what has become of us as a species. What if our destruction of and disconnection from nature is actually responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic?

This is a very important concern when we think that authentic forms of communication between human beings were already broken long before the appearance of the virus.
Before the COVID-19 issue, we were already spending our life on mobile phones and computers, prioritising a virtual form of human interconnection instead of a physical one. And it seems logical to think that this aspect of our evolution does not get any better with the coronavirus confinement. Yet, let's just hope that people will be so fed up with their confinement that they will unconditionally jump into each other's arms whenever it is over. Well, on the other hand, “to be over” is quite an obsolete term regarding this coronavirus matter, and hugging each other may actually be prohibited ever after.
But I have faith that the human collective will overcome this matter, regardless of its outcome, even if I believe that the worst is still to come. I have faith that love will always overcome fear. We have to assume that love is always the answer because it is always here, whereas fear is man-made and a projection of the mind (hence of the ego) to control our life. We need to get rid and let go of these patterns if we want to eventually be able to thrive as a species, and to be unconditionally happy regardless of whatever experience we are going through.

At last, I have been wondering about what are other people's incentives during the COVID-19 situation. I hope that the coronavirus matter is going to redefine people's priorities in life. I mean, I have always heard so many folks saying that they never have the time to do a lot of things that they would like to do because of being so “busy”. Of course, I know many people around me who are using their forced confinement in a useful way and are very happy about that, for indeed, they have already realised how stuck they have been in their life, and they are now sorting it out because they cannot do much about this complicated, unexpected situation but to make the best out of it anyway.
Nonetheless, this approach does not seem to apply to a majority of people on this planet, and to be perfectly honest, I am not very surprised about it. How many times have I heard that many people would like to do more exercising, learn a new language or even a new music instrument. No, most people still watch TV or play on their smart phones all day long, even more than they were already doing before. There is just distraction and delusion in our distorted culture, and again, there is a gulf between what most people think, say and do. And it makes me sad, for I am very aware that I am inexorably also part of this collective aberration.

More than the lack of physical human connections, we are now actually experiencing a crisis of consciousness as a whole, and the entire COVID-19 situation is a surely a physical manifestation of it. We have replaced the sacred by useless distractions, and although I keep having unconditional faith in whatever experience may come to me, I am still very sceptical about what may become of us as a collective.
But there is always hope. I hope that if you are not confined on your own, you are seizing each and every second of the given time with the people you are with. I hope that you are taking the time to finally do things that you had put on the back-burner for too much time. I hope that regardless of wherever you are, you truly love what you are doing. In a time when loving others is physically repressed, do not forget to love yourself, and that love can also be expressed through creativity. And creativity can be expressed in many ways, whether it comes to art, building things, cooking, exercising or looking after your garden. I hope that you are taking the time to cook your meals and eat them with your beloved people. After all, we humans grow through new experiences and the integration of the lessons that we learn through them. Now that money and possessions are becoming such derision according to the gravity of the situation, I truly wish you to take the time to sit back and think honestly of the ultimate question: “What would I really love to do with my existence?”

I truly wish you to find an answer to that question (if it is not already done), and may it help you thrive both in your human and spiritual experiences (regardless of whatever the latter means). May this period of impromptu “free” time be also a reflective, introspective moment about the world we live in. After all, The only thing we truly need to eradicate from the surface of this planet is the obsolescence of the entire current paradigm, and we now have a unique, priceless opportunity to eventually do so.
How? The only thing we can do is to have the courage to be emotionally honest and authentic with ourselves, which inevitably leads to changing ourselves. Only then can we finally change the world. There is maybe not much we can do about the current situation, but the choice to change ourselves (and therefore the world) is still up to each and every one of us. May this confinement time be like a chrysalis stage for all of us to metamorphose the entire human consciousness for good.

Nicolas Genna
Facebook page: Teacher on the Road
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