How to make a difference in the world
Or, why the coronavirus pyramid scheme will mean there will be way more sick people than health care workers
Imagine you get the lowdown on a great new pyramid scheme. For every person you enlist with your product, you get paid! It’s a surefire thing. Let’s say the numbers are going to turn over every 6 days or so, and for each person you enlist in the scheme, they will be enlisting two to three more. Some of them will work hard and enlist many more than two. Every one of those people will enlist two or three more. The numbers just keep multiplying, exponentially! When you start looking at the numbers, you can see you are going to have it made. Rich beyond imagining!
If we crunch those numbers with the altogether different matter of an infective virus which has a kill rate of about three in every hundred people, your ability to make a difference in this world is a grim matter indeed. The trouble is, unlike getting in early on a surefire runaway train pyramid marketing scheme where you are going to make an absolute motza, well, in the coronavirus pyramid scheme you almost certainly won’t have any idea how you have contributed to the rolling wave of sickness and death which will affect your immediate community.
The reason this all feels so unbelievable, surreal, mind blowing, inconceivable, and maybe even just downright ridiculous, is we have not encountered a virus with this combination of infectiousness and deadliness in our lifetime, and probably in our parents lifetime.
The closest reference point we have is the infamous 1918 Spanish Flu, amounting to 500 million infected, give or take, and 50 million deaths. Of course, “the Covid-19 numbers are much smaller than that”, I hear people saying.
Well sure, we are only at about 300,000 now. A few days ago it was 200,000. With every single one of those people are the start of their own coronavirus pyramid scheme, who knows how this infectious disease will compare? (This might give you an idea) There was a time when there was one person in the world with Spanish Flu: if you want to make a difference in the world, you have to start somewhere.
So, how can you make a difference?
- Avoid catching it
- Don’t hang out with other people, at least 1.5 meters not hanging out with people
- Wash your hands after you touch things, especially before eating or touching your eyes, mouth, or nose
- Avoid spreading it
- Don’t hang out with other people. If you have symptoms, it’s better to just stay home, and save lives you will know nothing about
- Wash your hands before you touch things, especially after eating, pooping, peeing, or touching your eyes, mouth, or nose
- Take care of people in your community
- Cover your mouth and nose, especially if you know you have it, with a mask if you have one, and if you don’t, use your elbow when you are coughing or sneezing
- Stay connected by phone or the internet with people in your community
- Spread the word