As I look outside my window everyday, I look forward to everything returning to normal. I look forward to seeing the busy traffic along Euston road, the crowds at Great Portland street station or the early morning coffee queues at Pret cafe. I long for the fast paced London lifestyle, with everyone moving about their business like nothing else mattered. The park, filled with joggers and people walking their dogs. Now, it’s a ghost town. I look out the window and see the apocalypse. I know I mentioned in my previous post a few ways I am keeping myself sane during this time but I can not seem to shake off all the blues.

With each day that goes by, the situation seems to get worse with more COVID-19 cases and deaths across the world. The widespread transmission of the disease doesn’t seem to be slowing down. This week, more African countries previously with no cases, reported increasing numbers of patients testing positive for the COVID-19 virus. Now up until last week, the risk of transmission of the virus in Africa was not taken seriously by most leaders. False information spread like wildfire in communities and governments were not keen on sensitising people about the high risk of the disease. As I looked through social media, I noticed a couple of sites and individuals telling people the virus was not real or even if it were, the African ethnicity was immune to it. Sadly, such information was quickly taken up and today health organisations estimate the pandemic could have a significant negative impact in the continent as it already has a fragile health system.

Now this worries me because of my family back home. The wave of panic is sending people and the economy into a turmoil. With limited health facilities and resources to care for sick people, it is almost certain that a coronavirus infection could be a death sentence. As key measures like imposed curfew and country lockdown, to slow spread of the virus are now being implemented, I believe it’s also necessary to recognise the significant hardship it will have on the common man who depends on a day’s wage for basic needs.

Anyway, putting that all aside I still have to keep focus on my education. But how does anyone concentrate under these circumstances? As I listen to Andrew Steel’s lecture on scienceogram, I found myself lost in deep thoughts and it took me longer to cover the material than I had planned. However, I found his use of infographics in the presentation slides as genius and I want to learn to make such exciting presentations. I must admit, I think it would have been much more interesting for me if it were in a classroom with everyone else. But I will just have to get used to this new reality.