A Letter to Coronavirus

Dear Coronavirus,

It is difficult to imagine that you came from a bat, a mammal 1/4th my size, and the extent of the havoc you have wreaked in countries all over the world. Your outbreak took everyone by surprise. A situation none of us would have foreseen in our farthest of imagination. A virus that began its spread in Wuhan, China and rapidly spread city by city and country to country. A pandemic as we call it, declared within a month since the virus came into existence. Imagine - one virus took over the entire world and brought it to a literal stand still for months, affecting each country’s economy, people and bringing the whole world to its knees unexpectedly.

Whilst most of the industries and businesses witnessed a major downfall during this time, because of you, you were surprisingly a game changer for my father. In no way do I feel that you are a 'good' thing, but my father’s business has never flourished as much as it is now. My family and I are grateful for that.

My father has been in the medical industry for over 35 years now. He owns a business wherein we manufacture surgical garments like gowns, drapes, face masks, coveralls and the list goes on. You pushed all of us to protect ourselves in all possible ways, head to toe. Right from the hood for the head to the shoe-cover for the feet, frontline doctors, hospitals, nurses, volunteers, essential service workers, airlines etc were all in desperate need of these products. This urgency of the situation literally shifted my dad’s business position 360 degrees at the beginning of March, when you first hit India. We were absolutely flooded with orders - we had to massively scale up production, hire more employees, and basically work and produce as efficiently as possible for the greater good of our frontline heroes, and for the business of course. My mother, brother and I got involved and started working with my dad full time because we needed as many helping hands to cater to the demand. So while all my friends were locked up at home, bingeing Netflix shows, I was experiencing and seeing growth and success at an exponential rate.

Before your existence, my dad had been through about three rough years with his business. Change of partners, investment issues and a financial crunch were all constant challenges. But the way you helped my dad rebuild, come out of a messy situation and diversify within his product range is something that we are all still celebrating.

I think every situation in life teaches us something. Every negative always has a larger positive, should you choose to be open to experiencing it. The medical/healthcare industry, in my opinion, is one of the only industries that is going to survive and thrive for the next couple of years. While other businesses are slowly starting to revive as we return to normalcy, the medical/healthcare industry has been at an all time high.

While you have benefitted my family and our business, in no way have you been positive. That is something we have to live with - just as doctors do. Doctors earn their living by treating sick people and we earn ours by making PPE kits that helps protect people from you. I am certain that the world will fight you, and soon you will become history. Until then, we are here to provide protection to as many people as possible.

In defiance,

Studmuffin