In 2003, when SARS broke out in Beijing, I read "Plague " for the first time. In 2022, I read "The Plague" for the second time.
"The Plague" was written by the French writer Albert Camus and published in 1947. It tells the story of a city called Ahlan that was closed due to the plague. After the city was closed, the lives and psychological reactions of different people in the city, as well as their fight against the plague.
75 years have passed. Except for the plague, the cities are different. People's responses to the plague, as well as various subtle and complex emotions, are all the same, which makes people full of emotions. There are many thought-provoking words in it, here are a few excerpts.
Rats die on the streets, and people die in their rooms
At the beginning of the plague, many rats appeared in the city, and they died in groups on the streets and in rooms, along with dead people. Each doctor came into contact with three or two dead people, but no one thought of taking action. The author said that the newspapers chattered endlessly about the rat incident but said nothing about the dead people. The reason is that rats die in the streets while people die in their rooms.
In fact, if someone added up the number of deaths at that time, the number would have been shocking. Some sensitive doctors are already suspecting that this is a plague, but they are still hesitating.
This is human nature. We know that natural and man-made disasters are common, but we are still caught off guard and always think that they will pass soon. Like a nightmare, everyone thinks this is not reality and will pass quickly.
Isn’t this the case with COVID-19 ? At the beginning, all countries were hesitant. It was clear that Wuhan was under lockdown, but everyone was lucky and thought that it would soon pass and spread to the whole world.
The COVID-19 has clearly caused tens of millions of deaths around the world, but what everyone has seen is various news about people traveling around, holding concerts, and watching football games. The dead have been cremated or buried in the soil and cannot speak, while the living are wandering the streets, and newspapers prefer to care about the living.
This is probably the case in China. The hospitals in Beijing are obviously overcrowded, and the incinerators in the funeral parlors are not shutting down 24 hours a day and can't cremate the bodies in time. The media is already singing and dancing, the roads in Beijing are blocked, and the restaurants have begun to call for orders. The beaches in Hainan are already full of people enjoying the sun.
faces the sea, and the flowers are blooming in spring. Spring is not far away, and although there are still people dying, except for family members, I guess no one will take a second look.
They forgot that people should be humble.
The book says that those who died first were humanists. They did not take precautions and forgot that people should be humble. They thought it was possible for them to cope with everything, continue to do business, and prepare to travel. They were free, and then they were struck down by the plague.
In modern times, being unrestrained means "freedom". How many people believe that freedom is sacrosanct, lockdowns are unforgivable, and wearing masks in public is unforgivable. But many people have forgotten the virus . Viruses are fair to everyone and will not treat you differently because you support freedom or zero. The only way you can defeat the virus is to be humble about the virus, respect it, be careful to guard against it, work hard to improve your own immunity , and support the government's appropriate epidemic prevention measures.
But it is difficult for people to be humble. In the three years since the COVID-19, everyone knows that COVID-19 will kill people, and tens of millions of people have died. But these things do not happen around us. These are just data, just dust and smoke. 10 million is 1 followed by 6 "0"s, and it takes less than 2 seconds to write. Only when someone around you dies will everyone understand that a grain of sand in history is like a mountain. You may be pressed down and unable to breathe in this life.
Plague, like other diseases, brings pain to people. Only lunatics, blind men and cowards will give up the struggle.
In the book, Doctor Rieux wants to form a private epidemic prevention team. The public has great opinions. Some people think that there is no need to do anything and just surrender. Tarrou volunteered to form a volunteer rescue team. So the two men had a conversation about it, because doing this was life-threatening, both for Rieux and for Tarrou.
Rieux said that the order of heaven and earth ultimately boils down to the word death. For doctors, it means endless failure, but this is not a reason to stop fighting. Because someone is crying in front of you to live, you will want to save him. When
said this, the plague had just begun and things were very difficult. The doctor was a little irritable and anxious, but he did it without hesitation.
Throughout the ages, Chinese and foreign doctors have been similar. Plague is war, and doctors in white coats are like soldiers, knowing the danger, but still moving forward bravely.
In this new coronavirus epidemic, the number of casualties among medical staff is very high. In 2020, approximately 17,000 medical staff died worldwide. In the winter of 2022, most medical staff in major hospitals in the country have tested positive for COVID-19. Even if they tested positive for COVID-19, they are still working.
These persistences can no longer be explained by professional ethics. It is estimated that this is the fighting spirit in human genes. For humans to survive on the earth and defeat countless viruses, bacteria and other opponents, the fighting spirit is still needed.
Therefore, you can never really lie flat at any time.
The only way to fight the plague is honesty
This is the conversation between doctor Rieux and journalist Rambert. Rambert wanted to leave Ahlan and find his wife at first. He told Rieux that he did not want to join the volunteer ranks because he did not believe in heroism. Rieux said that there is no heroism in fighting the plague, and the only way to fight the plague is to be honest. Honesty means doing one's job well.
Over the past month, I have been deeply touched by this sentence. Honesty and seeking truth from facts are the basic ethical requirements for scientific research, as well as our basic principles for dealing with the COVID-19 epidemic. However, as we all know, honesty in the scientific research community is riddled with holes and cannot be scrutinized. The medical field is also one of the hardest hit areas, with countless papers being retracted every year.
Normally, dishonesty is not noticeable, but in the face of the epidemic, dishonesty carries a heavy price. This price is so heavy that I don’t know who can bear it.
Authoritative experts and academicians came out and said that Omicron is the same as the flu, or even worse than the flu. 90% of -positive patients are asymptomatic. Shanghai had a total of 630,000 infections from March to May 2022. According to official statistics, asymptomatic patients accounted for about 90%. Relevant officials in Guangzhou announced at the press conference that among the 162,700 cases of infection, asymptomatic infections accounted for about 90%, and there were no deaths.
As a result, people across the country can’t wait, and even welcome the release with joy, hoping that the sun will rise soon, so that they can wander freely. As a result, 90% of people had symptoms, which were not mild, including high fever, cough, razor throat, and body aches. The number of fever clinics in major hospitals across the country has surged. The number of emergency rooms in some hospitals in Beijing has reached more than 10 times the usual number. The ICUs are overcrowded. What is even more frightening is that the freezers of funeral homes cannot hold corpses and the incinerators are overloaded. There are too many obituaries in my circle of friends about going to the hospital for rescue.
Human tragedy.
The plague lurks in everyone
Tarou talked to Rieux about his past experiences. He was originally engaged in politics and believed that society was based on the death penalty. He was opposed to this. In the course of his opposition, he discovered that he actually approved of the deaths of thousands of people and even contributed to their deaths.
He realized that many people kill people out of good intentions. The plague lurks in everyone and no one is immune from it. People must take care of themselves, otherwise, they will breathe into other people's faces and spread the plague to others.
In the Internet age, Internet celebrities and big Vs are probably all plague patients, and everyone thinks they are the righteous party. For the sake of justice, you can let the other party die, or let the dissenters go to hell.
So, people, when you hear all kinds of seemingly reasonable remarks, calm down a little, use your own brain to think, and don't be deceived by these remarks.
Be compassionate
Tarrou said that he was a plague patient who unintentionally killed people for the sake of doctrine, so he has been pursuing peace.The doctor asked him, what path should he take to find peace? Be compassionate, Tarrou said.
In the modern world, various theories emerge one after another, and they all seem reasonable. When it comes to epidemic prevention measures, both coexistence and zeroing out are reasonable, but both have been taken to extremes in their implementation, causing a lot of unnecessary losses and regrets.
The implementation of each policy is of course not as clean and beautiful as the formula derived on paper. It is a combination of the system's mechanism and the management and execution capabilities of personnel at all levels. It is difficult to achieve perfection. And the virus will always exist, and no plan can guarantee that it will not harm the interests of the people at all. However, if there is compassion, many extreme things may not happen. For example, we will not weld the unit door shut or lock down the community for several months. For example, before the release, we will plan in advance to vaccinate and , and prepare drugs in advance. If there is empathy, experts will be much more cautious in what they say.
Human beings are resilient. There have been countless plagues in history, but in the end humans survived. This epidemic must be the same, and we will eventually survive this disaster. We have weaknesses, doubts, our own calculations and nastiness, but we also have bravery, perseverance and sacrifice, and constant struggle.
bless myself and everyone!
