Archived News Item
Together in COVID response
July 2, 2021
In her regular column in the Central Western Daily Newspaper, Mary Trainor RSM writes of the challenges confronting Australia due to COVID-19 and the hope that the community will continue to rally together and do the right thing for themselves and others.
The growing numbers of infections from the Coronavirus poses a challenge for each and every one of us to ensure that we don’t catch it or pass it on to others. The restrictions on travel, social distancing, wearing a mask, and for those in the infected areas, the lockdown, are not matters of choice, but rather precautions to curtail further levels of infection, illness, and loss of life.
Thankfully, Australia has not descended to the appalling levels of affliction that so many other countries are experiencing. While the number of people being vaccinated is on the rise, it would appear that there are far too many people abstaining for reasons best known to themselves.
This cannot be allowed to be dealt with simply as a personal matter, but needs to be recognized as a way of containing a pandemic. This virus seems to be able to spread without any planning or often even physical contact. Sneezing and coughing into your elbow or your sleeve might appear to be a safety measure, but this virus lands where it will, once it gets into the air and doesn’t carry a danger signal to alert the bystanders. The outbreak and the lockdown couldn’t have chosen a worse time with School Holidays and our wintery temperatures. Families and homes and all of us have to be extra careful with things like personal hygiene and keeping a distance from others.
No hugs and kisses, not even any handshakes. Using the wipes in the supermarket to disinfect the trolley needs to go a lot higher on the dos and don’ts list as so many people seem to disregard it. There’s an old saying “no man is an island”. I would rephrase that to include us women too! But the meaning behind it never goes out of date.
St Paul said in his letter to the Romans – “the life and death of each of us has its influence on others”. Particularly at this time of viral invasion it can have both a philosophical and a practical meaning. Someone’s opinion on a subject can influence others, and the higher that person is on the societal ladder, the more people might be influenced.
If the death toll from the virus escalates here in Australia as it has in so many overseas countries the tragic outcome will certainly have its influence on many people. We need to be very careful to take good note of the advice of the professionals in any field, but especially regarding this virus. I can only hope and pray that every Australian citizen will step forward to have the vaccination as soon as is reasonably possible, putting aside contrary views, fears and opinions.
Fortunately, here in Orange we are outside the active zone and not confined to barracks for the next couple of weeks.
With the collaboration of everyone in obeying the restrictions and using our commonsense, we will, hopefully, escape an outbreak.
My prayer for each of us is – May God hold us in the palm of His hand.
Messages to: mary.trainor@mercy.org.au
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