The Beast: Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) aka COV-19 or COVID-19
December 31, 2019
“The Beast” first reared its ugly head in an official appearance on December 31, 2019. As the world prepared to usher in a new decade, the China office of the World Health Organization (WHO) got word of a new virus causing cases of pneumonia in Wuhan City, Province of China. From New Year’s Eve to January 12th, the number grew to 44 cases. By January 20th, there were 282 confirmed cases in four different countries. Six people had died. Ten days later, on January 30th, it was declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.'
Silent and deadly, the Beast crept along taking its victims by human-to-human transmission. On February 11th, the WHO finally announced a name for it. They called it the 2019 - new (novel) coronavirus disease, or COV-19. At this writing, May 15th, 2020, it has globally claimed the lives of over 300,000 people and it is still raging.
The virus knows no boundaries, has no temperature preferences, no age limits and no economic or political influences. It has claimed the lives of countless elderly grandparents, sometimes even wiping out nearly the entire population of long term care facilities. Healthy looking celebrities, journalists, chemists, doctors, nurses, police, fire or EMT technicians have not only fallen ill in their line of duty but often have succumbed to this virus. It's’ dark legacy is Death and Destruction.
As the death tolls mount, I am fiercely aware of the sparks of many lives ascending from an imaginary funeral pyre and I am determined to capture as many as I can to kindle a new fire. Each of them brought to this world a precious value, an ultimate purpose in life. That purpose has not been snuffed out by this beast but rather it has been completed, set afire. Perhaps the very purpose of their lives was to add to the Kindled Legacies and create a new fire to burn forever in the minds and hearts of their families, their friends, these readers and many generations to come as they remember the victims and survivors of the COV-19 Pandemic.
It is our hope that you will contribute the “sparks” of your loved ones, share their stories, read about the others and help us to create an unbridled documentary of this historical event for all posterity.
Please visit our website at www.KindledLegacies.com to submit your stories for consideration for this time capsule documentary.
Photo by CDC from Pexels
