People tend to value their lives more, their relatives, their friends

Brazil, Resende: Gabriela Pimenta, 2nd year of High School

What affected the most about my routine, obviously, as a student, was not being able to go to school, and also, what I used to do in my free time, for example, doing things outside of my house.
I live in a small neighbourhood, a bit far from the downtown, but, anyway, things changed here, people are staying inside, everyone is being more careful, markets have reduced the number of people who can enter, for example, 3 in 3, …

… and cars are passing on the streets, talking about the precautions that must be taken against the virus.

I had to stop having social contact, which is difficult for me because I love hugs, close conversations and real connections. 

Brazil, in my opinion, has an irresponsible president. On March 24th, he announced national network acting against WHO, world science and other politicians. According to the president, people should go to the streets and act normally, schools and trades should work and nothing should stop, so he encouraged everyone to risk their lives. He also announced a provisional measure that leaves workers without wages for 4 months, but with the negative answer of Brazilians, he revoked it. 

During this period, I realized that I am doing things that I had stopped doing, and also new things. I prepared lunch and dinner and everyone in my house approved, I finished reading books and series, I also made calls and played games online with my friends again, that’s what we are doing to keep in touch. I feel that it was easier because there was no anxiety about things that I had to do in the outside world.

I believe that people tend to value their lives more, their relatives, their friends, this is what I believe, due to the lack of social contact and the fear of this contact. But people forget very quickly, we had outbreaks even worse than this, but things continued as they were, after problems pass, they become memories, and mistakes are repeated.

After all will be over, many economies may collapse, but countries with better structures will recover more quickly (in all senses), taking a more humanitarian view of the situation and being able to help other countries.
I believe that Brazil, being a poorer country compared to the more developed ones, will suffer more to rebuild itself, mainly because we have a president who has a bad relationship with other countries, due to lack of diplomacy and humanitarian speech. An example of this was the absence of the president in a videoconference with countries of South America to contain the progress of COVID-19.

I hope there’s a cure soon, but for that to happen, people need to follow the rules, stay safe, and protect themselves.