Historia Mollitiam: Covid 19 Pandemic is a History of Resilience

Humankind has been affected psychologically by a wide range of disasters from the
dawn of time, including famines, floods, earthquakes, wildfires, windstorms, wars, and, last
but not least, epidemics of potentially lethal infectious diseases. We are certainly no
exception today, as individuals strive to cope and help others cope with the sadness, worry,
and anxiety brought on by the world's greatest health threat: the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-
19) pandemic. In several places, the COVID-19 epidemic has spread quickly. This epidemic
has had short- and long-term psychological and mental health consequences for everyone in
the family. Many susceptibility variables influence family resilience, including
developmental age, educational position, prior mental health conditions, being economically
disadvantaged, or being confined due to infection or fear of infection. WHO is concerned
about the crisis' impact on people's mental health and is closely monitoring the situation
alongside national authorities, while also offering information and guidance to governments
and the general public. Dr. Kluge, along with Dr. Aiysha Malik, Technical Officer,
Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse, WHO Headquarters, and Dr. Dorit
Nitzan, Acting Director of Emergencies, WHO/Europe, answered questions about mental
health issues in the context of COVID-19 and provided insights on tools, techniques, and
interventions to address them at a press briefing held on March 26.
In a world where experiences revolve in history, make your own experiences and turn it
into a history. History enables people to validate their experiences significantly because
experiences are meant to be recognized and as you recognize your experiences, you allow
yourself to learn despite of the adversities of life. By definition, “Historia Mollitiam” is a
Latin phrase which means “History of Resilience”. It depicts the narrative when a particular
existence of time became a history because of the resilience that people had manifested
amidst uncertainties. It characterizes the impregnable strength of people as they face
inevitable occurrences in life. History is a reflection of experiences, it divulged occurrences
that has changed the world constantly. History repeats itself and anchors the possibility of
repeating occurrences, it allows time to revolve within people and establish circumstances
that can be associated with the nature of human. Every occurrence that entails with
experiences can be considered as history and when history unveils these experiences, it
accentuates the manifestation of human interference in the establishment of society whether
it highlights the ruthlessness or authenticity of people attributable to the concomitance of
social principles and aspects in various perspectives.
Exactly, 100 years ago when the world was devastated by Great Influenza Pandemic,
also known as the Spanish Flu, which began in 1918 and persisted through 1920. According
to Robert J. Barro, based on the data on flu-related death rates for 48 countries, the
pandemic had killed around 40 million people worldwide equivalent to 2.1 percent of the
world’s population at the time. The pandemic killed a number of prominent people,
including the sociologist Max Weber, the painters Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele. Many
more famous people were survivors including Franz Kafka, General Pershing, Walt Disney
and the Spanish King Alfonso XIII. Contemporarily, the history is repeating itself as the
world faces a menacing pandemic for another time. Apparently, The COVID 19 Pandemic
has threatened the world in terms of health and economical aspect. Countries around the
world immediately implemented community quarantines and health protocols are being
imposed such as social distancing, wearing of mask and disinfection to ensure the safety of
their people. According to World Health Organization, the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-
19) is an infectious disease caused by a new strain of coronavirus.
 This new virus and disease were unknown before the outbreak began in Wuhan, China,
in December 2019. In relation to the status quo of the Pandemic, COVID 19 has inflating
confirmed total cases of 21,480,111 and 771,518 total deaths worldwide, the catastrophe of
the pandemic has resulted to millions of cases and lives risked and had brought economic
recession in different countries.
Despite of the burden that this pandemic has brought to the world, there are people who
are trying their best to save lives amidst the existence of the pandemic. People who sacrifice
themselves for the general welfare and safety of everyone, they are called the “Frontliners”.
The medical health workers who serves the COVID 19 patients, policemen who enforces
people to stay in their homes and government workers who initiates distribution of essential
commodities, all of them are entitled to be frontliners as they steer the tough battle against
COVID 19. But somehow, despite of the heroic gestures of the frontliners they remained
unrecognized and marginalized particularly the medical health workers. After all the hard
work and sacrifices that they’ve done in order to save lives, they only received inadequate
amount of salary and the government haven’t done anything to raise their salaries yet the
government still demands for the service of the medical health workers but they can't even
pay them with the compensation that they deserve to have, it is an implication that the
government manipulates frontliners to work consistently but they can’t repay the hard work
and efforts that the frontliners have exerted for a long time as they save lives risked in
COVID 19 Pandemic. The incompetence of the government has made complications and
inequalities which affected the frontliners completely as their situation have been neglected,
they have been airing their clamor and dissent to the government but the government did
nothing for them. But despite of all the problems, the frontliners continued to serve for the
people no matter how exhausting it is to be in their shoes as long as they can save lives.
Frontliners epitomizes a hero and manifests the acts of valor. They are the embodiment of
heroism, the unsung heroes of this modern time and it’s about time to acknowledge their
existence.
Can you imagine how draining the agony that the medical health frontliners have to go
through? Instead of having quality time with their families, they spend their time working
relentlessly in hospitals to serve the COVID 19 patients, they need to wear PPE for how
many hours even if it suffocates them, as they contact closely with the patients there might
be possibility that they get infected with COVID 19 and will put their lives into risk. Are we
really blind of this reality? We don’t pay recognition to those who paved the way for our
welfare and security while we live in our homes with well-being in the middle of this
pandemic? Is it acceptable to invalidate their diligence despite of their sacrifices? Are we
not aware that there are people who sacrifice themselves for others? People who work
selflessly and tirelessly but unfortunately they weren’t recognized and treated fairly. They
keep working in order to save lives but they haven’t harvested the fruits of their labor as
they sacrifice their lives for other people. We should recognize the integral role of the
frontliners in fighting against COVID 19 because we cannot escape in this situation if not
because of their unconditional sacrifices, we all hope to bring back the normal time that we
used to have but we cannot bring it back if not because of the magnanimity and hard work
of the frontliners, we owe this to them because they are doing their best to save us in this
pandemic. The essence of their actions attaches to a Latin phrase “Labor Omnia Vincit” that
means “Hard work conquers all” and undoubtedly with their hard work and persistence, we
will be able to annihilate COVID 19 and preempt the burden of this pandemic.
The COVID 19 Pandemic is an indication that the history has repeated itself. But even
if the history has been repeated and it brought affliction to the world, the resilience of the
people despite of the plights matters the most and even if we are all burdened by all of
these cataclysms, we remained invincible. The pandemic had caused devastation, many
lives have risked because of the continuous widespread of the Corona Virus and a lot of
people have been starving since the pandemic has started to occur because many people
have lost their jobs and they have nothing to feed for their families because they can’t work
during the pandemic. Recession has begun to occur in the economies of different countries
worldwide because economic and social activities are temporarily restricted because of the
protocols that should be conformed during the existence of the pandemic. The pandemic
didn’t only imperil the global health but it has also brought a negative impact in the
socioeconomic dimension. The suffering of the people and how they surmounted these
ordeals is a proof that that the COVID 19 Pandemic is not just about how the people
suffered but it’s all about how people overcame the complication of the present situation
and with that, this pandemic is not just only a disaster but it is a
history of resilience. When people respond to circumstances during a particular time with
fortitude, that’s the time when an occurrence became a history and for another time, people
are making COVID 19 Pandemic a history because of the forbearance that they’ve shown in
dealing with the occurrence.
History is a book of happenings. As the world reveals the experiences of people,
history establishes the narrative of experiences that creates a representation of the
multifaceted and diverse composition of people in the society and it enables people to
embrace their existence despite of predicaments and triumphs of life. People are learning
from their experiences and it allows them to grow constantly without limitation and
everything we learned from this world can make a history. “Historia est Magistra Vitae” is a
Latin expression, used by Cicero in his written dialogue named “De Oratore” to personify
history as "life's teacher". It conveys the notion that we should learn from our past to secure
our future, learning from our past is a manifestation of that you allow yourself to any
possibilities and changes in life. You cannot change what’s in the past but you can make
changes in the present so it won’t affect the future ahead of you. It’s a matter of adapting the
process of alterations to adhere your circumstances to positive outcomes. History teaches a
lot of lesson that are worth affirming because there are lot of happenings from the past that
can change the present through its lessons and realizations and it’s just a matter of accepting
the reality of life and not to be reluctant to any situations that might inculcate a lot of lessons
vital for our personal growth and as we grow further, we enchain ourselves to the world with
prospects. As what Martin Luther King Jr. once said “We are not makers of the history, we
are made by history”. As we ignite our existence with the reality of life, we are molded by
our experiences and these experiences signifies a crucial time when you’ve learned a lot of
things about life and that’s why our experiences pushes us to earn our individuality and once
we’ve earned it, it became a history. This history will always remind us of how we conquered
the reality of life despite of the adversities that we’ve been through and how life has shaped
us to become the person that we are today and as what “Historia Mollitiam” depicts, a certain
time that embraces strength and magnifies how people surpassed adversities is a remarkable
time of our existence and it should be quintessentially represented in the face of history, it
associates to the conclusion that COVID 19 is definitely a History of Resilience.
References:

(1) https://www.nih.gov/building-resilience-during-covid-19-pandemic

(2)https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/10664807211023875

(3)https://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/health-emergencies/coronavirus-covid-
19/news/news/2020/3/mental-health-and-psychological-resilience-during-the-covid-19-
pandemic.