According to scientists, to fight an epidemic, focus on hand washing. (1)
An advice which came into light just as the epidemic of the coronavirus is gaining momentum.
We have been so much focused on high-tech and elaborate methods of dealing with diseases, that we have forgotten the greatest weapon we ever devised against disease in the first place: Hygiene. And despite our best efforts, even today this still remains our best and most effective weapon.
It is the simple things.
The things we have forgotten.
In a cosmos with the best medical technology, nothing can prevent a virus if people do not wash their hands. In the most developed nation, nothing can save you if there are not sewers. In an era with methods for advanced gene editing available, people can still die for not having soap.
If philosophy can teach us something, anything, this is humility. The ability to look at the simplest things and still stare in awe. If philosophy can teach us something is lack of fear towards the storm. For even in the face of the greatest one, we can dare to say “I am the storm”.
Wash your hands.
Think small.
Those little things.
There is nothing bigger, as David Aames used to say…
