Samantha Motion: We are not powerless in the path of this virus

Community spirit will get us through the hard times ahead. Photo / Getty Images

COMMENT

At least once in every responsible adult's life, they'll sit down with an insurance advisor and have a confronting conversation.

The advisor will present a series of worst-case life scenarios that you've always known were possible but never really dwelled on or thought would actually happen to you.

What happens if you die? What happens if your partner dies? What about a serious injury or a debilitating disease? What if you lost your job? What if you couldn't pay your mortgage? Who gets the kids and the dog if you both die in a car accident?

These questions will be presented in the same tone as the offer of a cup of tea and then you'll be asked to assess your "appetite for risk" and how much money you'd like to haemorrhage each year to sate it.

You'll leave the meeting a different person. Sure, you'll have gained a plan but you'll have lost a certain blissful naivety.

I feel like this week has been an extended version of that meeting.

A pandemic has been long-predicted. It's happened before to other people, at other times. And now it's happening to us with Covid-19.

Each day presents a new i-can't-believe-this-is-happening reality. A new series of risks to assess, mitigate and avoid.

What if you get sick? What if your parents get sick? What if schools close? How can you protect yourself at work? What if you lose your job? Would your marriage survive enforced co-hibernation? Should you can that overseas trip? How much hand sanitiser should you buy?

I feel anxious just writing this. I'm sure most of us feel the same about this situation, to some degree, as we wait for the seemingly inevitable.

But I am comforted in the preparations I have been able to make, and in the preparations others have made for me.

At NZME, we have completely changed our way of working to protect our staff and the people we work alongside our community.

From Monday, we are open for business over the phone, email, video-conferencing - whatever contactless option works for you.

Like many of you, many of us are working from home, doing everything we can to avoid group situations that seem to enable the spread of this virus.

We're also fighting against a different kind of viral spread - masses of misinformation, disinformation and rumours.

Every day, our reporters sift through tonnes of tips. Some have merit and others we can dismiss with basic research or a phone call, but some we must put to authorities that are already under a huge strain.

We do this because, in spite of our changed circumstances and hectic news cycles, our core journalistic principles have not changed and nor has our goal to give you trusted information.

It's one way we are doing our bit. It heartens all of us to see the ways others are doing their bit too.

People offering up their time to help the isolated elderly, businesses rallying together, the person who made a non-refundable motel booking in Rotorua then cancelled immediately so the motel could keep the money.

Many people feel powerless in the path of this virus, but we are not if we keep looking out for each other.

Community spirit is not a cheesy concept or an empty phrase, it is a force more than equal to this virus, and it's what will see us through the hard times ahead.

Let's support one another in whatever way we can.

We will get through this as a community, and as country.

We're with you.