The Scourge of Coronavirus Brings Out Bright Spots of Humanity

“Offer to help anyone you can. Not everyone has people to turn to.”

Rebecca Mehra speaking to CBS News affiliate KBNZCBS News/KBNZ

The coronavirus is a rapidly developing news story, so some of the content in this article might be out of date. Check out our most recent coverage of the coronavirus crisis, and subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily newsletter.

Welcome to Recharge, a weekly newsletter full of stories that will energize your inner hellraiser. See more editions and sign up here.

The woman in her 80s was holed up in her car for 45 minutes outside an Oregon supermarket, waiting for the right person.

She cracked the window when Rebecca Mehra approached on March 11. Almost in tears, the woman in the car told Mehra that she was terrified of catching the coronavirus, that she and her husband next to her had no family nearby—and asked if Mehra could spare them the risk of stepping outside by accepting cash to buy groceries for them.

Mehra took a $100 bill and a grocery list from the woman, got the groceries (canned goods, toilet paper), put them in the trunk, and returned the change.

“Frankly most people I know would have done the same thing I did. I was just in the right place at the right time,” said Mehra, who spoke to CBS News affiliate KBNZ after more than 11 million people shared her story. In the days since, severe restrictions on public gatherings have hit almost everyone and everywhere, and reports of selfless acts of support and community care have grown.

“I know it’s a time of hysteria and nerves, but offer to help anyone you can,” particularly elderly individuals and families, wrote Mehra, a professional runner. “Not everyone has people to turn to.”

Here are more Recharge stories to get you through the week:

Pitching in. After a nationwide run emptied the shelves of hand sanitizer, several distilleries realized they had the equipment and the alcohol to make their own. As long as they weren’t making health claims or selling it, they could help. “Ultimately, I’m part of the community. I want my friends and neighbors to be happy and healthy,” said Jon Poteet, of Shine Distillery and Grill in Portland, Oregon. “I want to be in a healthy community, and it feels good to be able to give back.” So Poteet is bottling and giving away hand sanitizer to customers, as is a distillery in Indianapolis, among others. “This is a time for all of us to come together and combine our focused efforts to get COVID-19 under control,” said Travis Barnes, of Indiana’s Hotel Tango Distillery. (KPTV)

The spirit of service. When coronavirus concerns prompted the cancellation of a Minnesota bar mitzvah over the weekend, the family decided to honor its agreement with a small Hmong caterer. Instead of a big party, the family “delivered the food to friends in quarantine and sent pans home with others,” wrote Carin Mrotz, executive director of Jewish Community Action in St. Paul, Minnesota. More than half a million people liked Mrotz’s tweet, with many praising the humanity of the decision. “Am not Jewish,” wrote Ian Murphy, “but this makes me proud to be human. Mazel tov (hopefully appropriate)!” Several respondents also asked for more details on Union Hmong Kitchen, the caterer that has already been featured by NPR. “I will attest to the deliciousness,” Mrotz wrote. (Twitter)

Recharge salutes: Cellist Yo-Yo Ma, beginning a series of “Songs of Comfort” to help people at this time; singer and actor Laura Benanti, who encouraged high schoolers to send videos of themselves singing their musical productions that have been canceled because of the pandemic; and the people of hard-hit Italy, shut in their homes but showing their solidarity by singing from the balconies in Siena, in Rome, in Florence, and elsewhere.

I’ll leave you with this video of Italian tenor Maurizio Marchini, who has serenaded Florence with Puccini’s Nessun Dorma. Please stay as safe and healthy as you can, and share your stories with us. Are you helping?

More Mother Jones reporting on Recharge

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate