Covid-19 revealed what "essential" works are

I hope everyone is safe out there and staying cool.   

Over here in Tokyo, we are still having the lingering summer heat and it is very humid too.  

Today I just wanted to think about occupations and what Covid-19 revealed about them.  Not many people seem to be talking about this so I write here.  

The golden rule used to be was that there was no high and low or great or small in values of occupation.  Even if you are a firefighter or a Wall Street hot shot there was no comparison as to which is more important or required in our society.  

Not at least at the surface level of society it used to be anyway.  

But since we entered Covid-19 crisis, putting and assigning priority and values to certain occupations was unavoidable it seems.  

When it reaches a level that less people out on street has better chance of suppressing the infection, governments all around the world just had to define what are the areas of workforce needed to sustain the lives of us.  

Here, I think was one true revelation.  

Something we all knew but didn't quite say or make it public.  

But it's official now.  

For example here is a list of essential workforce set by California State Government.  

They are: 

1. Health and Public Health Sector
2. Emergency Services Sector
3. Food and Agriculture Sector
4. Energy Sector 5. Water and Wastewater Sector
6. Transportation and Logistics Sector
7. Communications and Information Technology Sector
8. Government Operations and Other Community-Based Essential Functions
9. Critical Manufacturing Sector
10. Financial Services Sector
11. Chemical Sector
12. Defense Industrial Base Sector
13. Industrial, Commercial, Residential and Sheltering Facilities and Services

"Essential" by meaning: a basic thing that you cannot live without.  

Indeed, these are the very services that society cannot live without.  

Now more so than ever but even before such virus crisis, we've always owed so much to people working in such sectors and the whole Covid-19 made us aware once again.  

I want to thank them from the bottom of heart by writing this passage.  

And it might just be that the best reward for them in return might be the recognition from the whole world now that their services are truly and officially essential to our society.