Virus Blog

5/01/20

Virus Nightmare. And so begins week 8 of the lockdown. Had another dream with just too many people out and about. I was in a store and I could buy things. I remember the thrill of being able to just buy what I wanted. Then I left the store and bumped into someone. There were people everywhere. No one seemed to care that they were too close to me. Woke up with a start and couldn't get back to sleep.

Face Masks. I'm not a epidemiologist but it seems to me that if all we did as a society was to require that EVERYONE wear a facemask that we probably could find a reasonable balance between interacting with other humans, running our businesses and staying reasonably safe. I realize that cloth face masks are probably not enough for perfect health without other measures but this seems like a reasonable way of reducing the threat while not not stifling our lives. Now face masks don't work in places of consumption, but they work everywhere else. Assuming that this at least slows down the spread, the only real problem is that I hate having a mask over my face. I'm hot, it's smells, it's uncomfortable and it steams up my glasses. I've been handed cloth masks, paper masks and have used a bunch now but I hate them all. Eve just let me try on a fitted cloth mask that's more than just strapping cloth across the face. It has a place for a big nose and fits comfortably on a fat head. It was a nice flat black and now a very small part of me looks forward to my next excursion so that I can show off my new fashionable look. It also saves having to smile at everyone you see. Let's get MASKED!

5/02/20

Bumper to Bumper Traffic. It dawned on me that coming back from a shelter in place order is sort of like driving in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Everything came to an abrupt halt on the freeway and we wait a few counts before it starts to loosen up. But you can't just step on the gas and immediately get up to 60 MPH. You come out of a full stop slowly. The problem seems the same as in traffic. Rarely do you stop just once in traffic. Instead you start up again only for someone to get going too fast and then they jam on the brakes causing a domino effect (typically that exaggerates the original mistake) of subsequent slow downs. As we reopen businesses the challenge will be similar but without the benefit of brakes. Technically as a society we have brakes but that requires going backward and putting people back in their homes. We have to come out of this slow and we probably have to let any relaxing of rules follow the opportunity and never get out in front because if we go too fast society is going to resist using the brakes. We know what happens next.

Bagel Day. I think this was my third post-corona visit to the bagel store. I was prepared this time with both mask, hand sanitizer and backpack. We had ordered on line and I had committed our order number to memory so that I wouldn't have to fumble for my phone in the store. I was starting to get the hang of this thing! And then I saw it. It was a terrifying sight. There was a man in the store without a facemask. As he walked out and looked at the well space and well masked line he smiled at all of us. I saw a terrorist spewing disease. The nerve! How rude. There ought to be a law.

New Cases. Yesterday 36,007 people discovered for the first time that they tested positive for COVID-19. That's just over 35% of the world's new positives for the day. It was the same day, May 1st, that many states started to reopen. To put 36,007 into perspective, that's the second highest single day count so far (Almost 39,000 on April 24th was the highest peak in the mountain range).

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