Today we brave a trip to the Safeway. It was not crowded. Maybe 50 shoppers all told. All appeared nervous. Should they be there? Were they too close? Was it okay to be within the 6 ft social distance if one of you were standing and someone was walking by? If they were walking fast, it was okay, right? Nobody knew the rules. One or two seemed to not care. The shelves that normally held toilet paper and hand sanitizer were bare with sign of "limited 2 to a customer." The cashier tells me to get 6 ft away from Gretchen so I have to tell the cashier we are together. Same household people are still allowed within the 6 ft social distance.
Later in the evening, on our walk, we are told by a neighbor, again from a distance, that there will be some more restrictions coming soon.
The State of California has issued a 15 page document about what is an essential service or business. Apparently, way too many of us had judged ourselves essential and were reporting to work or going about our daily business. I think our sense of worth is coming under scrutiny. I check the document and to my relief, news reporters and media are indeed still essential. That means I can go work in the office. So I did. I am wiping down everything in sight, however.
Son Nick is doing food deliveries An essential service. We worry for him. He is getting a lot of exposure. He coughs at night.
Daughter Elaine is a nurse. She is cycling through a lot of patients. None of them have been found positive. But is that because none of them have been tested? She thinks she has a fever.
I read a WSJ article that says the only reason Chinese got past this Coronavirus is that they tested everybody. Okay, not everybody. I don't think they have a billion test kits. But they tested enough. And if anyone tested positive, off they went into quarantine. A sad picture of positive Chinese in orange jumpsuits on a bus getting waved at by their relatives enforces the "draconian methods" the country has used.
I have to wonder if "draconian measures" are exactly what are needed. Was that why the spike in deaths in China is a spike? We don't have a spike yet. A spike is when the number of deaths goes down quick. Our curve is still going up. And up.
Most of the attention is on New York, our most dense city. Governor Quomo is ringing the alarm.
Many reports from the "elite", you know rich people & media stars, that are being tested. The movie actor that plays the Black Panther, Marvel Universe, has no symptoms yet tested positive for the Corona flu.
So how does my family get tested? How much does it cost? Will my insurance pay for it? Why are some people being tested, symptom free, while others are not?
Devon Sowell
Posted by: Devon Sowell | March 27, 2020 at 12:10 PM