WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER – OR WE’RE NOT
I am so sick of snarky blogs and articles that attempt to amuse by belittling or downplaying the fallout the coronavirus has on all our lives.
I don’t need one more joke about people over buying toilet paper or how many hand sanitizers they carry, or people telling them don’t over-react.
I say do what you want. I don’t think getting old people or children upset is a good idea. Try and stay balanced with some control around them. But if you need to rage then rage. If you are upset – be upset. You have every right to be.
And if taking a shower in rubbing alcohol or buying enough toilet paper to wrap the Empire State building makes you feel a little better, I say go for it.
If you want to wear masks or gloves in public, if you want to stay home for a few months and watch every single episode of Mary Tyler Moore and eat organic cheese puffs out of a sterilized pillowcase – do it.
It’s your life and this is a big deal. It is a very big deal. It’s now labeled a pandemic by the World Health Organization. As you are likely aware everything from Coachella to College is being either canceled or handled remotely. Most businesses are telling their employees to work from home and not travel, either foreign or domestically.
I know I rail against Trump. And I know there are Trumpers who read me. And I kind of wish they didn’t; but that aside, had he handled this like an adult leader of a major nation we would not be in the shape we are in.
He has known about corona for months. They begged him to do something when he took for his jaunt around India with Muslim hater Modhi.
But he didn’t want anything to destroy his stock market. So much for that tactic Trumpy.
I really should not make jokes about it. I spent a half-hour staring at my stocks and 401K, it’s not at all funny.
What is really not funny are the millions and millions of people all over the globe whose lives are being brought to a total standstill. It’s not funny that endless people will lose their jobs, as everything from factories to restaurants slow down and some ultimately shut down. There is nothing remotely amusing in tens of millions of children whose only meals come from school lunches and now schools are being shut down. Who will feed them?
And then we have the homeless who will suffer from this on a catastrophic level. Unable to get tested or access to any medical care.
But then those of us with access to medical care cannot get tested as there are not enough tests yet. There are not enough beds if this really takes off like a wildfire. There are not enough ventilators to help people breathe. I am asthmatic I had nightmares about this last night.
This is one of the scariest things I have been through.
This is not SARS. This is not Swine Flu. This is not Mad Cow Disease.
This is something that at this point can only be contained by shutting down cities and countries.
The only real thing they tell us to do is stay out of crowds and wash your hands. Wash your hands??? That sounds like a remedy they found in the medical playbook from 1564.
“Wash your hands and if that doesn’t work, we resort to leeches.”
I am actually surprised Trump has not marched Pence out to say, “we are sending leeches to all the states until the testing kits can be delivered.”
Then there are the cruise ships. Those poor people on the Island Princess, thousands still stuck on board as we have nowhere to take them and not enough facilities to take them to. Nor enough test kits to find out if they are sick.
“Many of the nearly 240 Canadians onboard left the ship after the critically ill departed and stood outside two tents displaying Canadian flags. Canada and Britain were among the countries sending chartered flights to retrieve their citizens. The ship carried people from 54 countries, and foreigners were to be flown home.”
The Brits and Canadians actually take care of their citizens.
I swear if it didn’t look like we might get Biden in the White House I would move to Canada right now.
I just read an article that they want to pass a rule that anyone over seventy who wants to take a cruise has to have a letter from their doctor, so they won’t be as susceptible to illness.
First off who under seventy even takes a cruise? Really? And how about just making the world safe for people to live in it? How about when you hear about a virus raging in China, start preparing for the worst in the event the worst comes.
My daughter just called to tell me about all the studios and film companies moving people to work at home. Now, I know they have their jobs, they will get their paychecks. But what about the guys who park the cars that won’t be pulling into lots and restaurants? What about the now empty lunch spots, the waiters and busboys and office cleaners who live meager paycheck to meager paycheck?
I know Trump is offering a tax payroll cut.
According to the LA Times…
Hourly workers sent home without pay or laid off because of the economic slowdown would get nothing. That would include the workers most vulnerable to virus quarantines or workplace closures, namely service workers such as waiters and waitresses, hotel staff and office cleaners.
I woke up today in a snit as like everyone my life has been turned upside-down.
I don’t really want to be out much. I live in a big city where everyone is on top of each other. I’m the type who sees carriers everywhere.
My main calming place was my gym. But I can’t go there as two floors are quarantined as the wife of the head of the Port Authority (who has it) works in an office in the same building as my gym. So, the CDC came in the building and apparently wiped it down. But who wants to take the chance?
And then on a site, I like called We Are Ageist, they say no one over fifty should be in a public gym right now.
I will work at home. I won’t go out much. I will avoid the crowds. This means avoiding many things as NYC is a city of crowds.
I went out to get an iced coffee today, only two blocks away. Someone coughed all over the pastries. I grabbed my coffee and went running out.
One person’s cautiousness is another’s paranoia.
I wouldn’t be paranoid if we actually had information. If we were actually prepared. If the government that couldn’t shoot straight had actually started working on this back in the early part of December.
But when you have a Global Pandemic and the leader of the country says shit like, “it will disappear.” “I’m great at medicine” Before he went back to the golf course. “This is a hoax.”
What are we to think?
People are scared. My ninety-one-year-old mother is beside herself. And I can’t fly to California to be there. My 20-year-old is
not returning to school for the last two months of her sophomore year. Not the end of the world but didn’t have to happen. And she is scared.
Taiwan – tiny little Taiwan which is basically an annex to China has it totally under control. They started day one. If you want to read how to contain a deadly virus that is eighty-one miles from you this is the way.
So, now that I have railed- I just feel worked up.
But how about me doling out some positive things here?
OK, so you are stuck at home. Your spring break trip has been canceled. Ours was.
You can’t go to your gym. I can’t.
Any public events you were planning on attending were canceled.
Your daily routine of going to an office is temporarily on hold.
We live by our routines. They give us a sense of security even when we don’t need one. When they are taken away it causes us to feel totally off balance.
And when we are scared or nervous and we are isolated we only feel worse. We are all in this together yet, many of us are sitting it out alone.
It’s very hard. I know that. I feel it. I feel isolated and I have people in my life.
I have worked at home off and on my entire life.
So, one piece of advice for you if you are working at home – Don’t do the PJ worker thing.
Get up. Get dressed. You don’t have to look like you’re going for a job interview, but a clean pair of sweats and a messy bun are better than your unwashed robe for a week.
If your gym days are now over for the moment, thanks to the Ageist I found a good online site. OBE. I took classes this morning. I got out my weights and did a full workout.
Make working from home routine. If you normally work out before work, put on the live stream from an online workout site and do it.
Get showered and dressed. Light a candle where you work. Splurge and buy some flowers so your house looks a little brighter.
If you normally get a coffee to take to the office. Run out and grab one in the neighborhood. Be careful. But don’t be a total hermit.
Stay in touch with your friends. Even if we don’t see each other as much right now, most of my friends live in other cities anyway, so I am used to it, but call them. Pick up the phone and have a chat. We need each other.
Netflix. Hulu. HBO. I have been asking people what to binge. I will blog about it in a few days. And if you have any suggestions let me know, either in comments or email me.
Glenn and I watched “Hilary” on Hulu over the weekend. The girls and I did the end of
“The Bachelor” the last two. We watch and text at the same time since we are all in different cities at the moment.
And if you really want to know about this virus a film out of Australia called Coronavirus on Vimeo is worth the forty-six minutes.
Stay out of crowds. Make the sensible decisions. Don’t risk older people’s health by traveling far go see them. I would go see my mom. I know I could survive the flight, but what if I took the disease to her?
Take up a new hobby to do at home. Try an online language course.
I read the new book The 333 Project and then purged my closet again.
Purging feels good. Giving feels good.
I signed up to do phone canvassing for Biden. I will travel and do it when I can. But for now, his campaign is training online. Sign up!
Helping to change the country feels good.
And do wash your hands. Do take vitamins. Do eat well and get enough sleep. Being careful is not being hysterical.
Yes, this will pass.
But like any tornado it will leave destruction in its wake and we will need to put many things back together.
We will do it. We are strong. We are resilient. With a real leader we will become part of the globe again and not isolationist.
I hope not too many more die.
I hope they get those people off the boats. I hope they figure out what to do with the other boats at sea. I hope they find a vaccine fast. That is a lot of hopes. But we need them now.
If you need to rage you know my email. I’m home with my dogs, working on a new book and learning how to make vegan food and working out on my floor.
Take care. Please no matter what anyone says, this is a huge deal and is going to get worse before it gets better. If you can stay home – DO.
I wrote this before Trump’s pathetic speach tht made no sense. People are banned from Europe, but wait they can come in from Wuhan?
He cares more about business than health.
The most frightening thing we have to deal with is there are still no tests. CDC tested 8 people yesterday. WE HAVE NO TESTS.
This article is very enlightenting. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/10/us/coronavirus-testing-delays.html
And I feel awful about the Hanks. Tom Hanks. Come on.
