Well, it’s been an interesting week. Starting last Wednesday, I was told by my job to to start working from home on the following day – and it would continue until further notice. I knew what COVID-19 was, I knew that it had made it to the United States. The previous Monday we’d done some tests to see how well a large population of us working from home would play out. But, I didn’t really know what we were in for. Life has changed at this point, in just a week. I guess I somewhat want to set a baseline with this post and then, for me if no one else, keep a journal as things continue to unfold.
I don’t have the numbers from that Wednesday or Thursday. But soon I started checking websites with tracking information and taking screenshots of the numbers on my phone to compare dat to day. By that Sunday, March 15th:
Monday:
Tuesday:
Wednesday:
Thursday, today:
So in one week we have done a little better (in a bad way) than double in number of confirmed cases in the US, 3774 to 9521. One of the important things to remember in looking back at this some day is – there’s little doubt by anyone that the number of cases in the US is way more than any of those numbers. We are not adequately testing in the US. Worldwide, we had increased by nearly 50,000 confirmed cases.
Until very recently, you had to have a high fever and have confirmed contact with a known positive case. We all figured there was community spread, and realistically, there was. But we had/have a severe shortage of tests available. So they wouldn’t test you unless you met that criteria.
Honestly, I’m pretty … exhausted? astonished? surprised? all that and more? … by how this has all come about. As I said before, life has changed and I don’t know when it will return to something resembling normal.
Let me see if I can just recap some of what’s happened:
- “Social Distancing” has become a term. We’re supposed to stay away from other people as much as possible and if we’re in a public place, we’re supposed to keep 6 feet between us.
- Many other employers, with employees that can work from home, have asked employees to do so.
- Many restaurants have closed their dining rooms and are only offering take-out or delivery. Those that haven’t closed their dining rooms face a certain amount of condemnation from employees and some members of the public.
- There are definitely members of the public angry with our Governor for not mandating some of these public places close. Also some state employees are angered that he hasn’t allowed them to start working from home.
- We’ve been told to not gather in groups larger than 10 people by the President, CDC, and Governor.
- Unemployment rates are skyrocketing as jobs such as waiters/waitresses and other service-based jobs have their hours reduced or eliminated.
- In Virginia at least, they’re trying to create policies to help small businesses keep their doors open. We’ll see if they’re enough, or successful at all.
- There’s some talk about the federal government sending out money to all Americans. I’m not sure if this will actually make it through or what it will look like if it does.
- Large casinos and hotels on the Las Vegas strip have closed their doors or planning to do so very soon.
- Borders are closing between countries. The US isn’t allowed travelers from Europe. Canada and the US agreed to close their border except for essential and/or trade-based traffic.
- There are young people (and others, but there seems to be a large group in those that are young) that don’t seem to care and are still going to beaches for spring-break. The problem is with this virus it’s possible to not show symptoms but still be contagious. You may be entirely healthy but pass it on to someone else and then end up needing to be on a ventilator or possibly dying.
- It doesn’t help that early on in this thing, there were idiots in public office and media saying this was just like the flu or a bad cold. It’s neither. It’s massively contagious and can range from no symptoms to death for those that catch it.
That’s all I can cover for now. May provide some more updates going on from here just to keep my mind busy if nothing else.