Thursday:
So, this is all crazy, right? I haven’t been taking it very seriously, so it’s weird to me how people are panicking and hoarding toilet paper and all that. I did recently get a week or so’s extra groceries; long-lasting frozen, tinned and packaged stuff, more to protect myself from other people’s hoarding than because I think I’ll be trapped at home. Tim and I are still at work (I work in a library so I see lots of people, and Tim catches a crowded train to work), the kids are still at school. All the kid’s sport is still going. The most it has affected me is wondering if my favourite TV dance show is going to be cancelled because one contestant’s father caught it from Tom Hanks wife. But I suppose this Covid-19 thing isn’t going away in a hurry. Today I discovered I’m 4 degrees of separation away from a confirmed case (workmate’s son’s workmate’s sister).
Despite my lack of panic, I will be careful not to pass on any germs to vulnerable people, like my father-in-law who is over 70 and has prostate cancer. I wash my hands and use sanitiser at work - although we’re rapidly running out with no restocks available. I’ve only got two more weeks of work, then no more lined up for the immediate future, and Tim is thinking of putting his hand up for a VR at work (nothing to do with corona) so we might both end up being at home for a while!
I do think people are over-reacting, and are extremely selfish if they are hoarding. To me, it seems the same as the flu. Unpleasant for most, deadly for the old and sick, so AS USUAL we should all follow good hygiene practices and avoid infecting others when we are sick.
What I am worried about is the economic fallout. Restaurants in Chinatown (Sydney) have been empty for two months now, how many of those owners are /will be bankrupt? Staff out of work for the foreseeable figure? And that is just the start. I think a lot more people will be affected by the coming recession than will be seriously ill.
I don't think people are over reacting at all. Different countries and regions are just on different time lines. Look at Italy or Spain. You have the virus in Australia, there is no reason to think your country will not be profoundly affected. And it's not just the elderly who are getting very ill with this virus.
ReplyDeleteFrom the Washington Post today:
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analysis of U.S. cases from Feb. 12 to March 16 released Wednesday shows that 38 percent of those sick enough to be hospitalized were younger than 55.
Earlier this week, French health ministry official Jérome Salomon said half of the 300 to 400 coronavirus patients treated in intensive care units in Paris were younger than 65, and, according to numbers presented at a seminar of intensive care specialists, half the ICU patients in the Netherlands were younger than 50.
I have to agree with babbalou. It is worse than a normal flue because nobody is immune yet. This means that it will spread rapidly, because nobody is a "deadend" for infection, as is normally the case, everyone that meets a sick person can get it and pass it on. Nobody weak or with bad immune system will have similar antibodies from a former infection. You are rigth that this will result in a bad worldwide recession, but I think that is sligthly better than if the healthsystem breaks down, even for a short while, like in Italy where they now have military remove bodies from some areas because they have to many deaths for the normal system to handle. This will 1 or 2 bad years for everybody even if we are lucky enough thst nobody we personally knows end up dead.
ReplyDeleteAnne
People who take precautions are wise. This pandemic is quite serious. However, people who hoard are selfish.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Janie
This is much more profound than a typical flu. We're all doing our part to minimize how quickly it spreads. Our healthcare system cannot handle a massive outbreak if we don't take precautions. That being said, it's important to remain calm. And the hoarding is ridiculous. We're all in this together. Get what you need to a reasonable level and leave things for others.
ReplyDelete