CoronaQuarantine, Day 7
What-whaaat, I actually got so busy working this morning, even working at home, that I nearly forgot to work on the draft of this post! That means this will probably be short-ish, which is just as well. This feeling of increasing dread with each passing day doesn't really suit me. Shobhit watches up to four hours of MSNBC all-COVID-all-the-time news shows every day he's at home at a time he can do it, and all the expert medical professionals they have on paint a seriously grim picture of what's to come in this country. On top of that, this morning came with the news all over the place about how new CDC data shows hospitalizations including way more young people than initially expected. I think that, so far, young people still account for a lot fewer of the deaths, but once the hospitals are overwhelmed, I think that could change.
This is already like nothing any of us has ever seen or even heard about from older friends and relatives—even the Spanish Flu was over a century ago. And the broad consensus is this is still just the beginning, and in only a matter of days the number of confirmed cases is really going to explode. And still states like Florida and Texas are doing nothing at all to be proactive about this, which is truly insane. Fucking Republican leadership, denialist morons to the bitter end.
I did decide to FaceTime Danielle last night, after I finished with the focaccia bread pizza I made for dinner. I made and ate too much of it and really should have saved half of mine for lunch today; I'm certain that huge dinner is the sole reason my weight went up for the first time in several days this morning. How Shobhit's weight was slightly down, I haven't the slightest idea.
Anyway. My two best friends are in pretty unique positions regarding all this nutso crazy shit going down: Gabriel is a middle school teacher, still getting paid but now with no school work to do presumably until the fall. He's also a science teacher though and therefore is very well informed on epidemiology and is almost certainly the one person I know taking by far the most safeguards any time he leaves his apartment: he told me the other day about walking around the Columbia City PCC store with his hands in the air like a surgeon, touching anything as little as possible.
Danielle, on the other hand, is a nurse, and I am certain she will be in insanely high demand soon enough. She had worked in a department that focused on elective surgeries, which were canceled until further notice and therefore her department was shut down, making her worry about whether her income would be put on hold. Irrational fears in times like these are totally understandable, but that is definitely an irrational fear. No hospital is just gong to lay off any of their health care workers. And she was the one who told me last night about a story about a 44-year-old doctor who is so ill from this virus that he's dying. But, bizarrely, when I tell her how much grimmer things are poised to get, she was consistently skeptical. I think she just doesn't want to face reality, but that was a surprise to me coming from a nurse. She has more faith in this country than it deserves: "We have lots of resources," she said. Sure we do, but not the right ones for this problem! People are sewing together makeshift masks already, for fuck's sake. She also told me about the soccer field beingh converted in Shoreline into an overflow hospital, and she presented that as though Washington is out ahead of this thing. We are ahead of most states, clearly, but that does not mean we are truly prepared for what's coming.
She even asked when we were going to get together again, and I was like, "Probably not for months!" She started talking about "hanging out responsibly," and I kind of could not believe it. Right now getting together with friends at all is by definition irresponsible!
On a lighter note, she also suggested we watch a movie together over FaceTime soon, and I like that idea a lot. So now I'm brainstorming ideas for that.
I'm also doing a "Virtual Happy Hour" with Laney after work tomorrow. It's the little things, and certainly nice to have something positive to look forward to.
[posted 12:37 pm]