Surviving the COVID-19 Pandemic (02)

An Outing!

Today I drove over to the garden store for a quick visit to purchase some weed ‘n feed and grass seed for the yard. Our Home Owners Association, which is controlled by our community's developer, only seems interested in maintaining the front yards in the neighborhood. The motivation is to keep up the façade along the street only – this makes the community look better to potential buyers. It does not provide the full yard maintenance that homeowners expect from their monthly HOA assessment. Eventually the developer will turn over management of the HOA to actual homeowners and the yard maintenance contract will have a different philosophy.

Anyway, it felt good to sneak out.

I wonder if the neighbors who might have seen me driving away from our secluded safety are suspicious that I may have compromised the integrity of our communal isolation. I suspect that the compromise was no greater than a trip to the supermarket. I can attest that I saw fewer in the garden shop today than I had seen nearly a week ago in the supermarket. Although the supermarket staff was wiping down their shopping carts with sanitizer, the garden shop did not provide any sanitizer. So, I did not use a cart.

I did not witness any coughing, sneezing or wheezing on either excursion.

Leadership

The governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, provides a far better synopsis of conditions, strategies and plans than does the President. I do not, however, wish to be back in New York State.

This is somewhat refreshing since New York is currently the epicenter of the coronavirus in the United States (although we might expect the competition to gain on them). Our elected officials continue to set a horrible example of leadership. They seem callous to the plight of the average citizen who has to sequester themselves in order to isolate a pathogen for which there is not a pharmaceutical intervention for.

There is no secret weapon to defeat COVID-19 – no inoculation, no pill, no inhaler, no salve. The number of cases continues to increase. This is not because the small amount of testing that has been done is stopping it. Testing, even inadequate testing, is revealing everyday how the coronavirus is spreading, has already spread, and continues to spread. It must be concluded that more testing will reveal significantly more cases. Still, many are walking around as if they have immunity. A huge percentage of the population seems to have a cavalier attitude about the threat of this pandemic and are living in denial. This is not a defense – it is an offense. I just heard about a doctor up in New York State that is refusing to wear any protective gear in the hospital where he works. This is absurd!

Be Proactive

While socially distancing ourselves, it is nice to find distractions. However, we should also be taking this opportunity to learn about the worldwide health threat from this pandemic, and any future pandemic. How do pathogens such as a coronavirus occur? How does it spread? What can we do to defend against it? 

Each day, we should learn a little – not just read or listen to political pundits, hearsay, and innuendo – we should be actually searching out and finding knowledge. We should not be passive participants in our own defense. We need to understand what is going. What our responsibilities are. Afterwards, it is a good idea to take a break and find diversion.

This is heavyweight stuff and the worldwide challenge is significant. It is fairly certain that none of us will be the superhero that comes along to save the world. I very much doubt that such a hero exists. Discover, analyze, and learn something, and then relax – tomorrow, start over.

Where to begin?

Decades ago, as a college student majoring in Geography, I had studied the spread of the influenza epidemic in 1918. It was long ago, however, so I ordered a book.

• The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History, by John M. Barry

This is an anecdotal history that is easy to read and provides an insight into the significance of a pandemic. The great flu epidemic killed more people in 24 months than AIDs killed in 24 years. It killed more people in a year than the Black Plague killed in a century. We see how politics and the response of government contributed to the severity of the results. As a society, we must be aware of the consequences of our failure to recognize not just what can happen, but what is happening.

There are many books available. Find one that appeals to you, buy it, and read it.

Read | Watch

Here are links to some articles that you may find interesting:

Read

• “Is China Ground Zero for a Future Pandemic?” by Melinda Liu
  Smithsonian Magazine, November 2017
  "Hundreds there have already died of a new bird flu, putting world health authorities on high alert”

This article from 2½ years ago, may defend President Trumps insensitive insistence on referring to COVID-19 as the “China Virus.” Anthropologists can tell us about all sorts of cultural behaviors that are habitual and difficult to let go of. Singling people out in a derogatory manner, however, is not a solution. The purpose of this article is not to denigrate a culture as much as it is to educate us all.

Watch 

• “Pandemic: How to Prevent an Outbreak”
  Netflix documentary series – released in January, 2020
  Read this short review
  “Pandemic: Netflix's new series about global outbreaks is eerily timed, and moved me to tears” by Brigid Delaney
  The Guardian, February 4, 2020

Read

• “Can Virus Hunters Stop the Next Pandemic Before It Happens?” by Jim Morrison
  Smithsonian Magazine, January 25, 2018
  A global project is looking to animals to map the world’s disease hotspots. Are they going about it the right way
  “ . . . some believe the rate of emerging new diseases is rising. Studies find that modern factors like climate change, ecological degradation and population pressures may make it more likely that viruses jump from animals to humans.”

Bizarre Behavior 

There are people outside of my isolated environment that are reacting in very bizarre manners. Total passivity to panic. Many of our world leaders seem totally incapable of systematic, controlled response. As individuals, we must take it upon ourselves to learn what we can and react in a calm, controlled, and intelligent way.

I also took a good walk through the neighborhood today. Time for a nap!