Surviving the COVID-19 Pandemic (Number 5)

More Than a Month!

We’ve been hunkered down for a month. A month!

No matter what our president might be saying, a look at the trending statistics along with the realization that there is no antidote for COVID-19, indicate that this siege will continue for a much longer time. So, we are “locked down.” Sequestered. Isolated. Social distancing to “flatten the curve.”

There are all kinds of questions about this situation. How could a pandemic of this proportion have snuck up on us in this age of knowledge and awareness? Where did it come from? Who is at fault? What are we going to do? Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

Along with distracting ourselves from the serious enormity of the situation, it seems a good idea to learn as much as we can about it. 

Future Strategy 

Sometime in the future we will be drawn into a larger discussion about public strategy to prevent this from happening again. The only way that we will be able to participate and contribute to that discussion will be to educate ourselves. We must inform ourselves from source to solution. One purpose of this blog is to share some of what I discover in my effort to learn.

What About That Damn Pangolin? 

Pangolins are weird, scaly little creatures that are sort of mini anteaters. They eat bugs. They also emit a skunk-like odor as a defense. Cute?

This pangolin is the first and only pangolin in the world
that is born by artificial fertilization. He is very very cute.

Scientists haven’t found evidence that the new coronavirus jumped from pangolins to people, but they do host very similar viruses.

Read more about Pangolins:

• “Pangolins:What are They and Why are They Linked to COVID-19?” by Nina Pullano
  Inverse, March 27, 2020
• “Significanceof Pangolin Viruses in Human Pandemic Remains Murky” by James Gorman
  NY Times, March 26

Did This Pandemic Actually Sneak Up On Us?

Not really. Listen to what Bill Gates had to say five years ago in this TED Talk:

During the Clinton administration, epidemic threats were elevated to official elements of U.S. national security and an expert in the field was appointed to the National Security Council.

In 1994, science journalist Laurie Garrett's bestselling book, The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance (Farrar Straus and Giroux) continued the warning.

Garrett had been a Fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health during the 1992-3 academic year.

I expect that the ignored history of warnings will continue to surface during the time ahead. 

On a more entertaining note, I leave you with another book title due to be published in April.

The End of October, by Lawrence Wright
Knopf, April 2020

"[A] multifaceted thriller . . . Wright pulls few punches and imbues even walk-on characters with enough humanity that their fate will matter to readers. This timely literary page-turner shows Wright is on a par with the best writers in the genre." – Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Where Cases are Rising Fastest

Surviving the COVID-19 Pandemic (03)

A Beautiful Day  

Today, sort of a respite from the enormity of being hunkered down. It’s beautiful out! The sun is shining. There’s a breeze. And the landscape maintenance crew is mowing, trimming, blowing, and making a general nuisance of themselves.

It Gets Personal

My brother and sister-in-law stopped a few days ago on their drive back from wintering in south. They probably should have returned sooner, but one can understand their reluctance to travel to where it is still winter and the coronavirus is spreading out of control. Of course, we welcomed them with opened arms and advised them that they could remain with us for as long as they felt wanted. There was nothing that we could do to convince them that holding back might be a good idea. The urge to be at home during stressful times is quite strong.

Just Wanna Go Home

I remember that we were in Europe at the time of the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center. Our first response was that we belonged at home. Now I wish that there might be some place where we might go to be safe. If there is such a place, how would we get there? Travel is dangerous. It means enclosing yourself with strangers who may not know that they are carrying deadly pathogens. I guess that we will stay put and continue to avoid anything that might be moving, breathing, and especially talking politics.

Testing

After my brother left, both of us felt that we should be tested as soon as possible. Fortunately, neither of us has had symptoms and, because of that, we don’t qualify for testing. Anyway, there aren’t enough coronavirus tests around and results are still taking over a week to be known.

The Challenge

An interesting challenge for our leaders is to accurately report on the spread of the coronavirus. With limited testing capacity, we only know of individual cases when someone reports their symptoms, a test is performed, and finally when test results are known. How many people are carrying the pathogen without know they have it? How many wait to see if the symptoms that they have match the profile that is know for the virus? How long does it take for a test to be available to them? Then, after testing positive, how long does it take to research and find others who are possibly infected? And, are they being tested? Or, are they simply asked to quarantine themselves?

Isolating the coronavirus is a complicated and challenging problem. It is, however, our only defense. It will take a while even if we are able to “flatten the curve.”

Tracking Map

Another Excursion

I had to go out again today. I went to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription. There’s a drive through pick up window at the pharmacy that has many potentially dangerous points of contact. I deemed it safer to enter the building. There’s an automatic door – I touched nothing on the way in, or out. Inside, there was no other people between the pharmacist’s counter and the entryway. A clear path! 

Then, there on the counter was that little box where the pharmacist would ask me to sign the waver about being counseled for a drug that I’ve been taking for years. My brain froze because who knows how many filthy, disgusting folks had touched that electronic pen prior to my arrival. When it came time for that part of the transaction, I asked when it had been cleaned last. They handed me a disinfectant wipe and I cleaned up. 

I was home and back to safety in less than 15 minutes.