April 26, 2019
The Long Haul
Day 38
Quarantine fatigue is the latest weapon in Covid-19’s well-stocked quiver.
A Trojan horse has suddenly appeared outside our sturdy, fortified homes, sweetly luring, enticing, cajoling survivors to lower the drawbridge and breach the walls that protected us during the six-week Covid-19 siege. A simple, hypnotic, siren-song, quietly repeated thousands of times each day, draws many like lemmings looking for a cliff.
“Come out! Come out! All clear! All clear!”
Quarantine is difficult. It is growing harder to huddle in the safety of our homes. We are anxious to return to our “old” lives even if it means marching into the bright light of an uncertain future. So it is clear that if a poison arrow does not drop the first to slowly cross the moat, the numbers returning to the world will swell and produce a surge that for some will be a short march toward disease and death.
Covid-19 has an agenda: Infect everyone on the planet.
Left unchecked, researchers at Imperial College in London found that Covid-19 would kill 40 million people and infect seven billion across the globe.
That is everyone!
Covid-19 has not infected everyone or killed 40 million because we are playing a deadly game of chess and while, as this is written, about 204,000 have died worldwide, the virus no longer has the advantage. Stay-at-home orders, social distancing and testing have slowed the virus. So we are circling the chess board, plotting our next move.
We are waiting for scientists to develop a treatment and then a vaccine. Our only defense until that happens is an abundance of caution and patience most of us do not have.
Covid-19 must only be patient. For now, it can sit on the chess board and wait. It does not need to attack. It just needs us to lower our defenses a little bit, in this case that means: cross the moat, leave the castle and no longer protect ourselves.
This raises the legitimate question, how long can we hide in our homes? The question is not as it is often posited: “How long must we wait?” It is: “How long can we wait?“
No much longer!
Federal guidelines have been posted that offer states and its citizens a way to leave their homes. The guidelines seem appropriate and for the first time it seems the White House is being more cautious and reasonable than the governors. The guidelines basically say states can begin to reopen if for 14 days in a row hospitals they have the staff, beds and equipment to handle the disease and health officials see a daily reduction in flu like symptoms, possible Covid-19 cases reported and positive findings reported.
Admittedly this is a high standard, no state is there yet and the pressure to reopen is great. Rhode Island Governor Gina Rainmondo set May 8th as the date her stay-at-home order will be lifted. That is less than 14 days from now and Rhode Island cases and deaths have been spiking up and down, not shrinking. When asked if the date would change each day to reflect what I call the “14 day rule,” Rainmondo, a moderate democrat, obfuscated. “We are looking at it more in terms of trends,” she said and in a single, vague sentence made it clear the White House guidelines be damned; she was charting her own course.
This leads me back to “our castle” and a question: “Who is going to protect us as the Covid-19 chess game continues?”
Government cannot and will not do it. We must protect ourselves as we have been doing for the last six weeks or so. We have not stayed inside because some politician mandated it. Stay-at-home orders are not really enforced here. We remained in quarantine because we want to; it makes sense. As we emerge, when we emerge, we must care for ourselves!
Caring for ourselves is exhausting. I don’t like it at all.
In the six weeks, we have stayed at home, I have entered the larger world five or six times, only leaving my truck to do quick tasks like pump gas.
When I leave home I wear a mask and plastic gloves. I carry home-made hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes.
The drill I go through to pump gas is crazy and makes my point.
It goes like this: wearing gloves and mask I take my debit card from my wallet and leave the truck. I open gas tank latch and loosen cap then insert my card in the reader, choose regular gas, remove the hose and pump the fuel.
Then I replace the hose, open the truck, clean my card with a wipe before returning it to my wallet which I must also wipe because the gloves could be infected. I remove and toss the gloves, use the disinfectant wipe on the gas cap and latch, door handles inside and out, and steering wheel. I toss the wipe, use the hand sanitizer and then finally remove mask. I am a face toucher, the mask will always be the last thing I remove. When I get home, I wash my hands.
Phew! All that to pump gas. Imagine going out to dinner!
I know it is crazy. But I am old, and while I hate the term vulnerable I am old and careful.
But it is exhausting!
I know even I can not stay home forever. Leaving home will necessitate accepting some risk and require many compromises. It will however, be my decision how and when I cross the moat on a regular basis.
Covid-19 is not playing chess with the politicians. It is playing with us. The best way to win the deadly game is to be patient, listen to the real experts and do what we must with an abundance of caution.
Be safe!
The Long Haul
Day 38
Quarantine fatigue is the latest weapon in Covid-19’s well-stocked quiver.
A Trojan horse has suddenly appeared outside our sturdy, fortified homes, sweetly luring, enticing, cajoling survivors to lower the drawbridge and breach the walls that protected us during the six-week Covid-19 siege. A simple, hypnotic, siren-song, quietly repeated thousands of times each day, draws many like lemmings looking for a cliff.
“Come out! Come out! All clear! All clear!”
Quarantine is difficult. It is growing harder to huddle in the safety of our homes. We are anxious to return to our “old” lives even if it means marching into the bright light of an uncertain future. So it is clear that if a poison arrow does not drop the first to slowly cross the moat, the numbers returning to the world will swell and produce a surge that for some will be a short march toward disease and death.
Covid-19 has an agenda: Infect everyone on the planet.
Left unchecked, researchers at Imperial College in London found that Covid-19 would kill 40 million people and infect seven billion across the globe.
That is everyone!
Covid-19 has not infected everyone or killed 40 million because we are playing a deadly game of chess and while, as this is written, about 204,000 have died worldwide, the virus no longer has the advantage. Stay-at-home orders, social distancing and testing have slowed the virus. So we are circling the chess board, plotting our next move.
We are waiting for scientists to develop a treatment and then a vaccine. Our only defense until that happens is an abundance of caution and patience most of us do not have.
Covid-19 must only be patient. For now, it can sit on the chess board and wait. It does not need to attack. It just needs us to lower our defenses a little bit, in this case that means: cross the moat, leave the castle and no longer protect ourselves.
This raises the legitimate question, how long can we hide in our homes? The question is not as it is often posited: “How long must we wait?” It is: “How long can we wait?“
No much longer!
Federal guidelines have been posted that offer states and its citizens a way to leave their homes. The guidelines seem appropriate and for the first time it seems the White House is being more cautious and reasonable than the governors. The guidelines basically say states can begin to reopen if for 14 days in a row hospitals they have the staff, beds and equipment to handle the disease and health officials see a daily reduction in flu like symptoms, possible Covid-19 cases reported and positive findings reported.
Admittedly this is a high standard, no state is there yet and the pressure to reopen is great. Rhode Island Governor Gina Rainmondo set May 8th as the date her stay-at-home order will be lifted. That is less than 14 days from now and Rhode Island cases and deaths have been spiking up and down, not shrinking. When asked if the date would change each day to reflect what I call the “14 day rule,” Rainmondo, a moderate democrat, obfuscated. “We are looking at it more in terms of trends,” she said and in a single, vague sentence made it clear the White House guidelines be damned; she was charting her own course.
This leads me back to “our castle” and a question: “Who is going to protect us as the Covid-19 chess game continues?”
Government cannot and will not do it. We must protect ourselves as we have been doing for the last six weeks or so. We have not stayed inside because some politician mandated it. Stay-at-home orders are not really enforced here. We remained in quarantine because we want to; it makes sense. As we emerge, when we emerge, we must care for ourselves!
Caring for ourselves is exhausting. I don’t like it at all.
In the six weeks, we have stayed at home, I have entered the larger world five or six times, only leaving my truck to do quick tasks like pump gas.
When I leave home I wear a mask and plastic gloves. I carry home-made hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes.
The drill I go through to pump gas is crazy and makes my point.
It goes like this: wearing gloves and mask I take my debit card from my wallet and leave the truck. I open gas tank latch and loosen cap then insert my card in the reader, choose regular gas, remove the hose and pump the fuel.
Then I replace the hose, open the truck, clean my card with a wipe before returning it to my wallet which I must also wipe because the gloves could be infected. I remove and toss the gloves, use the disinfectant wipe on the gas cap and latch, door handles inside and out, and steering wheel. I toss the wipe, use the hand sanitizer and then finally remove mask. I am a face toucher, the mask will always be the last thing I remove. When I get home, I wash my hands.
Phew! All that to pump gas. Imagine going out to dinner!
I know it is crazy. But I am old, and while I hate the term vulnerable I am old and careful.
But it is exhausting!
I know even I can not stay home forever. Leaving home will necessitate accepting some risk and require many compromises. It will however, be my decision how and when I cross the moat on a regular basis.
Covid-19 is not playing chess with the politicians. It is playing with us. The best way to win the deadly game is to be patient, listen to the real experts and do what we must with an abundance of caution.
Be safe!
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