Photo: L. Weikel

Asking For a Friend

I’m just curious.

If you’ve been reading about and following the stories of the arrival of the Coronavirus here in the United States, you must know the following FACTS:

1. It is primarily impacting, adversely, people who are 60 years of age or older, or those who are immuno-compromised or have pre-existing conditions, such as asthma, emphysema, etc., that make their lungs more susceptible to infection;
2. The virus can be killed by washing your hands;
3. Don’t touch your face;
4. The virus is most often spread through touching a surface that has the virus on it (in other words, touched by someone who didn’t wash their hands);
5. People can test positive for the virus and be asymptomatic. In other words, they may feel perfectly fine and yet be carrying the virus to all sorts of places – wherever anyone with even half a social life might go;
6. Most people who will test positive for the Coronavirus will only experience mild or minimal symptoms;
7. Don’t touch your face;
8. Unless you are a healthcare professional, you probably do not need a face mask. If you are so sick that you are coughing a lot (which is really the main time anyone needs to be wearing a mask), you shouldn’t be anywhere but in your home, where you don’t need a mask.
9. Don’t hoard.
10. The most aware and compassionate response to having even the hint of suspicion that you might be infected with the virus is to STAY HOME.
11. By STAY HOME, I mean ‘self-quarantine’ yourself by dropping anchor and staying at home for 14 days. No grocery store; no drug store; no liquor store; no bakery. You need to stock up on that stuff NOW, baby.
12. Other things to do if you have even the whiff of feeling that you might have been exposed:
    1. Stay home (said above); Stay home even if you “just” have a cough, or “just” have a slight fever; or in anyway “just” don’t feel right or think you could “work through it;”
    2. Wash your hands; (This advice is given ad nauseum. Please, for the love of everything holy, wash your damn hands as often as possible);
    3. Don’t cough or sneeze on anyone or even near anyone. It’s gross, your mother taught you better, and it won’t kill you to either do it into your elbow OR, better yet, into a tissue that can promptly be thrown away;
13. Don’t hoard.
14. Don’t touch your damn face!

What I Really Don’t Get

What I really and truly don’t understand is why people are being so obtuse and thick-headed. The instructions, above, really are not complicated at all. And yet? People refuse to listen.

I see all sorts of people making excuses for not following those very simple suggestions, above, and using as an excuse that ‘the flu is worse.’ THAT IS NO EXCUSE – regardless of whether it’s true or not! The bottom line is that the scientists are saying that this has never been around before – it is unique. No one knows HOW fast it spreads (but it sure would appear to be yielding positive tests on an exponential basis within a single week). That does not bode well for any of us.

And tell me: what number of deaths is acceptable? What number of deaths will it take for it to make it worth your while to stay home and watch tv or read some books and keep your potentially lethal germs away from those in our society who are most vulnerable?

It sounds like the vast majority of people are either insanely stockpiling face masks, which is cruel and selfish, or in complete denial that this is really an emergency. Face masks are most helpful to healthcare workers, and by stockpiling them in your closet, you are doing no one any good. Just being selfish. Plus, face masks are best worn by people who have symptoms, such as a cough. If you have a cough: STAY HOME!

I’ve heard people use flimsy excuses for not taking basic precautions that range from:

1. “It’s not as bad as the flu;”
2. “The symptoms are mild, especially for people my age;”
   1. And a corollary to the above is, “It’s not impacting kids, so…?”
3. “It’s a hoax;”

There are a number of other really appalling excuses being bandied about for not being a good human being and fellow citizen. To all of the people making these excuses,

WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU?

Seriously, I’m asking for a friend. I’m asking for your mother. I’m asking for the person in the grocery store who beat lung cancer last year but still has a bit of a struggle with his respiration that makes him a good candidate TO DIE if he catches this virus.

Am I really to believe that people are so greedy that they will hoard food or supplies or even hand sanitizer and toilet paper or so selfish that they may willingly choose to go out and about, to the grocery store, the bakery, the dry cleaner – touching counters and door handles and grocery carts – without caring one whit about the older or ill person who could be felled by this infection?

I’m not intending to harangue the people who must work in order to keep a roof over their heads or food in their mouths. But I am talking to the thousands of people who can easily comply with the suggestions that will keep this from spreading, yet willingly choose to ignore them because they INCONVENIENT.

We Need to Care About Each Other

This infection spreads because our government has been too selfish and greedy, worrying about the stock market as opposed to our lives, to provide us with tests.

Let’s not be as greedy or selfish as our so-called leaders. Let’s show them who we really are.

(T-626)