3/14 Covid-19 Update: "Life as we know it is ending for now"
Morning!
My intention when I started this was definitely not to inundate you with Covid-19 news on a daily basis, but there seems to be new/important information basically all the time (and I like forcing poetry on people - it's an immutable personality trait that's been true my whole life and that's been confirmed by every Myers Briggs test I've ever taken.. sorry you're stuck with me). I'm also just realizing how personally helpful.important it's been for me to hear the same messages over and over again about what we're up against and what I need to be doing to get ready for what's coming. So I'm sorry if this is starting to sound like a broken coronavirus record, but I'm hoping it's helpful to you too.
Tl;dr
This piece is super long, so not listing it as my "If you read one thing" article -but if you have 20 minutes, I recommend it. It offers an explanation for why it's taking so long for our brains to catch up to what we all seem to know in our guts. I've heard from so many friends experiencing exactly what this article talks about - they've had anxious pits in their stomachs for awhile, the feeling that something bad is happening/about to happen that won't go away - but they haven't made dramatic changes to their lives yet. This article points out that this is true of even the people who have spent their lives/careers getting ready for this moment. No one wants to be mocked for being an alarmist, and we all seem a little frozen in place:
"We can’t think of any reputable expert who believes the imminent COVID-19 risk is so low that it’s not worth serious immediate efforts to start protecting ourselves and start preparing for much worse to come. But we’re not 100% rational. Part of our brain just can’t help slightly doubting the wisdom of extreme pandemic precautions. This part of our brain has second thoughts when scoffers look at us like we’re nuts. We don’t want to be wrong about the looming disaster (even though we pray some miracle will stop the pandemic), but we also don’t want to be seen as weirdos. We start to understand the loneliness and alienation that Cassandra and Chicken Little must have felt. The knots in our stomachs are telling us unambiguously that we need to keep working on precautions and preparedness, that we haven’t done enough. But our heads are ambivalent. We can’t help wondering if we’re overreacting. Our guts are sure. Our brains aren’t, yet. And it only worsens our self-doubt and embarrassment when someone on television says we’re being foolish or hysterical or panicky. Public health officials need to speak to our pandemic fears – the knots in our stomachs – and also to our self-doubt and embarrassment. We need their help to bear the fear and self-doubt and embarrassment, just as we need their help to bear the pandemic itself."
Unsolicited advice about three things you should do today (if you haven't already):
Take this seriously, and get ready. Are you prepared to be in your house for several weeks if you're sick and can't leave, or the businesses in your area have shut down?
Pay attention to what's been going on in China and Italy to get an idea of what might happen here.
China was able to slow the outbreak because their government took extreme and unprecedented measures. Millions of people were locked inside. Highways were shut down and business was stopped. They built two entirely new hospitals in less than a week.
Here's a firsthand account of how things in Italy moved from mild concern to being mandated to stay inside. A nurse there described it like living through a world war.
Washington state has a 13 step strategy for containing the outtbreak, and we've already burned through the first 11 steps with things still getting much worse (A Seattle hospital sent out a note yesterday saying they're going to run out of medical gloves in four days). The remaining two steps are:prevent nonemergency travel outside of the home, and establish cordon sanitaire (under international health policies, these are controlled zones, guarded by the authorities, to restrict movement into and out of infected areas). “We’re in uncharted territory,” Mayor Jenny Durkan of Seattle said. “The decisions we made this week are some of the most significant governmental interventions in the history of our country. This New Yorker article is also a good description of what life has been like in Seattle recently (thanks Kate!).
I saw a historian on Twitter recommend to start keeping a hand-written journal. Your grandkids are going to want to understand what it was like to be alive right now. Write about what you're seeing in the news, how your friends are responding, what is closed in your city/state/country. Write about how you're feeling.
Good News:
The US House of Representatives passed a bill this morning on a vote of 363-40, with Trump's support (according to twitter) that will cover free covid testing for all Americans (if we ever get the capacity to test for it) - both insured and uninsured, requires employers to provide 14 days of sick leave for people infected (and gives employers tax credits for doing this), expands the National School Lunch program to get food to hungry kids and adults, provides additional funds for food stamps and WIC and senior nutrition programs, and increases unemployment insurance. It's not enough, but it's something.
A lot of seniors in high school and college are about to miss out some pretty critical milestone moments that they've worked toward for a long time. Broadway star Laura Benanti invited high school schoolers whose plays were cancelled to post their performances on twitter so she could watch.
Italians are singing songs together from their windows to boost morale during coronavirus lockdown
Sending love!
Alison
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