I looked back through my texts to my son who was away at college and on January 27th is when I was first concerned about this virus, 81 deaths at the time, China the only country reporting cases. He thought my concerns were unwarranted.
When the first case hit the US, I started to worry a little more about the spread, starting talking about it more and my family brushed me off. My mother was on board and we bought a few shelf-stable supplies just in case. Nothing on the level of hoarding, three extra packs spaghetti, one extra pack of toilet paper, Clorox wipes (because I was already using them daily since my husband is a teacher).
Then I got sick. My doctor said it sounded like the coronavirus and not to come into the office. The hospital told me not to come in because they were reserving tests for travelers. I was really ill. Couldn't breathe, couldn't get out of bed, slept way more than anyone should, fever, coughing. Had my flu shot, but this didn't feel like the flu. Put on a 14 day quarantine.
Now I'm mostly recovered and the US has (currently) 19.969 cases. Since I had to go to the store for supplies, I donned a mask (I do a lot of painting and sanding so had a few in the garage) and went out. Shelves were empty, but the store was not. People are everywhere despite warnings. It's a paid vacation to most and that really angers me. Nobody will heed warnings, everyone is hoarding, but STILL going out. Social media is blaming the President. I don't remember anyone handing it out like free candy. He was criticized for acting too quickly, then criticized for not acting quickly enough. I'm not supporting him, just saying stop pointing fingers when the beaches are packed. I'm sick of hearing "it's just a flu" or "the flu kills more people every year". Wake up World.
This is what's wrong with the world we live in. Our own little bubble that's full of false information and a personal sense of entitlement. Blame someone else while not contributing to help. I offered my four pack of toilet paper to an older lady standing in an empty aisle while being thanked by a nurse for being the only other person wearing a mask and trying to prevent the spread.
We eat dinner with our phones and zero communication. We spend more time on social media than socializing with people face-to-face. Everyone is looking out for themselves and not taking care of our communities as a whole. The medical world has been warning us for years a "superbug" was coming and here it is.
Stories of people buying up everything to sell at exorbitant prices are everywhere. Now those people are stuck, unable to sell anywhere, and the rest of us can't get those very products we need for every day life.
As everyone ignores the social distancing warnings, the virus continues to spread. What I don't get is that most people never go ANYWHERE and now that they are told to stay home, they just can't. Maybe if the government told us to go out and infect as many as we could, the streets would be empty.
I hope this is a lesson to the world. Maybe when the internet shuts down because workers are ill and we're forced to look up, we'll see things differently. Well, those that are left anyway. Maybe the Mayans were off, instead of 2012 it was supposed to be 2021...
I just checked after typing this, the US now has 22,132 cases.
