Well, I better write about what is going on in the world as my foggy memory will totally mess it up for me and ruin the stories I tell my future grandchildren!
The world in under a state of panic. Several nations have closed their borders, cities have a shelter-in-place ordinances, people are canceling trips, people are panic buying hundreds and hundreds of rolls of toilet paper (more on this later) and storing food like we are facing the Apocalypse (maybe we are, it's day 1 of our lockdown after all!). All this because of COVID-19 or Corona Virus, a virus similar to the flu but as this is a new disease, there is no known medicine or vaccine. About 4% of people who get it, die from it, mostly the elderly. COVID-19 started in Wuhan, China when several employees of a market fell ill. It is suspected that the virus was passed from bats to humans and while bats are immune to it, humans are not. Conspiracy theorists, on the other hand, believe this disease was man-made, especially after a novel written in 1981 called, The Eyes of Darkness, described a flu-like disease that started in Wuhan, China. You can read the excerpt below. But experts say that is just coincidence, that we give too much credit for what man can do. After all, the Simpsons predicted Donald Trump would be president and well, let's not get me started on the president. That means we, we haven't developed a disease to kill each other yet, we have semi-automatic guns for that (wow, where did that come from?).
So the elderly is at a high risk of not being able to fight this disease, so do those with chronic illness and have a compromised immune system (hello!). Kids and healthy adult are the ones who are mostly asymptomatic and likely to be the ones spreading the virus because they don't know they have it. Symptoms include dry cough, fever and body ache. Every hour of every day since the last week, I ask myself, 'Do I have this virus???' I do have a dry cough, no fever and body ache though so I haven't switched on the panic button.
Confession: I have been, for the past 3 weeks, slowly accumulating food and supplies for my family. I did not panic buy! I did it very slowly. I read the news a lot and when I read that the FBI is starting to stockpile surgical masks and hand sanitizers, I bought some of it for my family. Then I bought groceries, and then 2 days later, more groceries. I think have been to the supermarket twice a week with a semi-full shopping cart each time. There's 7 of us here at home, so we need a lot of stuff. But then, there are people that HOARD toilet paper, and canned goods, and rice and everything else you can possibly think of! Lines outside the Costco start forming at 4 am! Shelves at grocery stores sit empty! If you want to buy toilet paper, good luck with that! I have just another big package of toilet paper saved up, so I instructed people in the house to think that the toilet paper in the bathroom is the last one we have! It's amazing how all of a sudden, 1 mega roll of toilet paper lasts 24 hours in our bathroom, it has now been 36 hours, and we are only half-way thru 1 roll.
My husband and I are working form home. I have been working 12 hour days for the past 9 days. A lot of work, for little to no income. We have a travel agency and our industry has been severely affected by the coronavirus. No one is traveling unless they absolutely have to. I issue refunds to my customers based on the airline guidelines. But every industry is hurting. The whole world is hurting. Many restaurants are closed or only open for take out or delivery. The world is going to be a different place when this is all over.
But at the same time, the world needs this break. Pollution in the air and waterways are at an all time low. I read a news article that with China being on lockdown and factories being closed, clearing the air has spared more lives than those lost in China due to COVID-19.
I miss hanging out with friends, family and church family. But we are blessed we have the technology to see each other through video chat. Despite all that is going on, we have to learn to count our blessings
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