It’s been a rainy and cold Easter Sunday. I have chicken on the stove for soup that’ll I’ll surely enjoy later this evening. The perfect way to spend day 28 of isolation.
It’s hard to believe, yet not hard to believe, that it has been almost a month since the CDC asked us to stay home to mitigate the spread of the Coronavirus. And each of those days have presented me with challenges. It’s also made me slow down some and take a serious look at what’s important and what’s not.
It’s not just spread mitigation and social isolation that have changed us. The economy has also taken a direct hit. Businesses have closed, both large and small. The company I work for furloughed nearly all employees in Oklahoma for three weeks and shuttered the plants both in Tulsa and McAlester. For the first time in my thirty-five-year career I’ve had to file for unemployment. I would have never imagined we would be where we are now. I keep asking myself, “how did we get here?”
Yesterday, I was reading my personal journal from earlier this year when this virus was first reported. I had made a few entries as things unfolded in China, but it was January 26th when I first noted that I felt the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization should be calling this outbreak a pandemic. Global spread of the virus was happening at that time and I didn’t understand why they couldn’t see it.
On February 22nd, the CDC said they were “preparing” for spread in the United States. On February 29th, we had our first death. It wasn’t until March 3rd that the WHO classified COVID19 a world-wide pandemic. And, finally, 11 days later, on March 14th, the Trump administration declared a National Emergency.
Why did it take health officials so long? Why did President Trump wait to declare a National Emergency? Everyone is pointing fingers at each other. Bottom line? Nobody is to blame. Everybody is to blame. But, honestly, it’s too late for placing blame. All we can do is survive and muddle through the challenges day-by-day.
Like all of you, I’ve never lived through anything like this before. I mean, I remember the Cold War with Russia and being on the brink of a nuclear war. I lived through the war with Vietnam, and wars in the middle east. I’ve survived several economic downturns and recessions, and the AIDS epidemic. But none of these historical events prepared me for what is happening now.
Was I naive? Were we all naive to think “it’ll never happen here.”? Maybe so. Maybe we needed reality to slap us in the face to get our attention.
I remember as a child in the sixties watching the news on television. Each evening during the news broadcast, they would report the Vietnam war casualty numbers for the day. Like then, today we get the daily numbers for those who have been infected with COVID19 and for those who have died from it. It’s a war we are all fighting. I know who the enemy is, but I still have so many questions that have yet to be answered.
Will this really end? Will the virus burn itself out? Will medical researchers come up with a cure or, at least, develop a vaccine in the near future? We don’t know for sure, but I remain hopeful. For now, this is the new norm. Social distancing. No-contact pickup and delivery. Wearing face masks. Staying home. Supply shortages. Getting daily casualty numbers. Stress, and justified fear.
Personally, I’ve been doing okay. It’s been a lifestyle change, for sure. I can’t deny that. But I can deal with all of the temporary and permanent changes as long as we begin to lower the casualty numbers, a sign that what we’re doing is having an impact. I can accept where we are as long as we see an end to the immediate situation. But that damned “reality slap” tells me that the fallout after we return to a more forgiving lifestyle will, likely, continue for many years. I’m not sure any of us can grasp that reality or prepare for it.
I truly hope and pray you and your families and friends are healthy and doing well under these very trying times. It’s been nearly three months since our journey began and we have even more months ahead of us. But, remember one thing, we’re all in this together. If history has taught me anything, I know we will survive this like we have survived in the past. We will come out on the other side of this stronger and more resilient. And, like our grandparents and parents had, we’ll have one hell of a story to tell our children and grandchildren one day – the story of the 2020 Viral Pandemic.
Until next time, please stay safe and take care of each other.