Life in the Time of CoVid-Day 5 Lockdown
March 31: Lockdown-Day 5
USA: 163,575 confirmed CoVid-19 cases; 3,073 dead (at least 1,218 of those in NY).
Sunset Cruising C&C
Yes, Tina, we do need another hero—many of them. I am humbled by and grateful to/for all the heroes—everyone getting up, scrubbing up and doing those “essential jobs” --healthcare workers, first responders on the front line fighting the visible killer.
And the less-lauded oft-abused clerks, janitors, delivery folk…workers keeping us and things running so we can lockdown.
Selfishly, I do not want to be a hero. What’s more, I do not want to be harmful. What I want is to be useful. Useless-ness is shriveling me.
Italy: 101,739 confirmed cases; 11,591 deaths
South Africa: “Most cases in Africa” at 1,326, 3 dead. Door-to-door screening & testing program launched.
Top of “Chappie”
Our time in South Africa has been divided: CoVid There and CoVid Here. Hard to fathom how 3 weeks ago we were shouldering our way through the Cape Town Convention Center sampling power bars and electrolyte drinks, swapping spit and sweaty hugs.
A few days later, cozily ensconced in the backseat of their car on our way back to Port Alfred, Shona and I both felt “flu-ey” as she calls it. We shared symptoms: sore throats, dry coughs, slightly enlarged nodules on one side of our necks…at one point Shona even felt hot—exactly the CoVid-19 symptoms we’d read about….but also symptoms of sinus— the weather had been fluctuating, along with our internal barometric pressure gauges, and allergies…
Shona & “Napolian the Cat”
We dosed ourselves, Curtis & Charles with colloidal silver spray, vitamin C lozenges, sanitizer and waited… could it be CoVid?
We kept the news secret—we didn’t want the others (their relatives & guests) from worrying needlessly.
Heads together, we comforted ourselves: we were self-isolated (sort of) our tight group of 15 or so, since the Argus, had formed our own tight colony, after all.
When we weren’t spraying, dosing, sniffling, we made plans on how we’d isolate anyone who truly fell ill, bought more vitamins…
. . . and waited.
Waited for our coughs to worsen, for breathing issues, for fever.
One report said to seek medical attention if “One could not hold your breath without discomfort for 10 seconds.”
We tested ourselves with 10-second timed Hold Your Breath drills
. . . and waited.
“More People Are Under Lockdown than were Alive in World War II ”
A few days later, weather clearer, our heads clearer, our throats better, mostly, we couldn’t help wondering if in fact we had had IT.
Just as with the polio virus: “the majority of people who are infected with the virus don't get sick and aren't aware they've been infected.” Are we among the Lucky 85%?
Rules of Survival: If you don’t want to catch X stay away!”
Time was the “Had Its” treated the “Have Its.” That’s how it worked. When someone fell ill with a communicable bug—measles, mumps, chicken pox…polio—survivors of that bug took over as caretakers. The phrase commonly heard: “It’s okay, I’ve already had it.”
My fervent wish is that soon, as you read, researchers are working hard on an affordable test for all of us who, like Shona and I, had a little something. The Lucky 85% could be and should be the ones doing the taking care off—while taking every precaution not to spread the virus. I’d make sure this useless feeling was gone, gone, gone….whoa-a-whoa-o.