Okay, an explanation: I wrote and posted the following about six hours ago. I then proceeded to take the post down because in those six hours, Rudy Gobert (Utah Jazz Center) tested positive for Covid-19 and the NBA suspended games for the rest of the season. With the Jazz arena neighboring West High where Brooklyn, Talia and I spend our days, this virus suddenly feels close to home. General Conference has been closed to the public, our stake conference is cancelled, and the University of Utah is supposed to make an announcement tomorrow morning about whether it will switch to all online classes. Whatever is happening, it feels big.
***
So yeah. Coronavirus. COVID-19. It's all anyone is talking about these days. In many ways, I feel conflicted about it. Are we blowing things out of proportion? I mean, at its root, we're really just talking about the flu. I don't mean to sound callous, but people get the flu. Vulnerable populations suffer, but we don't flip out. A cursory internet search just told me that on average, somewhere between 290,000 and 650,000 people die from the flu globally each year. To date, coronavirus has killed 4200 worldwide.
On the other hand, the World Health Organization just declared a worldwide pandemic. Apparently the last time that happened was in 2009 with H1N1. I remember H1N1 being a big deal since Eli had just been born and I was extra cautious as a new mother. However, I don't recall the same sense of pandemonium.
COVID-19 does concern me. I worry about the global economic implications. I worry about fear-mongering. To date, there are only two identified cases of Coronavirus in Utah, yet the state has declared a state of emergency. Even if the illness hasn't arrived yet, the threat of school closures and quarantine affects our lives. Conferences and other large gatherings are being cancelled. There's a run on toilet paper, and you can forget about buying hand sanitizer. I worry about people from hotspots being treated as pariahs. Annika and I happened to visit Seattle right as everything started unfolding there. It was unnerving coming home and having people give us the side-eye and step away when they found out where we'd been.
I recognize that coronavirus is novel and serious. We certainly ought to follow CDC guidelines and be vigilant about hand-washing and social distancing. Our family is prepared for a couple of weeks of self-quarantine if necessary. But for Pete's sake--let's all calm down and stop the panic.
1 comment:
Regrettably, the Covid 19 virus pandemic has merely become more troublesome since you wrote this post Kara. US restaurants are closed and gatherings of more than 10 people are either strongly discouraged or illegal or both. Patience is being tested world wide. We need to exercise faith, goodness and wisdom to get through this with dignity. Panic is both undignified and ineffective. It also seems to be as contagious as the virus.
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