It's time to take stock.
Whether we like it or not.
This may be a kind of the reckoning many of us have been 'praying' for, for a while.
Better this, than a big bad meteor hitting the deck somewhere on Planet Earth, or worse, landing in the soup that covers 70 percent of the big blue marble. That's just a matter of time as well. But first things first.
Another little anecdote from my little foray out today (my last for a good while now as I'm all set): buying the few bits of groceries I left till last (fresh Veg so I can make food for my freezer - two lots in fact - one for now and one for when the veg starts to go off in a week or two), I had a little conversation with a rough and ready lady there who I have known for years, and passed pleasantries with, but never quite had a political conversation in earnest with, just passing the time of day.
She saw me browsing a shelf and asked if there was anything I needed help with. Odd. Of course not. She was just striking up conversation. So I bit. "Oh, just getting the last of my supplies in before I self-quarantine".
'Oh, not got any symptoms have you?'
This was asked more out of genuine concern than fear.
"No, just going to make sure. I've got everything I want. Things will change a lot in the next week or two".
The gist was that she realised that things weren't so bad here NOW, compared to other places, but she knew enough to say that we will be like Italy in a fortnight. Whether that is correct of course is academic. But she's following the script. A week ago it was all just "It's just a flu, bro'".
I'm making particular efforts because just as I was going to get checked out at the Doc's for my auto-immune shit, this shit happens. Now I don't think I want to go in to a doctor's surgery in the next few weeks as this thing seems like it might be airborne and hang around in the atmosphere, so to speak.
It's a shame, I would have like to have volunteered. Even for doing basic stuff like cleaning places. Very valuable job. But I daren't risk it right now. I might still try and go and get myself checked quickly, because the prognosis for what I have is very good (quite 'curable' with a simple pill) and that might boost my immune system, or rather, stop it from attacking my body like a semi-flu day in day out.
Whatever, life changes for all of us now. Even those for whom their reality depends on how much they can deny things and shout out loud 'La La can't hear you!'.
How much it goes back to 'normal' is anyone's guess. I've got a feeling though, and I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think any of us will see the exact same 'normal' after this thing has ridden itself out. And what? Comes back next Xmas, next year, every year?
Will we see a massive cull of the old and infirm? Will we see this thing mutate and cause cytokine storms in the very young and healthy just like the 3rd wave of Spanish Flu? Is it even possible we might get a BOGOF deal with this (buy one get one free) and get two different long-lasting strains come out of this whole nasty stew?
Not everyone is an epidemiologist. And not even the epidemiologists know yet. So it seems a little silly to try to even second-guess them.
I've had the worst kind of flu before. I was in bed for nearly a month. Delirium. Fever. No appetite. Serious back pain in the kidneys while the immune system fought like a trooper to counteract the enemy within. I wouldn't want to experience that now. Then again, I'm ignorant. Would that perhaps mean that my body which is constantly fighting diseases (even though they aren't there) would eradicate this thing quicker?
I'm not so sure. It's an interesting question. There are nearly a 100 different types of auto-immune diseases, from very mild to quite life threatening. I've heard it's not a good thing to have with this new 'lurgy' going around.
It seems that about 10 percent of the population at large worldwide, have some kind of auto-immune problem.
I think the best advice is if you or anyone you know has anything like that, then hide away and self-quarantine. Ride this first big wave out. You don't want to get caught up in the brouhaha of all those people needing ICU at the same time. Even if you get sick later, if it happens at a quieter time, your chances of survival are that much greater.
This is all depending on where you live of course. And at what particular stage the Pandemic is where you live.
Now is the time to look after family and friends. You may not even know some of them have auto-immune problems (some people don't like to admit these things in RL).
It would also be a good time to check on neighbors and elderly people in your community. Maybe educate them. Put some basic contingency plans in place without causing alarm. Forewarned is forearmed.
I'd love to say: The JEWS did this!
But it wasn't. It was those bastardy chinkys.
They knew about this and that is why they locked down entire regions. If they had forewarned us, we would have been forearmed.
But they just swept it under the carpet.
For the moment it doesn't really matter. Even if it was a manufactured bio-weapon that got accidentally released.
I'm not too hysterical about the response of the govt. What can they do. I'm sure they have plans in place.
But like the lady in the grocery shop alluded to today: They could have done a lot more to stop this spread.
I tend to agree. Not talking about them quarantining entire regions. But they could have stopped flights in from China and they could have put checks in place on people coming back from Italy, as recently as a few days ago - they could just swan through customs.
It's easy to be critical I know. But a little criticism is healthy. Impotently raging at the govt. for not protecting us achieves very little.
Do what you can for yourself. Your family. Your friends. Your community. Or wtf order you see fit.
There is still time to prep.
Everyone should be prepping every day until they can't prep no more. When they are locked down, or come down with this thing themselves.
I'm still hopeful short-term. My worries are more longer-based and how this thing will insinuate itself back in to the global cycle of yearly or bi-annual major types of flu/coronavirus.
I'm healthy enough to laugh off one of those 3 day runny nose, slight cough, slight headache things. Like Eugene would say: it's just a cold bro'.
But I really wouldn't want to get another of those H1N1 / H1N2 fuckers that put you on your back for a month and leaving you feeling like you just had a serious kicking. I'm not as young as I used to be.
But who knows? Maybe it's better to get some variant now before it mutates, so that you can build up immunity before it attacks you again in a year's time in a far more virulent form.
This is one thing I have learned in my quick crash course in epidemiology. The virus is constantly rolling the dice.
Sometimes all you can do is not play.
But that's easier said than done.
