So, the governor of Ohio has declared a state of emergency. There are three confirmed cases of Coronavirus in Ohio (coincidentally, also in the county in which I live). This shit just suddenly got to be less academic for me and more real.
That said…
I have not rushed out to buy a trailer truck load of toilet paper or started to stock pile soap and hand sanitizer.
I’m a little butthurt that I didn’t buy one big thing of hand sanitizer a while ago. Every time we went to BJ’s I forgot to grab a pack. Now I can’t. May not be able to buy it again for quite a while.
It gladdens my heart (no, not really) to know that there are people out there who will be able to sanitize their posterior for decades and I hope with all of my heart that they are stuck with the stuff that they are trying to profiteer off of for DECADES. My faith in much of humanity is at an all time low. And there are memes going around suggesting that, yes, you might have snarfed up all the wipes and lysol and whatever… but you know what… the people who can now not find any or who couldn’t afford to go hork up EVERYTHING not nailed down are going to be the ones who end up coughing on you because they didn’t have the ability to be as big of a giant butt as you are. Yay you.
There was a jpg on Facebook that hit it dead on for me…
.. I see a lot of people being like “I would survive the Coronavirus. I’m taking my chances”
…
The way I see it, Yeah, I’d survive it. But I might carry it to someone who wouldn’t. And that, folks, is the problem.
~Ally Carter (@OficiallyAlly)
She’s not wrong.
That is the problem.
More to the point… I may not survive. I’m almost the target age. I am immuno-compromised. I may not.
Bear wouldn’t.
There are a lot of people who you come into DIRECT contact with that would not. They are like me. Or they have a chronic lung condition. Or they have a heart condition. Or they have something else that leaves them at a much higher risk.
More to the point, even, than that.
Do you ever consider what you touch every day? Go through ONE day thinking about what you touch. Door handle… bathroom door… stall door…. office door… key pad that you put your ATM card into so you don’t have to touch money but that you have to put your pin number into… pop machine… snack machine… money… who touched the counter at the restaurant you’re eating at… (“I never touch the touch screens at McDonalds because they have been tested and found to have fecal material on them”… hey dumb ass those people that ordered that way touched the trays and the tables, too… duh)… lids that you put on your coffee at the convenience store… packages of chips… candy bar wrappers… apples… tomatoes… who touched any of those things last? They didn’t magically appear there. They didn’t become sparkling clean because you want to buy them.
Welcome to my every day.
And everyone is SO freaking worried about coronavirus. Not flu so much. People have been having the flu right next to you and, because it isn’t the WOAH IT IS SO SCARYness of Coronavirus, it’s “just” flu you don’t care so much.
The flu kills too
The flu kills people like Bear. A cold can kill someone like Bear. A cut on the foot or hand can kill someone like me, or my little brother who has Juvenile diabetes.
Am I scared of the Coronavirust? Damn straight I am.
Am I taking extra precautions? Damn straight I am.
I have had a gallon of concentrated lysol in my basement for a few months. I mix my own spray to clean the house. I’m spraying things down a little more often. I’m carrying my own paper towels wet with lysol spray cleaner to the store so when I can’t wipe down the buggy handle with something the store is out of I can use my own.
I worry when I hear that the doctor won’t administer a Coronavirus test because someone doesn’t fit the demographic (traveled outside the US… you know… not “I work in retail where EVERYONE comes through and coughs on me”). I totally get that everyone is over reacting to the Nth degree, but if you walk into the clinic and say “I’m running a low grade fever and my throat hurts and I have a cough” and they are only GRUDGINGLY willing to test you for the flu and then are completely and utterly befuddled when the freaking test comes back positive for flu because obviously people are faking fevers now… something is wrong with this picture.
You are not an island.
You should be washing your hands anyway (I have heard that you should be singing happy birthday in your head when you wash your hands to get the timing right… but I was told years ago that I need to sing it at least twice because of the meds I’m on… and that was before… ).
You may not be your brother’s keeper, but just remember, you have no control over whether or not the person next to you has been able to buy a hundred rolls of toilet paper, or if they are living pay check to pay check and are now not even able to buy soap because you have the last fifty bottles in your cart. The person who can’t afford to stock up a year’s supply is next to you and you’re touching the same stuff they are. Think about it.
Yes, I made my own hand sanitizer, because I need to have a little on hand. But I will not buy into the stupidity that says… what would Jesus do? He would freaking be one for all and all for ME…
duh
Love and Light
April Joy
3/11/2020
A Figment Of Fitness 