Quarantine 2.0

 It’s now been a year since my first COVID blog post.  On Tuesday I had my first vaccine shot (Moderna), with the second scheduled for April 27.  Many people I know have already had both shots or at least the first one. 

Sadly, the COVID did have an enormous impact on my Mom.   Last April, she was lucid and talking, and I was able to take her around places.  In July she went to the hospital for an operation which wound up having complications.  From then  until December, she bounced back and forth from local hospitals to local assisted living facilities.  She caught the COVID around December 17, and on December 27 she died.  Her death certificate marks COVID as the cause of death.   That death was especially hard because I was by her bedside with my brother when she actually passed away.  Every other relative, including my father (who died in 2004 of a stroke) took place outside my actual presence.

In January and March 2021 I went to CVS for COVID tests, not having sufficient priority to merit a vaccine yet.  Both tests were negative.  I had purchased a digital thermometer (oral) and have been using that to monitor my temperature, which appears to remain normal.

In March 2020, Gold’s Gym closed down for quarantine.  In June it reopened, albeit with masks mandated and enforced, temperature checks at the entrance, and every other cardio machine turned off for social distancing.   I checked my weight at both times, and weighed no more in June despite having no gym access during that time than I did in March.  About the only thing I could do at home were situps, pushups, and walking up the stairs.   I used to be able to climb all 20 stories at once, but at 52 I’m running out of breath after 5 floors, so 10 floors seems to be my current max. 

By now Trump is gone and his replacement appears to be doing what he can as President to fix the problem instead of writing it off as a “hoax”.  Not that Biden can create and distribute the vaccine himself, but at least he’s doing something.  Moreover, Trump’s own behavior and public statements encouraged his own inbred army of yahoos to refuse to wear masks or social distance – so to that extent, he did make the problem much worse by his own incompetence. 

My other concern was that the virus would mutate into variants which would resist the vaccine.  From what I’ve read, the vaccine appears to be effective against all current variants and probably will.  The cumulative death rate in the US is 2%, meaning of ever 100 people to catch COVID, 2 will die even with medical attention. 

I will continue the masking and social distancing thing.  My subjective impression is that this thing will only end when a substantial majority of the world’s population is vaccinated and we see NO new cases for days on end.  Then and only then can we take off the masks and get back to normal.  And I would hope that we’d learn something for the next virus that comes by.

Oh, and don’t get me started on the “COVID is a hoax” morons, or the anti-vaxxers.  Moreover, holding views which are not only not supported by science but outright dangerous to everyone else is not harmless or simply someone’s difference of opinion, but could have fatal consequences.  If you refuse to wear a mask, and infect 100 people with COVID, two of whom die, I’d say we’re talking about two cases of manslaughter (causing someone’s death without an express intent to kill).  When this is over, I’d suggest the police and prosecutors get to work on prosecuting anyone who can be proven to have caused COVID deaths by this means.  For their part, anti-vaxxers should be socially ostracized and treated as lepers.  Here ends the rant.  

Quarantine

Looks like another occasion where what might otherwise be writer’s block is rescued by some huge problem which merits some discussion.   The COVID19/corona virus shitstorm has resulted in a quarantine here in the US.   Ideally, stay home.  If you do go out, try minimizing such excursions and stay at least 6 feet away from everyone.  Then go home and catch up on whatever it is you could do at home were it not for having to be out 40 hours a week working.

My own job is an attorney, in a firm by myself, an office manager (Vietnamese woman old enough to have met Japanese officers as a little girl during WWII), and a secretary who is as difficult and headstrong as she is attractive (actually, considerably more so).   Part of my practice is personal injury, meaning I can call insurance adjusters from home and try to settle cases.   Ultimately, many of my cases require some form of court appearance, whether be a status hearing to set a case for trial, a one-and-done traffic or misdemeanor case, a one-and-done 341 hearing on a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, or a simple uncontested hearing on a divorce.  The local courts have removed most cases from the docket for the time being, subject to being rescheduled later. 

As of yet, I don’t feel any aches, pains, fevers, chills or any other illness.  Just the last week I went to the ER for a tongue infection, though I was discharged that day with a prescription.   That issue is healed.  I live alone, in a huge condo building.   My mom is in an assisted living building 30 minutes northwest (Herndon), and that building is taking the sensible precaution of prohibiting visitors, so I call my Mom and talk to her on the phone.   My brother lives not too far away, in Centreville, with a wife and three kids.  They are all stuck in the house together.   Last time I visited, though, I found the local parks and trails within walking distance of his house.

Despite the obvious temptation to bring up the ever-popular plague, there are huge differences.  First off, corona-virus is…a virus (!) whereas the plague is caused by bacteria.  As such the latter can be treated with anti-biotics.  It’s usually caused by rats and fleas, which means in normal First World environments the sanitation system is inhospitable for the plague and we rarely see it.  Back in the Middle Ages, when sewer systems weren’t always around, and anti-biotics were nonexistent, the plague would have been a much bigger problem.

Even so, “quarantine” still applied.  A map of Europe in the mid 1300s appears to show that Poland was relatively little affected, allegedly because the king, Casimir the Great, quarantined Poland from the rest of Europe.  In practice, this seems to be an oversimplification and difficult to verify.   The truth is that Poland did suffer the plague, but less than surrounding countries, and we really don’t know why.   However, with 3 of my 4 grandparents originating from Poland, to the extent that the plague was not as serious there as elsewhere, to the extent 3 of my ancestors survived a disease which might otherwise have killed them, making my own existence impossible, I have to thank God that this was in fact the case, to the extent it was and for whatever reason.

As of April 2020, I am staying home most of the time, wearing a mask when I do go out, and catching up on Rick & Morty (season 4) and Ozark (finished season 1).  As yet I know of no one I know personally who has contracted the virus, but I would hope and expect that the geniuses are at work on a vaccine which will address the issue.  

I’m still unclear as to what anyone is doing about keeping these viruses to spring forth from the Wuhan market in China, which seems to breed these viruses from the exotic animals kept in close proximity.  The experts agree that the virus was not man-made, but to the extent the PRC is a totalitarian dictatorship which could summarily shut down the market if it cared to do so, I’d say the Chinese government’s willful inaction amounts to de facto germ warfare, by default, against the rest of the planet.  

Likewise, I won't blame our own Orange Fuhrer for having developed this disease himself.   But you would think that he would at least have consulted with experts and managed the crisis here a little better:  giving us accurate information about the threat the virus poses and what we should do about it.  Firing the team, ignoring his own experts, and dismissing the whole thing as a hoax was criminally stupid.  I'm not particularly impressed by the Democratic challengers in 2020, but even the dumbest of them (most likely Biden) would have enough brain cells to manage this whole thing more competently than the current yahoo.  He can Make America Great Again by resigning, effective immediately, as even Pence can tie his shoelaces better than his own boss.