It was a bit longer than two weeks ago that I wrote about N95 respirators being nearly sold out along with some foodstuffs, and then a few days after that, I noted that hand sanitizer was mostly gone from the shelves. On that day, America had its first COVID-19-related death, and now, just 12 days later, we are at 31 deaths.
The speed at which we people respond or choose not to respond appears to play a large role in how quickly systems that support and maintain pandemics are able to deal with the rapid onset of overwhelming logistics. Northern Italy is warning people within their country and trying to message others that the seriousness of the situation cannot be understated and that with just 10,000 reported cases, their healthcare system is at the breaking point.
Angela Merkel today said that up to 70% of the German public could be infected if steps are not taken to limit exposure to the virus. If Italy is reeling from their cases now, what kind of environment would they struggle through if, even stretched out over the next two years, they were to face something like 42 million sick Italians and just 1% of those people required hospitalization? The system would be in total collapse. With only about 1,000 people hospitalized of the 10,000 infected in the Lombardy region, the system is out of beds and is trying to transfer patients to other areas. How would any health care system deal with 420,000 COVID-19 patients needing hospital treatment, even over a two-year period, when in 6 weeks Italy went from reporting its first case to a countrywide quarantine?
Since sitting down to write this entry, I’ve cringed at the three sneezes people have let off near me. Every time someone coughs, my head whip pans to see if the person covered their mouth. I can’t look at tables, silverware, glasses, gas pump handles, number pads on credit card processing equipment, or shopping carts without seeing these surfaces as germ-infected opportunities to acquire COVID-19. I want to see past this and not be affected by my sense of evolving panic, but the lack of initiative in America to deal with this head-on has not instilled confidence in my quickly devolving behaviors.
For days now, I’ve considered backing away from social contacts as I’m becoming neurotic watching those around me. I’ve taken to traveling with hand sanitizer, and I have wet wipes in the car so I can disinfect surfaces, but this is not always convenient or remembered, so I contribute to my ever-growing fear. I know I need to start this process of social distancing, but damn, it’s hard to self-enforce that when most people around you are going on with all things appearing to be normal.
I’m telling myself that with this post, I have to back away from my visits to coffee shops, restaurants, and other public gathering places until we know more details about how people and society are dealing with this force of doom. Am I being hysterical? I feel like it, but then it feels like an issue of semantics that I cannot explain the difference between hysterics and being proactive. As I look around me and feel that I should tell those people I’ve become familiar with at my regular coffee shop hangout, I’m feeling ambivalent about how others will perceive me in my paranoia.