MY OPINION – SELF ISOLATING (OR DOING WHAT I’M TOLD)

My first opinion topic will be a very contemporary subject; that being the Coronavirus or COVID-19 epidemic. I am addressing this subject now, because we are all living with it and through it. I might say that when the subject of this virus first came up, I was kind of aloof and may have even scoffed at the idea. The reason for this, is that we have lived with a “new” Pandemic each year or two for the past many years. At a low point in the political year and when the economy is stable, when no terrorist threats are making headlines, it seems the media can always find a new Pandemic with which, to keep our attention focused on them.

My mind goes back to Mad Cow Disease, Beef on the Bone, Swine Flu, Aids, SARS, Hantavirus, West Nile disease, Lime Disease and Ebola to name a few. All of which, according to WHO and the media were going to wipe-out mankind. That is until something else in the world became better copy and distracted their attention elsewhere. In addition, the staggering number of deaths each year during the “normal” flu season, with what we consider a seasonal flu is a little publicized number and seems to draw little attention from the fear mongers. For example there are estimated to be upwards of 60,000 deaths in the US this year including 146 children of normal seasonal flu! That to me seems like something I would want to pay more attention to than the original, relatively few, deaths in China and Italy.

In addition, and although I/we take the flu shot each winter, we each fight off 2 bouts of flu each year. Each time we are in a high risk zone for dying from the “normal seasonal flu”. All of which made me less interested in running to Costco and buying up all of the toilet paper I could find. I guess I figured that if things got that bad, we’d probably run out of food first and I wouldn’t be able to crap anyway. Having said all of that, it then became apparent that this brand of flu needed a little more attention and respect than I originally afforded it!

I now am in my second week of self isolation, locked down with my buddy Bubbaloo. We are eating well and still finding a way to keep up some exercise. So far no blood on the walls, we are still “tight”. My Blog will now help occupy much of my time. What hurts me the most thru all of this and what I can not get off my mind. Are the millions of people that have already or will in the future lose their jobs over this. In a lot cases these will be young people with families, that are taxpayers and that cannot afford to be without work. It will damage countless households beyond repair.

My heart goes out to them. If I could step in for any of them, take their job and keep their pay checks going. I WOULD GLADLY TAKE THE RISK of replacing them in their workplaces and allow them to isolate. I say them because even though I’m old, I can still out-preform 2 or 3 young people (LOL). My final thought is that this is not going to go away fast. Not until 60% of us are vaccinated with a vaccine that has not been found yet OR 60% of us survive this flu and thereby become immune.