Pandemic

I played a board game called Pandemic years ago. That was fun. This is different.

There's a new virus in town.

Novel Corona Virus is causing quite a stir.
Just as a disclaimer: I'm a science nerd. I'm one of the people you know who has actually taken virology classes. I don't exactly remember everything from those classes, but I have retained some of that information and I just want you to know that. Anyhow...

Today is Wednesday. Five days ago, while I was at work on the afternoon of Friday the 13th, my county and my city declared a state of emergency. We learned that our school district was cancelling all school for the next four weeks. I told my lovely boss that I would need a couple of days off work each week in order to be home with my kids during this time. Then, I spent the next few nights not sleeping well, worrying about how my small, local veterinary hospital would keep afloat with all of these changes and with less staff there to help out. I also had a lot of weird anxiety dreams that involved sanitizing doorknobs and washing dirty hands.

Monday rolled around, I went to work as planned and left the kiddos with my incredible, elderly (they don't like me saying that word) parents. Midday more changes were announced. Millions of people in the Bay Area were told to Shelter in Place at their homes starting at midnight. If you need to go out to receive an essential service or provide an essential service, that's okay, as long as you keep six feet apart from everyone while in public. The rest of the time, everyone is expected to stay at home as much as possible. Fun news. It turns out the veterinary medicine is considered an essential service, so I went to work Tuesday. The hubby is working on an apartment building and construction of housing is considered an essential service, so he went to work too. My poor kids got to spend another day with my amazing (sort of elderly) parents.

Today I got to stay home, since my boss lady is understanding. I spent the entire day reading spreadsheets full of assignments and suggested applications that my kids' wonderful teachers emailed to me. I bookmarked a million websites, printed tons of spreadsheets with detailed assignments, logged in to accounts, couldn't log in to accounts, emailed teachers, finally logged in to accounts, and bookmarked those websites too. I also spent absurd amounts of time reading with my son, doing math with my son, checking in on my daughter to make sure she was reading and doing math. We watched shows in Spanish and got exercise and danced and ate healthy meals. And STILL my son didn't do enough writing because getting him to write is like pulling teeth. I even went to the school to pick up a packet (of stuff that is all online so I'm not sure why I had to pick it up!).

It all made me feel tired.

You know who else was tired, and then complained of a dry, sore throat and checked her temperature without me prompting? My 10-year old child. As the afternoon grew later, I could see that look she gets around her eyes that pretty much screams at me, "I don't feel well! I have a fever!" and sure enough, she had a fever. She isn't coughing, but her elevated temperature means that nobody wants her, or anyone who has been near her, anywhere near them. So now I can't go to work tomorrow or leave my house everrrrr agaaaiiiinnnn!!!! (That last bit might be an exaggeration.)

We wash our hands a lot, we have been sanitizing doorknobs, light switches, faucet handles, etc. for a week now. We are taking this social distancing and sheltering in place seriously. The kid probably has a run-of-the-mill cold and not a fancy new viral infection, but we can't know that, so we shall wait, watch, and see.

I called our healthcare's advice nurse line and spoke to a kind, compassionate nurse who explained to me that our county controls the parameters around testing and they are only testing people who:
1. Have symptoms of Covid-19 and have had known contact with someone who is confirmed positive for Covid-19.
2. Are really sick and in the hospital and they can't figure out why, but all of the symptoms point to Covid-19.
3. Are maybe not in the hospital but are sick with symptoms of Covid-19 AND are considered high-risk.

I'm frustrated by my country's medical system and response to this pandemic. If the powers that be are only testing really sick people despite knowing that community spread is happening and that most cases are mild, that is really skewing the numbers and giving us shit data. (I couldn't spell "skewing" and wrote it 700 ways before asking Google for help.) I don't know if we've been in contact with someone who is positive because people are not being widely tested. Also, at least two clients spat on me while talking to me on Friday. That's gross and I just wanted to make sure I included it in this post, because yuck.

I'm annoyed, a little worried, and kind of anxious.

Stay safe, my friends. Cover your mouths and wash your filthy hands.