Not letting coronavirus get me down
The CDC would not be happy with me.
I touch my face all the time. I don’t wash my hands for anywhere near 20 seconds. And I rarely use hand sanitizer.
To be completely honest, I’m a coronavirus vector just waiting to happen. The only mitigating factor is that I don’t normally travel that much, and almost never on airplanes. This time of year, I don’t even drive over to Minnesota much to visit family and friends.
On Saturdays, when I don’t have any work or social obligations, you could almost mistake me for someone who has decided to “self-quarantine.” I’m content to sit and read or watch movies at home, and let my wife do any needed shopping (she enjoys it, really).
Even though I’m a master-level worrier about some things in life, viral diseases are generally not one of them. I always remind myself of how much more likely it is that I meet my demise in something as mundane as a car accident or a fall down some stairs at night. At this point, in fact, I’m more afraid of the societal panic and economic disruption created by COVID 19 than I am about the virus itself. The idea of bare grocery store shelves and prescription medicine shortages is the stuff of nightmares.
Even without the coronavirus, this has been a particularly brutal cold and flu season here in our part of Wisconsin. I was hit with a sore-throat-and-cough bug back in September, followed by a 24-hour stomach flu right before Thanksgiving. Meanwhile, two of my co-workers seem to be passing a nasty chest cold back and forth like it’s the only stapler left in the office. Speaking of which, I’m sure all our office supplies, — i.e., pens, paper clips — are just rife with germs.
On the bright side, winter seems to be leaving us a little earlier than normal this year, though I’m still on guard for one or two more snowstorms to dash any hopes of an early spring. It will be interesting — and maybe a little unnerving — to see how the warmer weather will affect the spread of the coronavirus. I, for one, am not going to let it stop me from living my life. Unless the government declares an area-wide quarantine, I will still be attending my niece’s first communion in April and my other niece’s high school graduation in June.
I don’t mean to inadvertently encourage people to be reckless or naive about the threat of a virus that has proven deadly for thousands of people. We live in an amazingly interconnected world, with people constantly traveling all around the globe for business and pleasure. Even here in podunk Wisconsin, we are not magically immune from disease outbreaks.
So, stay safe out there, but don’t let the specter of COVID 19 ruin your 2020.
OUT FOR A WALK
KEVIN O’BRIEN
EDITOR
