Everybody, please stay home. Most of us don’t need to go to the hardware store, or get something notarized at the bank, or go inside of a grocery store, or inside of a pharmacy. And, we certainly don’t need any kind of drive-through where we might have face-to-face contact with someone 3 feet away and 2 feet higher than we are. That is a recipe for spit in your face. It’s bad enough normally, but what if that person has COVID-19 and they don’t know it yet?
Pretty much any contact we have with anyone outside of the people we are with 24 hours a day is potentially an opportunity for transmission of the virus either from us, if we don’t know we have it yet, or from them, if they don’t know they have it yet. Please everybody, stay home. (And, that doesn’t mean have friends over for the evening. No cozy dinners or drinks or game nights with friends, and no play dates or sleepovers for the kids.)
Actually, I think most people are following the guidelines. I think most people are staying home. My street has had two cars on it in the last several hours. It is the middle of the day. I would expect a little more traffic normally. It was disturbing a few days ago to see some neighbors having other people come in in cars or walking in from other houses and they all went inside the house for the evening. Maybe they don’t quite grasp the concept of not being around other people. Or, maybe since the public announcements all saying don’t be around more than 10 people at a time, maybe people think if we only have four or five friends over, it’s not a big deal. It is a big deal if one person already has the virus and they don’t know it.
I think we’re all sad about all the illness and the death that has happened in such a short time and in such an overwhelming way. It seems that people are adjusting to life as we know it now instead of life as we knew it a few weeks ago. It seems that we are beginning to focus on what we have control over rather than what we have no control over. All of these things are good. I wonder what the world will be like when this global health crisis is over. They say it could last a year and a half. By that time, we may have all developed new habits, and we may have all become more giving and caring people in some way. It’s actually very cool how people are trying to figure out how they can help people. People are sewing masks for healthcare employees. People are still helping at food banks and other places, but hopefully those people are keeping that 6 foot distance. I hope everyone will also start to wear a mask when they go out for these ‘absolute necessity’ trips away from the house, not in the car, but when there’s any possible chance of interaction with another person.
Stay home and stay safe.