We've been asked to do three seemingly simple things:
- Stay at home
- Wash hands frequently
- Practice social distancing - stay at least six feet away from everyone else
- And we could add a fourth, still optional but recommended in Illinois: wear a face mask
I suppose I get out of the home these days as much as, or maybe even a bit more than, most people. I have four sets of opportunities for observing other people these days:
- Trips to the grocery store, pharmacy, Target et al: on average, 1-2 times per week
- Walks around the neighborhood: 2-3 times per week (I work out at home or take breaks from workouts on the other days)
- Food pantry work: I've been stopping in briefly on weekends to check on things, and working occasional weekend shifts
- Recording liturgies for the website - two times so far; probably will become an every-other-week cadence once we get past the Triduum and Easter
I'm not too worried about people obeying the stay-at-home order. Frankly, except for the shopping and neighborhood walks I've listed here, there aren't many places people can go. Certainly, the entertainment and nightlife sectors of the economy are shut down now, so there are no opportunities for people to congregate in restaurants, bars, concerts, sporting events and the like, not to mention churches, schools and funeral homes. I suppose there could still be (and I assume there are, somewhere) private parties, "raves" and the like, although I'd be the very last person to hear about such things.
Regarding the hand washing, I have no way of knowing how frequently people are doing it. Personally, I'm trying to be diligent, but probably it's realistic to assume there are slackers somewhere in the community.
As for face masks, I'm seeing them ever more frequently when I'm at the grocery store. Not seeing many on my walks through the neighborhood. I think I've seen one person (a former cancer patient) wearing one at our Outreach/food pantry operation; I don't recall seeing any of our clients, homeless or otherwise, wearing one.
But I see a lot of failures when it comes to social distancing. I've mentioned previously that I'm concerned about food delivery people who stand too close when they're delivering food.
I've observed the same with point-of-sale clerks behind a counter at a register: they could try much harder than they do to stay away from clients, such as when giving change or handing bags to customers. Part of it is a design problem: everything from the price scanner to the credit card machine is parked too close to the clerk who must stand at the register. Shoppers really need to be cognizant that they should stand farther back from the counter than they're accustomed to.
The same design problems occur at other places in the grocery store, like the deli counter and butcher counter. Everyone crowds around, trying to see the prices of the sliced turkey or porterhouse steaks.
When I was striding around the neighborhood recently, I saw four teenage boys playing basketball in a driveway which had a backboard and rim. I guess, had they been playing at a city park, the cops would have cleared them out, but in this case they were on private property. You can't play basketball and maintain social distance, and these guys definitely weren't. They were examples of the "young immortals", a category which I consider to be most likely to engage in problematic behavior.
At the food pantry, it seems that every single week I'm asking people (rather sharply, but I think it's warranted) to remember to stay six feet apart from each other. That includes both volunteers and clients. The volunteers seem to be pretty good at Purelling their hands and wiping things down with Clorox wipes. But social distancing is an issue for at least some of them.
And even when we record liturgies, a task which involves just a handful of people, they are getting too close to one another. I've had to make a couple of sharp comments to them, too.
In one of these settings, after I admonished a couple of friends to stand farther apart from each other, one of them scoffed: she informed me that lives by by herself, and besides, she's feeling fine. The gist of her comment seemed to be, "I don't believe I have the Coronavirus so these rules don't apply to me." I told her that she may have it without realizing it. The person to whom she was standing too close is a senior citizen. As for me, I'm asthmatic and have other breathing-related issues. I don't want to get sick, I don't want to go into quarantine, and I don't want to end up in the hospital.
I'm not usually a nag. Taking on the role of the healthy-behavior scold is new to me. People don't seem to object too much after I nag them; maybe they expect that sort of thing from the clergy :-). But surely, if ever there was a time to speak up, it's now.
Masks are nowhere to be had here. I checked yesterday with Ace Hardware because they used to carry grass mowing and spray painting masks. I figured they'd be better than nothing. But no sierra. Pharmacies say they are out. Not even going to think about going to Walmart. I think their employees are trained. But from past experience the other shoppers are the. worst. distancers. Not to mention questionable hand washing.
ReplyDeleteThere are hand sewn cloth face mask patterns all over the internet. I think my sewing machine croaked sometime in the previous millennium. It's still sitting in the basement, but fails to do anything but make an ominous noise. My sister emailed me a sew-less pattern for a mask made of a bandana and two hair scrunchies. So I went to Dollar General. They had some bandanas and hair scrunchies, which I bought. Actually DG isn't too bad, there were just a few shoppers and all were maintaining distance. They need to install shields at the checkout stands though.
I saw a video yesterday, from the CDC I think, showing how to make a mask out of a T shirt and two rubber bands. It doesn't require any sewing, stapling, gluing etc - you just fold the shirt in some way such that the rubber bands don't fall out. This video gives some ideas and shows a brief snippet of the fold-your-own, using a bandanna.
Deletehttps://abcnews.go.com/US/surgical-n95-mask-wear-diy-face-cover-coronavirus/story?id=69975998
The grocery chain I patronize ("where shopping's a pleasure," it says. And it is. So much love. Even the shelves smile.) is finally installing plastic shields for the cashiers. My frau says she is going to fashion some kind of face mask so I can shop tomorrow. We are equipped for one meal of Spam and beans, and Doomsday is whenever we have to cook it. Currently Doomsday is Thursday, so I have to shop and push it off.
ReplyDeleteThere was a worldwide shortage of n95 masks in January. A competent government would have made sure production was ramped up by March. Not ours. There was also a need for testing to trace contacts. Some governments were on top of that. Not ours. Covid-19 is a national and international menace, requiring action by national governments. Ours isn't up to it. All our government has is snake oil, magic elixirs and wash your hands. It's the least we can do. So we have to do the least.
Haha, the Doomsday Meal. Our Doomsday Meal is pancakes and canned pineapple. We can make it until Old People Curbside Service Day on Wednesday, though.
DeleteTom I'm pretty sure your Doomsday Meal is haute cuisine in the UK.
DeleteOnly if the beans are on toast.
DeleteOur doomsday meal is when we actually have to cook that sack of dry beans in the cupboard, and if we haven't used all the rice and salsa, stir that in too. I will avoid getting to that point as much as possible, because start from scratch dry beans never turn out well for me.
DeleteIf anyone gives a hoot, I am back from the store. The ETA of Doomsday has been moved to Friday, April 17.
DeleteIt all becomes kind of an ordeal, doesn't it, Tom? Raber is going to the laundromat with a spray bottle of bleach and a crappy paper mask he found in the garage. He made it clear he would not be "fussing around with all this sh*t" if I were not high risk. Well, excuuuuussse me, as Steve Martin used to say.
DeleteHe had a crappy paper mask? I had a diaper. But the way it was folded, hardly anybody would know, except the kid at the accommodation desk who sold me some stamps. He held it back to a giggle, but obviously he wanted to do more to salute the ingenuity.
DeleteTom - cloth or disposable? I can see that the latter might be more effective for the intended outcome, but the former - if any exist anymore - might be a better look. Or at least a less diaper-y look. For pete's sake, you didn't fasten it on either side with safety pins, did you?
DeleteOn Facebook someone was wearing, um, sanitary supplies for a mask. I don't know if they actually had enough nerve to wear it outside their house.
DeleteJim, Cloth. Yes, safety pins were involved, although not in the traditional fold. I was told this morning that one shouldn't go anywhere without a designer mask. To show up at a grocery store as I did is to die socially.
DeleteNo sewing mask made from old tee-shirts with a paper towel insert.
ReplyDeleteI have read that the industrial sort of paper towels that you see in car repair shops etc are even better, but the normal household ones will do.
https://tinyurl.com/yxxf86ww
Mr. Neighbor Across the Street has a new grandbaby. All the kids and spouses, who live in Chicago and Detroit, two hotspots, were over there yesterday having a porch party. Mr. Neighbor's a great guy, but apparently dumb as a rock. He has kept his distance with us. We have loud conversations, him from the mailbox and me on the porch.
ReplyDeleteI put them on my prayer list.
Yes, that is one of the things that I find a little infuriating: people make all sorts of mental reservations and exceptions. "Yes, I will practice social distancing - except when the new grandchild comes along. Surely the virus will empathize."
DeleteHopefully the newborn wasn't at the porch party. If I had been the baby mom the whole bunch of them would have social distanced far away. My husband still mentions once in awhile that I made him change out of his grubby army uniform before he could hold our oldest, who was born while he was away at National Guard summer camp. Wasn't supposed to happen until he got back, but babies have their own timetable.
DeleteNope, they were all over there. Eight adults, one baby, and a little dog.
DeleteI use my respirator mask. Not ideal. Exhalations aren't filtered but ARE directed downwards into my clothes. I figure it's about equivalent to one of those improvised masks.
ReplyDeleteA couple of good news, bad news items. The good news: the rapid coronavirus test apparatus made by Abbot has been released, and each state will get 15 of them, capable of giving a result in 15 minutes or less. The bad news; British PM Boris Johnson has been moved to intensive care due to a worsening of his symptoms.
ReplyDeleteAnd I-don't-know, WTF news: Trump is arguing with Dr. Fauci and wants a second opinion from another doctor to back him up that the unproven antimalaria drug is the cure. What do you want to bet he can find a doctor to say what he wants?
And Fauci has already said that doctors are free to prescribe hydroxychloroquine if they want to, but the scientific community doesn't have enough data to give it an imprimatur.
DeleteAnd Fauci has been on thin ice for a long time. The Health & Human Services Inspector General reported today that [Tee Time and Tea Tim Follies assertions to the contrary] hospitals do not have enough tests, masks, gowns and equipment. Asked about the report at the Follies todaiy, The Don snarled, "Who appointed her?"
DeleteHer name is Christi A, Grimm, and she will be fired as a terrible, terrible government employee for the usual sins -- correcting the President and failure to adore him sufficiently. She and Fauci can set up a consulting firm.
Brett Crozier can join their firm when he (hopefully) recovers from his case of coronavirus. He's also one who failed to adore sufficiently. And now is being called an idiot by acting naval srcretary, Thomas Modly. Who is criticising the men who supported Crozier as disloyal.
DeleteI am reading Daniel Defoe's "A Journal of the Plague Year."
ReplyDeleteIt is clear to me that the Lord Mayor of London in the 1680s was more proactive and had a better plan to reduce infection than Trump. Social distancing was swift and severe. Only people with papers attesting to their health could continue to do essential business.
Treatment of the sick (such as it was) was made available to the working class and poor to prevent their exploitation by charlatans. Sickness was to be reported to Examiners within two hours of the onset of symptoms so plague location could be tracked. Quarantined homes were the responsibility of deputies who brought provisions and kept people inside for a month.
Corpses were examine for tell-tale signs of the plague, and numbers of burials broken down because of death were published each day so people would know what was going on.
Religious persecution of Dissenters was lifted to ease social tensions.
The king? He ran off to his palace at Oxford.
Jean, I remember that as a great book. I think it is still here in the white bookcase. The new bio of Dorothy Day and the new Bernard Lohfink both arrived this week, so there is competition for my reading time. But I'm winding down Twain's "The Gilded Age." Laura beat the rap, but the Tennessee land deal failed, and Congress hasn't changed all that much.
Delete"Journal" is historical fiction, but the details about the plague were accurate. I am publishing an excerpt a day for my online book club with links to current news stories that seem to parallel what's going on now.
DeleteTwain had a dim view of Congress, as I recall. Did you read his book about Joan of Arc?
I'm reading Timothy Egan's "A Pilgrimage to Eternity" about his adventures on the Via Francigena, the medieval pilgrimage route from Canterbury to Rome.
DeleteThat sounds like a good Holy Week read, Katherine. You might like "Memoirs of a Medieval Woman" by Louise Collis, about Margery of Kemp, a religious hysteric who went on a pilgrimage to Rome (leaving hubby home with her 12 kids) and kept getting ditched by her party for being so impossible. She was always screaming and having visions at Mass, to the point where her neighbors tried to get her convicted as a witch and burned up. She had herself examined by as many clergy as she could find and carried testimonials around with her to ward off the witchcraft plots. She stayed with Julian of Norwich for awhile, which seemed to have a.calming effect ...
DeleteThat sounds like an interesting book, Jean. It also sounds like I'm really glad Margery isn't a family member, or someone I'm sequestered with during a quarantine.
DeleteI'm reading "the Ten Green Commandments of Laudato Si" by Fr. Joshtrom Kureethadam. Laudato Si is Francis's encyclical on
Delete"care for our common home" (to call it a "global warming encyclical" or an "environmental encyclical" doesn't really do it justice). Laudato Si is itself a very long encyclical - at the time it was written, and presumably still today, it holds the record for longest of all time - and the book is organized by the chapters of the encyclical, so I'm actually reading them alternately - first reading the prescribed chapters in Laudato Si and then reading the corresponding chapter in Kureethadam's book. I don't have a ton of time for reading, so it's been fairly slow going, but I'm getting quite a bit out of making the time for a leisurely and attentive reading of Laudato Si.
Jean, How about an excerpt a day for us? The books in the back of he white bookcase do not include "Journal of the Plague Year," but, considering the surprises I found, DeFoe has to be around here somewhere. The Big Purge missed a lot of things I thought were long gone.
DeleteSpeaking of plague in the 1600s, check out this information on the plague doctors, and the creepy pictures of their outfits. If I were a patient and someone came to treat me who looked like this, it would make me think someone from the dark side had come for me.
DeleteJim, your book sounds interesting, but weighty. Hopefully you will tell us your reflections on it.
Katherine, fascinating! Yes, they are sure creepy! The masks may have helped prevent diseases (but not plague) in the same way diapers, masks, and bandanas do. According to Defoe, plague doctors, whose chief function was verifying signs of disease in sick people and corpses, were not allowed to have patients outside of their plague function so as not to spread the disease, and they were paid 12 shillings per body.
DeleteHere's How Well California Complies With The Stay-At-Home Order
ReplyDeleteCellphone tracking data shows how California is doing compared to the nation as a whole during the coronavirus crisis.
https://patch.com/california/piedmont/s/h2mrm/here-s-how-well-california-complies-with-the-stay-at-home-order?utm_term=article-slot-1&utm_source=newsletter-daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter
If only California could use some of the $ for the wall at the border to put a wall around the state instead. No one in or out who doesn't live there! Then my kids could go back to work and grandkids back to school.
DeleteI drove to the PO to mail some Easter cards - earlier pickup from the PO. Still probably won't get there in time.
ReplyDeleteThis is only the 3rd time I've left home in a car in the last 4-5 weeks. We walk in the neighborhood daily, but otherwise stay in the house or the backyard. The PO is next to a Home Depot - the parking lot at Home Depot was jammed. More than a normal Tuesday at noon.
So, on the way home, I drove through the neighborhood strip mall where I usually shop for groceries (we're having them delivered these days). Cars near the grocery store, and near the CVS - probably fewer than average. I saw 5 people walking towards the two open stores from the parking lot. Four were 30s-40s from what I could tell from behind their masks. The fifth person, a woman pushing 75-80, was not wearing a mask.
I can easily imagine that people in their 30s-40s will be more adept at scouring the Internet for masks, or DIY mask-making, than someone who is 75+.
DeleteI'm also told that there are some folks who aren't able to wear masks, presumably because of impaired breathing.
It's also possible that she's just a curmudgeon who thinks this mask stuff is silly.
The Geezer Hour at the grocery store this morning was maybe 75% masked. Including the diaper mentioned above.
DeleteOn my FB feed - Publix and other supermarkets are setting aside special shopping hours for those older than 65. The other 10 people in Florida are thrilled to have the stores to themselves during the rest of the day.
DeleteYou mean only 10 people are buying up all that toilet paper? There is never any for us at 7 a.m. I suppose young people have more, er, troubles that call for TP.
Delete