Quarantine Diary #4 3/16/2020

These have been my thoughts, trying to process all this info, and sift thru the hype to find the most probable facts. A hard thing to do, for all of us. My take, at the moment, and the past few days: if we can keep the number of exposures down, we will lower the potential onslaught of high numbers of seriously ill folks, many of whom will need ventilator support. There are only so many vents. If you read between some lines, Italy is having to make some very tough choices - as in who gets our last ventilator? Colds, fevers, aches - no problem. Deal with it. Wash your hands. And lots of people do not know how, or do not do, proper hand-washing. And for the unlucky ones who become really ill, as in with pneumonia, it does become a big deal. So, how can we help decrease the chances of multiple cases impacting the hospitals, at the same span of time? California has reached out to retired RN's to come and work. Licensing may potentially be waved, if they retired in good standing. Which really makes sense, since most that are retired, are seniors....(??) Ventilators won't run themselves. You need Drs, RTs, RNs, pharmacists, XRay techs, radiologists, lab techs... This is the potential medical tsunami that could happen. Our hygiene is better than ever, but so is our close access to our fellow mortals. Cars and planes and ships - oh my! Lots of viruses can be spread before the carrier knows they are sick. It simply makes sense to decrease exposure to others, and others to you. At least until we get a handle on what we are dealing with. We truly have no idea how many people are sick or about to get sick. Or how many will get very sick or how many going to die. Our poor are at great risk, no matter what is done. Close quarters, less access to decent food and clean clothes, etc. It is most definitely our job to help out. This whole scenario could become massively impossible. So, caution seems an easy step. At least the lesser of evils. Hopefully, we will all shrug our shoulders in a few months, and wonder what all the hoopla was about. That could mean that the CDC was wrong (probably not)....or that we all worked together to stay apart - and looked after those impacted by closed schools, lost wages and no insurance. What do we do, when our empirical data is not there? It is strongly suggested that the numbers are much greater than being reported. Government control?? Scary, but can't we all see this administration behind such a move? Testing not available - when China and South Korea and most every other country, seems capable of this. Another government ploy? Definitely, the government closed the barn door after the horses were out. We could protest. We CAN still vote, though how that is being impacted, is anyone's guess. I am relying on information from other countries. And their interventions, quarantines, etc, are matching with our CDC and WHO. We can disagree and be non-compliant, and potentially pay a high price for our independent thinking. Our liberties, or our lives? A bit dramatic, but... I look at all these actions as being the best way to take care of each other. It's got major flaws. No plan is perfect. But 'no plan' is what got us into this mess. In terms of the universities, the students can stay in the dorms, whose dorms ARE their homes.....addressing a comment on Slate.com... and staff is there to carry on, but with less students and therefore less exposure) Jennifer (a retired RN)