by David Kubicek
What is the new coronavirus, and how can we survive it? Here’s what we know so far about COVID-19 and battling the COVID pandemic.
I can remember a time, not long ago, when if you walked into a store wearing a mask, the clerk would immediately press the silent alarm to summon the police.
Those days are gone. Even in the relatively quiet–so far–coronavirus (COVID-19) town of Lincoln, Nebraska, it is common to see people with masks and gloves pushing their carts around grocery stores or picking up their take-out orders at restaurants.
But the relative inactivity of COVID-19 in Lincoln may be ending. A spokesman for Bryan Health said last week that the city is beginning to see a surge of COVID-19 cases. And 90 miles west of Lincoln, Grand Island is one of the hottest spots in the nation for COVID-19 because the meat processing plant there is a fertile breeding ground for this nasty little bugger.
And it is a nasty little bugger. I’ve been following this crisis for two months, and here is a summary of what I know.
What is COVID-19?
- Although coronaviruses are not new, and there are many of them, the 19 in COVID-19 does not stand for the 19th coronavirus as an idiot radio personality (Rush Limbaugh) told his audience. COVID stands for coronavirus disease, and 19 stands for the year it was discovered–2019.
- COVID-19 is much worse than the seasonal flu.
- COVID-19 is a tricky bastard. Many people who are infected have only mild symptoms or none at all. Others are hit hard. The folks who are hit hardest usually are over the age of 60 or have other underlying health conditions like diabetes or high blood pressure–but other seemingly healthy people, young and old, have succumbed to this wretched creature. Also, the disease may at first be mild, then the patient takes a sudden turn for the worse. Or a patient who was in critical condition seems to be recovering, then suddenly the patient is struggling for his/her life. The disease makes the immune system of some patients go into hyper drive–in other words, cause the immune system to have a spaz attack–which can damage their lungs.
- This thing can gestate in your body for up to 14 days and is very contagious–you can infect others even if you don’t have any symptoms yourself.
How do we protect ourselves?
- Wear face masks and disposable gloves in stores. It’s unlikely that you’ll be infected if you touch something an infected person touched–unless they coughed or sneezed in their hands and then touched it. But it’s better to be safe when touching something where, as my mother used to say, you don’t know where it’s been.
- Stay six feet away from other people. The reason for this distancing guideline is that water droplets from a sneeze or cough travel three to six feet before gravity pulls them to the ground.
- Wash your hands often–for 20 seconds (if you’re bored with the standard count of one Mississippi, two Mississippi…, try reciting, with feeling, the Star Trek opening: “Space, the final frontier, these are the voyages…” etc.)–and use hand sanitizer when a source of running water isn’t available.
What are the symptoms?
- Fever
- Cough
- Sore throat
- Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
- Fatigue
- Chills
- Shaking with chills
- Muscle Pain
- Headache
- Loss of taste or smell
Not everyone who is infected will have all of these symptoms, but if you have any two of them, call your doctor for a consult. Go to the emergency room only if your doctor tells you to or if your symptoms are critical–like if you have difficulty breathing or have pressure or pain in your chest–to avoid overwhelming hospitals with non-critical cases.
The Good News and the Bad
- Good News: Lots and lots of companies and organizations are working on a cure and/or vaccine. You can find more detailed reporting on the search for a vaccine here.
- Bad News: It may be a year and a half before a vaccine is available and FDA-approved. Even after the drug is developed, manufacturers must ramp up their capabilities to produce sufficient quantities to vaccinate everyone–billions of doses.
- Bad News: There is no federal plan for getting us through this crisis; the feds are leaving it up to the states. From the beginning there has been a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) for medical personnel, a shortage of COVID-19 test kits, and a shortage of ventilators for patients who need help breathing. The federal government has the authority to solve shortage and distribution problems but so far has chosen not to. The problem with an “every state for itself” approach is that some governors and mayors are doing a good job, while others are not, and states must compete with one another for supplies–a federal plan would make the supply chain run more efficiently.
How Will We Be Changed?
We will eventually come through this thing and out the other side, but the question is, what permanent changes will it leave on our way of life? Here are some of my thoughts:
- First, some things won’t change. When it is safe, we’ll begin congregating in groups again. We’ll go back to the bars, movie theaters, restaurants, sporting events, concerts and other places where people gather.
- Some people like the rush of going shopping, so they will return to the stores, but others may have grown used to online shopping. We were already moving toward more shopping online before the pandemic hit, but COVID-19 is introducing it to others who used to depend mostly on brick-and-mortar stores for their supplies. I don’t think there is anything that you can’t buy online–at least I’ve never run across anything yet–and in many cases it’s much easier.
- Many people will find, in preparing for self-isolation, that they can order almost anything from local stores, which they can pick up at the curb or have delivered. I think many folks will continue this because it saves time. After all, the neighborhood grocery store morphed into the superstore because people wanted to do all of their shopping in one place rather than hitting several specialty stores; moving to more of an online model is just another instance of morphing for convenience.
- More people in many different industries will find that they can work from home just as easily as from an office. We’ve already been moving toward this model for several years, but the pandemic has forced other businesses to try it. My hunch is that they’ll find it works well. In the age of technology, video conferencing, email, texting, and the cloud make it possible for many industries to work remotely.
That’s all I have to say for now. This is a summary of what I know about COVID-19, which I learned from listening to doctors and scientists. Right now, the federal government and some states are making a big push to re-open the economy. All the experts agree (the doctors and scientists I just mentioned) that returning to normal too quickly would be a mistake and probably would result in a second wave of infections this fall, most likely one that is worse than what we have now.
The bottom line is that COVID-19 will be a serious threat until 1) we have a cure/vaccine, or 2) most people have been infected, which would significantly reduce the number of new hosts for the disease to jump into because, so far at least, the consensus seems to be that you can’t be re-infected once you have had it. For now at least the scientists are going for number one, and the federal government apparently is going for number two.
The problem with number two is, as more and more people become infected, we will have to seriously increase our supply of body bags.
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