LIFE IN THE TIME OF CORONAVIRUS
I've never been a 'gadabout', neither has Paul. As a couple we suit in no small part owing to our preference for being homebodies. We don't do concerts or festivals or even cinema and yes in a way it is owing to not wanting to brush up along 'the unwashed masses'. We're not at all keen on travelling now we're retired - you won't catch us boarding planes, tour coaches or cruise ships. We do enjoy museums and historic sites - but if the car park is busy we're fine with turning away and going home.
Shopping malls/centres? Oh please. We don't do shopping malls/centres (Paul's Asperger's).
We don't do restaurants very often - the last time was a year ago when friends from the States were visiting. That's down to Paul's coeliac disease. (And my reluctance to chance mystery meat or e.coli)
We tend to time our monthly foray to the supermarket for early morning hours when we expect the store will be freshly stocked and cleaned for the coming business day (and besides, the early morning shopping trip means Paul's Asperger's isn't triggered by being in a busy supermarket).
We do most of our 'dry goods' shopping online with home delivery and the monthly supermarket and butcher shop trips are for things like frozen veg (supermarket) and meat (butcher shop - local farmers only. We love our butcher!). Between the 'investment cooking' I do (a month worth of frozen home-made meals easily defrosted and reheated in the microwave OR wrapped in tin foil to go on the barbie in case the grid goes down), freezer fill-ups, and tinned goods, we're stocked for at least two months at any given time.
Fresh produce comes from local farms as well, bought at the weekly local farmers market and again, first thing in the morning. If that supply line dries up temporarily we have the tins although I'm not excited about not having fresh produce. My little garden is nice but being little I don't get much yield.
I keep a very well stocked medicine chest - slightly beyond First Aid (I look at my suture kits with pride and a shudder - nothing more unpleasant than stitching flesh. Well, maybe setting a bone and hoping to God I've not made things worse is as unpleasant as suturing a wound.) First edition (reprint) of Gray's Anatomy and the current student edition as well plus some very well written 'field medicine' manuals and a good stock of over-the-counter remedies give me a little more confidence that I can nurse us through mild illness or injury - done it before and can do it again. Best home health care prep? Knowing my limitations.
Quarantine? 'Self-isolation'? No real worries - we'll have food, bottled water, medical supplies, jigsaw puzzles, board games, books, and box sets on the DVD player/Catch-up Freeview Play if the grid is up.
So, all in, I feel we're well placed to make it through this time of coronavirus with minimum exposure despite it clearly now being airborne - we're ignoring any 'We don't think it's airborne' and 'It's not at pandemic level yet' tosh being spewed by authorities more interested in protecting the global economy than they are protecting public health and welfare.
Things are not looking good this morning with the number of confirmed/suspected cases skyrocketing across the world and it becoming obvious to even the wilfully blind most governments are downplaying the death tolls compared to the survival rates. Very scary news yesterday that a woman in Japan who'd supposedly cleared the virus has tested positive again. Dormancy or re-infection, no-one knows right now. A report from several independent medical researchers says this coronavirus latches onto cells the same way HIV and...Ebola do. Oh. Dear.
Also not helpful in easing concerns are the credible rumours now coming from No.10 (UK Prime Minister and Cabinet). Hyde Park mosque will likely be commandeered as a makeshift morgue (I'm sure the muslims are going to 'love' that rumour), and hospital care will be triaged with 'elderly and vulnerable' patients being shoved to the very back of the treatment queue as part of the care rationing plan.
The current UK commonly accepted definition of 'elderly' is anyone over 59 years of age, and 'vulnerable' means anyone with any pre-existing medical condition including ones like mine (Rheumatic Heart Syndrome with 'trivial' aortic valve scarring, recurrent pericarditis with persistent minor pericardial effusion, scarring, and thickening) - double whammo for me ('elderly'+pre-existing medical conditions).
Still, life, for us, in the time of coronavirus, isn't really going to change much from our everyday norms unless one or both of us somehow come down with the virus badly enough we need to try to convince the triage team making an effort to save our lives is worthwhile (and good luck with that one, we know).
It snowed yesterday, heavily. But this morning most of the snow has been washed away in Storm Jorge rains, the temperature has risen and main roads are clear so we nipped out for a top-up of bottled water and charcoal for the barbie. Our big plan for today is to reorganise our bottled water storage to make it more secure - there are rumours of stealing, with toilet paper and water being the biggest targets. Our neighbours, with one exception, are like Paul and me and have stocked up their homes 'in case'. So we're not worried much about stealing but it's always better to be careful.
Life in the Time of Coronavirus published to this blog by the author at 1109hrs GMT (UK time) on 29th February 2020
