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I found out yesterday that my mother has come down with Covid-19. She is a resident at a nursing home and of course these places have been hard hit by the outbreak. They are going to be moving her to another nursing home that's better equipped to handle Covid cases. I'm very concerned because my mother was (up until moving to the nursing home) a smoker since the late 1970's. She's also diabetic. 

For the longest time her home was in lockdown to prevent infections. But the staff apparently picked up the virus from outside and brought it into the facility.

I've come back on the site to tell you all to please take this Pandemic seriously. So much negligence on the part of Americans has caused cases to spike. Over 138,000 Americans have already died from this. It's getting so much worse and we can all do our parts to slow the spread.

Any know-it-alls here who want to downplay how bad this is need to be quiet. You're misinformation will only cause innocent people to get sick and die. You're not helping the situation.

And wear a mask!

With my dad now in a nursing home, this has been my biggest fear and I'm still losing sleep over it. They're still in phase I which means total lockdown, but since a lot of the staff have children and their own personal lives to deal with, it's only a matter of time until it makes its way inside.

I've been in near complete isolation since early March and haven't come within thirty feet of another person other than my asthmatic, 87-year-old business partner since we reside in the same house. I've had to tell younger family members with nothing to do that want to come for a visit to stay away until this virus goes away or is no longer a threat. ...and I've been climbing the walls since about the second week.

Now that there's a bit more known about the virus and more people are surviving it, I hope your mother comes through it alright. We're all in this together.

This is the site I've been using to keep up with the climbing death rates since the TV news seems to always be a few days behind.

Oh, and I've hand-sewn up a couple masks from patterns I found online in case I might need 'em. Thankfully, I've come up with creative ways to get things done that don't require me to leave my property so haven't needed them.

I am honestly very sorry to hear about your mother.

"Any know-it-alls here who want to downplay how bad this is need to be quiet. You're misinformation will only cause innocent people to get sick and die. You're not helping the situation."

Glad you're open to conversation, and glad we have you to tell everyone else what to do and how wrong they are.

Nice contribution, I bet you're a very comforting presence to hurting people at hospitals and gravesides both.

lol

Making this is my contribution (along with a few other outreach projects, and actual research things).

Ontario made it legally required to wear a masks to enter businesses now. Toronto isn't in the same condition as the rest of the province, but everything is improving.

Shame we can't open the border anytime soon though.

I'm not sure why anyone would want to open their borders right now. In fact, if I could I'd erect a border around my property to keep Americans out. In lieu of that, I'm prepared to put up a wall of lead if worse comes to worst. I've been preparing for just such an occasion for decades. ;)

Returning to a state of normality is desired. Apparently the US has been trying to pressure Canada to open it further (it's not completely closed after all) and we were like "Nah".

F

Certainly, I can feel Mr. LaHomme's anguish. It was over a year ago I was present when a family member, not a heck of a lot older than I am, died in an ICU unit from COPD. This was 2019, no pandemics were present, and so the family was allowed to be there for her final hours, as she literally gasped for air, her body pumped full of morphine. It was a moving experience; I had known this person for about 40 years, and we had what I would call an uneasy relationship for about half that time, but I was glad that we had made peace with each other for the final two decades. A good chunk of my stimulus money this spring went toward her headstone.

Being present for her end brought me and that part of my family closer. But the loneliness of the COVID deaths -- people dying of many of the same symptoms, but alone and largely unaware of the people around them -- is one of this disease's most unsettling aspects. And unfortunately, our nursing homes have become COVID incubators. In the past, I have had close family members who lived in senior facilities, and I can't imagine the fear and uncertainty for those who live there now, or for those who have parents / grandparents they fear they may never see again.

I live in New York State, about 230 miles from the city, which was the early COVID epicenter in North America. New York City, by virtue of its dense population, bore the brunt; up here, we were more in the "COVID outskirts," enjoying many of the same restrictions but suffering through far fewer deaths. Still, the local newspaper reports a few new COVID deaths every day or two, many of them residents of nursing homes. Names and circumstances are never announced, and I am shocked that given all the current social unrest there hasn't been more demand for accountability.

Myself, I have complicated views about this -- not so much the disease, but the human response to it. In the U.S. everything is now viewed through politically polar lenses, so utter any two words and people assume they can predict your entire world view. As a centrist and an independent thinker, I've figured out it's best if I keep most of my views to myself.

I do live with an at-risk individual, so I do have to be careful. Since late March I've been working from home. I struggle to keep my patience with new hires (yes, we've had several) whom I've never met in person, with whom my primary interaction is Skype, and who use that medium constantly to pester me with minor questions. Only once have I visited with a friend, and I have several close relatives who live out of state whom I probably won't see again until 2021, if not later. Thankfully I live near large amounts of public land, and so I've been able to continue my outdoor pursuits since the beginning. Nowadays when I visit my favorite microbrew, as I did earlier this afternoon, I bring a book to read and find a table where I can keep to myself.

But:

I also think our response to COVID is wrong. I think it asks the biggest sacrifices from the people with the lowest personal risk levels. I think it incorrectly sees the health crisis as completely distinct from, and unrelated to, the massively high unemployment and the sustained social unrest. It equates inaction with heroicism and civic duty in a way that makes my stomach turn: our generation's "Pearl Harbor moment" is to stay home, shut up, and watch Netflix. It wields "science" like a monolithic truth that brooks no dissent: "the experts have spoken, so anyone who disagrees is obviously ignorant." It expects the impossible of human nature: to remain apart from each other for so long.

I grieve for the people who are suffering, and perhaps even more so for the people who have family members who are gravely ill and may never have that final moment together. But I also grieve for the school children who are struggling with sub-par educations, missing out on all of the standard human experiences of building friendships with people their own age. I grieve for the high school seniors whose families have been derided for daring to have graduation parties, or the college graduates who are facing one of the grimmest job markets in a century. I am angry on behalf of the small business owners who are doing their best to comply with health guidelines, only to have some preening ass of an authoritative state governor [cough*AndrewFuckingCuomo*cough] decide on a Thursday afternoon conference call that he's going to change the rules, for reasons that have nothing to do with science or data.

Some people apparently have the ability to rank these crises from worst to least concerning, but I do not. I see them as all concurrent, equal in gravity: one caused by nature, the rest a fearful human reaction to the first. We've been blindsided by nature; it has happened in the past, and the trend will continue unabated in the future. But I just can't help but think that our global response to COVID seems unimaginative, lacking innovation -- and without spouting off any further, I'll end here by saying:

I can agree simultaneously with the people who fear for their own health or that of someone they love… and with the people who feel frustrated by the sustained disruptions to their lives, as well as unheard by what is amounting to an undemocratic process.

The political aspect to everything is extremely annoying, although it's really helped to confirm that both the left and the right are made up of utter hypocrites who will instantly flip their views on whether social distancing matters or not depending on who they see not doing it.

Meanwhile the virus itself makes no distinctions and will happily continue using selfish people and idiots of any background as a vector.

Just also noting that I've been having to wear a mask at work since March, often ten hours a day. The number of tantrum throwing babymen I've seen the last three weeks who act like being asked to put one on for the five minutes it takes to walk into a store and buy beer is some incredible hardship being CRUELLY FORCED upon them by the oppressive libs has been pretty hilarious.

These are the guys in their 40s or 50s who always like to bitch about how the kids these days are just so selfish and spoiled and impatient and lack any sense of responsibility or ethics or respect for others. And I mean, generally I agree with that sentiment, but...now I see how these same men are acting when they themselves are asked to inconvenience themselves in even the smallest way for the sake of others.

As far as 'stay at home, shut up, and watch Netflix'....I mean sheltering in place until it passes is a pretty standard response to any natural disaster. This could've all been under control by now if people had actually, y'know, done that, instead of just turning the situation from a natural disaster into an ongoing man made one with no end in sight.

Going out and trying to punch the virus while a flag waves in the background and patriotic music swells unfortunately isn't too effective, as cool as that would be.

The first part of your post really gets to the core of why this whole situation is so sad and fucked up worldwide though. So many of the people from the generations who sacrificed so much and had some of the greatest hardships in their lives are now being denied the ability to spend what little that's left of it with their families. Even when they're the lucky ones who have families that still cared about them in the first place.

That's what's been the most depressing thing about this for me, enough to make me grateful my last remaining grandparent (a veteran of WWII and the Korean war) passed away two years ago. So while I'm personally playing on easy mode with no one to worry about but myself, it's hard not to see constant reminders of what a rough time this is for families. I work at a family owned business and the old lady that owns the place just passed away a few days ago...not covid, just a steep downhill turn starting in November with some falls and sudden worsening of dementia. She had to be moved to a care facility right as all the lockdown stuff started and after that suffered a couple of strokes. It's been hell on her daughter whose been trying to keep up her usual 50 hour weeks running this place on top of it.

The woman used to be one of the those pillar of the community types too, but they're now restricted to a small family graveside service. Employees who have been here and known her more than 20 years obviously can't go because we're already short staffed and at this point they'd have to shut the place down completely if anyone got sick.

"Punching the virus" to the tune of the Star-Spangled Banner wasn't quite the image I was going for. But yes, while hiding out at home to keep safe during a major health crisis is a natural and time-honored response, it is also human nature to want to feel useful. Basically the message has been if you're not a nurse or a molecular biologist, then Uncle Sam doesn't want you this time around. And that message stings for some people, even if it's never been literally stated quite that way. Add to the mix the fact people's livelihoods are being threatened, and that nearly every social coping method was / is / will again be closed down, then the angry, even defiant action on the part of some people is understandable to me.

I'm not trying to defend their actions, I'm just saying that as a writer I see myself as an observer of human behavior, and thus a certain level of resistance seems normal to me. Expecting 100% conformity in a nation of self-styled "rugged individualists" was never realistic. So while I follow the red and green arrows in the grocery store, sit by myself at the microbrew, pull a mask over my face in public, and chat with my mother (who lives 6 hours away) through video messaging, I just can't cross the line and scorn the people who are struggling with these concepts.

And I think we're going to be in for a rough fall and winter, unfortunately.

(Edit: Oh, and if we think the reaction to masks is humorous, just wait until a vaccine is developed...)

I would argue that this crisis is exactly the sort of emergency where everybody can contribute. (Ok wearing a mask and/or sitting at home is not quite so heroic, but ...)

Also: I think it has reminded some people of the merits of fact-based politics.

The government is going to be sorely disappointed when it injects the secret nanobots to track MY movements, let me tell you...

Thanks, everyone, for your supportive words. My sister texted me today and said that the home has said that my mother is still fairly asymptomatic, although she'd had a cough to begin with. I'll keep everyone posted.

 

I think you replied to the wrong post but I'm glad she's not got it too bad.

This was three days ago and I know nothing's certain in a situation like this, but I hope things are still going well.

"she's stuck at the rail crossing again" 

That's terrible, I hope you mom will be okay. I have my grandparents and a great aunt that I worry about all the time.

A friend, Thiago Rangel, is involved in the covid modelling in Brazil. He has not only got to deal with the pandemic but also with the right-wing government. There is a fake-grassroots campaign against him. Wanted-poster style leaflets are being distributed etc. Everybody in the community is extremely worried about him at the moment. The world has really taken the wrong turn in the recent past.

Really sorry to hear your friend lives in Brazil. Wow, talk about having it rough.

At least you'll be safe in the UK as long as everyone keeps the 5G towers cut down.

I am in Germany for the moment. Made it out of California just in time. ;)

So wild to get snippits of news like this. I've been more or less quarantined since March in military bases where they control who comes in and out. During all of BCT I got essentially no news from the outside. It's like stepping out of a time chamber. The whole culture is discernably quite different.

Even now that I can track the news I don't. I'm pretty busy around here and I'm not influenced by, nor able to influence those circumstances.

Too be fair, I seem to remember whole decades where less happened than in the first half of 2020.

Sorry for the delay in the status update. I few days ago I went through some major drama I don't want to get into right now. But I finally got to talk to my mother. She said she's having trouble keeping anything down. No cough right now. They moved her to another home and will send her back to her own when she tests negative for Covid-19. Hope everyone here is doing well.