As my husband and I sit in our home in self-imposed quarantine, I cannot help but wonder what some people are thinking as the death tolls mount and numbers escalate in the United States.
I did not have to go far to see the denial in my own neighborhood.
On a walk recently, I saw a friend of mine, age vulnerable, tried to ward off a millennial neighbor who ignored him and proceeded to give him a big hug while dismissing his attempts to remain at a safe distance!
I have heard stories from other neighbors of a couple laughing off a request to step back from a family and keep a six-foot distance during a “safe” neighborhood ice cream social with kids. Friends in their 70s were still going to the gym until the shutdown.
What are people thinking? Unless you are choosing to stay uninformed, we all should know what the headlines and death rates are telling us. Will it take your spouse or partner dying, your neighbor dying or your grandmother dying for this to be real?
Assume that you are positive and infecting others and everyone else is. We should not need a shelter-in-place order to enforce this kind of behavior.
We all should be cheering the leadership of Gainesville Mayor Lauren Poe and Alachua County Commissioner Robert Hutchinson for making the right decision to issue their shutdown order for Alachua County. We will look back on this and realize, hopefully, that their decision kept our numbers from exploding.
Clearly, we cannot follow the example of our national politicians like Sen. Rand Paul or even our own governor, Ron DeSantis, who just doesn’t think that now is the time to place restrictions on businesses in the great state of Florida.
As for leadership at the top, the federal government and our president will go down in history as costing thousands if not millions of lives as they twiddled their thumbs while Rome burned. “Too little, too late” is how the history books will record this.
Clearly, though, our own state of Florida is not paying attention. Here is a recent headline: “Beach goers thronging to Florida hot spots for spring break.” It took until March 20 for Panama City Beach officials to reluctantly shut beaches down.
Locally, swimmers have been in big crowds at Ginnie Springs. What about the University of Florida College of Dentistry advising an infected student to keep the results quiet after he knew he had exposed faculty, patients and other students to the virus?
Ask yourself what it means to behave in a way that protects yourself and others.
Did you call your parents to watch “the grandchildren”? Then you don’t get it. The journal Pediatrics states that 13% of children with confirmed cases of COVID-19 did not show symptoms.
According to Sean Morrison, a geriatrician with Mount Sinai Health System in New York, “We’re recommending that older adults avoid contact with children … . We want to minimize the risk of that child passing on the disease.”
Imagine trying to explain to your own child how their grandparent died. It is not worth it, so don’t ask them.
Please, don’t stop by in person to check on your elderly family and neighbors. Call them first and ask if they need anything. Don’t expect to be invited into their home. Drop things off on the doorstep and try to be extremely careful. Remind them to try and use gloves when accepting care packages, groceries, takeout. The virus can live for days on many materials.
You can still call your elderly friends and family and make a point of staying in touch by phone. If they are tech savvy you can use Skype, Zoom or FaceTime. If not, now is the perfect time to teach them.
This will not last forever. We can and will get through this if we work together.
This virus is reminding us of our connectedness all over the planet. It does not care if you are Chinese or American, Republican or Democrat. The common denominator is being human.
We all want to be able to say, “I lived through the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020.” We have a better chance of surviving if we follow the medical guidelines now, while we slow the spread of the virus.
Please take them seriously and look out for each other, especially our elders. To do otherwise at this time is more than irresponsible, it is bordering on criminal. Besides, it could be your life you are saving!
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