The photo above is from the days of the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918. This morning when I woke up, there was an email message from my mother. She had forwarded me an article about Fresno's plan to use its fairgrounds as an emergency overflow hospital. Even though there are currently only 19 cases in the county, things will more than likely get far more dire in the weeks ahead before they get better.
The virus crossed the 500,000 confirmed cases mark today. As I write this, there are 511,603 worldwide and 76,514 here in the US. 23,607 people are dead.
Among those who died was a nurse at Mount Sanai West, a hospital in New York City. Kious Kelly was 48. The hospital he worked for was so short on supplies, it had been utilizing Hefty garbage bags as Personal Protective Equipment (P.P.E.).
A 21-year-old with no underlying health conditions also recently died in England.
An idiot Instagram "influencer" was mocking the coronavirus and filmed himself licking a toilet. He later came down with the virus and is currently in the hospital. He will probably survive (to lick more toilets, no doubt). The point is, young people are NOT taking this outbreak seriously. It effects them as well as others--and who knows whom they may be infecting in the process.
Even teen environmental activist Greta Thunberg believes she has COVID 19.She put herself in self-isolation, as did her father, after returning from Germany more than a week ago, before she ever started showing symptoms.
NO ONE is immune.
When I started this entry, there were 511,603 confirmed cases in the world. It's been about an hour now and there are currently 521,086. Do the math. It is exploding onto the planet. And these are just the confirmed cases. This does not account for those in self-quarantine (like Thunberg ) or others who are just "sick" (as was my friend in Colombia that I believe had it) who have never been officially tested.
My friend Jenny sent me a note this morning. She believes the virus may have been here earlier than has been reported.
"My daughter, son-in-law, and I had something in January that sounds a lot like the virus," she said. "We had been to Disneyland and they to the Central Coast in late December. First Chris (son-in-law) got sick with a cough, temperature and was just feeling lousy. A few days later, Heather and I started with a cough. The next day, we had high temperatures.
"We were lucky and got a doctor appointment that day. I was so weak I couldn't even get dressed and wore my pajamas, several sweaters and coat to the doctor's. I had nearly a 103 temperature and Heather was 104. The doctor tested us for the flu and it came back negative.
"We were given cough suppressants and antibiotics. It took about two weeks to begin to start feeling somewhat normal. I was weak for about another two weeks. I've been sick, before but this was something terrible."
Was it the coronavirus? Unless Jenny's antibodies are tested, there is no way to know for sure. There was no test for the virus back in early January. (Our first confirmed case was in Washington on January 20, 2020.)
Tomorrow I return to work. I dread it. I think things are still relatively safe at the hospital, but I still am freaked at the idea of being there. I know our roles are important though. A friend sent me the photo below of a man in New Jersey holding up a sign for the people in the emergency room there, thanking them for saving his wife's life. I don't know if it was virus-related, but the message is still the same.
People, like this guy, I can appreciate. People, like the woman who went out and intentionally coughed on $35,000-worth of groceries that had to be destroyed or the 26-year-old in Missouri who filmed himself licking a row of deodorant containers in his local WalMart store, make me just want to walk away. Whether either was infected, I have no idea. I do know that those who purposefully try to spread the virus may be charged with terrorism, according to a news brief I saw. How sick can people be?
The lieutenant governor of Texas, Dan Patrick, was saying he believed the elderly would gladly go back to work (and expose themselves to the virus) in order to save the economy and to keep the "America that all America loves for your children and grandchildren."
Profits over people...
SICK.
Stay safe, Stay healthy. Stay ALIVE.
CHEERS!
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Btw, my mother was a young girl during the 1918 flu pandemic. She got sick with the flu, was isolated, and almost died. But, of course, she made it.
Thank you for your visit. I didn't know about your mother being in the 1918 pandemic. Fascinating. You've got good genes to see you through this.
Take care. Stay safe!