I'm really struck by how rapidly the numbers are skyrocketing here. We now have more cases than anywhere in the world, including China. With celebrities dying and a friend's friend dying and Boris Johnson even contracting it, it's becoming more palpable that we are all going to touched by loss from this virus. I find myself thinking for the first time that I can no longer think of all my colleagues safely weathering this from home or even ZooChatters being safe behind their computers. The odds now are that someone on here that we've come to know and respect will succomb to this virus.
With as many members as ZooChat has, it is almost a given that some of us will contract Covid-19 at some point (or perhaps already have). However a lot of people who contract Covid-19 only have mild symptoms, and quite a few more do get seriously ill but are able to survive and (mostly) recover. Given that some of us do belong to higher-risk categories, and that even previously healthy young people can get critically ill and die from Covid-19 (as the media have reported repeatedly as a warning), admittedly there is a possibility we might lose members of our community to it. But I would say there is plenty to be concerned about even before we get to extreme sad scenarios like losing members to this disease.
In any case I hope that and call on all ZooChat members to keep themselves and their loved ones as safe possible, to take the necessary sanitary precautions and to follow government rules including staying at home if required and possible. Please do not be among the people who are defying government orders or who don't have the common sense and decency to not put themselves or others at undue risk.
Many of us however probably have family members of friends who are elderly or belong to higher-risk categories, and there is a definite possibility members of ZooChat will lose family members or friends to Covid-19. Unfortunately under the current realities of this pandemic it is highly likely that many if not most of us at some point will know someone who became seriously ill or sadly succombed to Covid-19.
Even with the people who still have contact with her (home care nurse, household help, some family members) being careful and following the orders, and most of us only having contact with her via telephone, I still worry about my grandmother as she is 85 and already has quite a few health problems (though no related to lungs or heart).
Another family members I personally worry about somewhat is my cousin. She is a nurse and she works with Covid-19 patients - and her hospital like all hospitals in my country has seen a big surge in Covid-19 admissions in the last few days. The worst problems with regards to shortages of protective equipment for healthcare staff may have been partially resolved due to government action, and they certainly know what they are doing in the hospitals, but healthcare workers in the front line are always going to be at a substantially elevated risk during outbreaks, and we are already seeing that a substantial number of them are among the infected by or sadly even the deceased from Covid-19.
Things were doing ok until the millennials started bucking orders so I understand. CA and FL had to physically kick people off beaches in areas with a stay at home order. Indeed many people have been ignoring shelter in place orders which then gives the virus opportunity to spread. If people would just stay put this whole thing could be over much faster. Instead by being out and about unnecessarily they are prolonging shutdown which hurts everybody. It's really frustrating. Common sense and courtesy is not what it used to be.
Here in Belgium on the last night cafés, bars, clubs and dine-in restaurants were allowed to be open before the beginning of soft lock-down, numerous places decided to last-minute organize what has become known as "lock-down parties" and a lot of people did attend those or went for a last night out for the time being, leading to the gathering of substantial crowds in these places (many of them young, though not only millenials took park in this unethical behavior). Unfortunately there has been quite a bit of spread in those circumstances, and just this week the media reported on some young people involved in those events having since ended up in the hospital, and some sadly are in an Intensive Care Unit or even on a ventilator now. Let that be a sober warning...
While a lot of people have the common sense to understand the necessity of and to follow the stay home and social distancing orders, there is sadly always going to be a substantial minority choosing to defy the rules. Tough enforcement on a substantial scale and harsh penalties are needed to crack down on those who refuse to act ethically and responsibly in these difficult times. Containing this epidemic and, as they say, flattening the curve, is going to be lengthy and difficult process as it is, but the actions of some idiots will not make it any easier - and these idiots cannot in my opinion be condemned and dealt with strongly enough.
