Yikes

[sonia]

I've spent my whole life watching catastrophe rolling toward me like a huge semi, from nuclear war to climate change to California earthquakes. I've never felt like I've been looking up at it bearing down on me like this, watching the US COVID numbers climb *before* Thanksgiving, and knowing what's about to happen. Never watched it come like, "Do I have enough groceries to ride this out?" I suppose being on hurricane watch is like this, except that doesn't affect the entire width of the continent.

25 lbs of rice should carry me through, even if I will run out of vegetables much sooner than I'd like. And maybe the farmer's market is still ok? Definitely not going near any food shopping until after Thanksgiving. I suppose that Saturday is a reasonable time to venture out, before the new wave of contagion takes hold. /o\

Visiting friends for Thanksgiving used to be the highlight of my whole year. It hurt immensely when that tradition eroded and then ended. But even (especially!) in the heyday of that lovely long weekend of food and hiking and camaraderie, I would never have considered going near them if it meant possibly bringing harm their way. I guess a whole lot of people are about to get their noses rubbed in the fact that positive thinking and denial are not, in fact, anti-viral. :-(

I lost my mom to COVID-19. Don't let the holidays steal yours by Emily McCarty via rydra_wong. "If you understood how much this hurts, you might stop planning Thanksgiving."

On the more analytical side, Why Even A Small Thanksgiving Is Dangerous by Maggie Koerth at fivethirtyeight.com.

Comments

[castiron]

I still think part of the problem is that Covid isn't deadly or virulent enough to scare people. Looking at the numbers for my city and calculating, about 3% of the city has tested positive for Covid since March. And yeah, that's a lot of people, but that's all the known cases, fatal and severe and mild and asymptomatic-but-was-tested. I know several people who've had Covid, but most of them are online acquaintances in other cities or countries. In my in-person circles and in my family, I know of three cases, two coworkers and my oldest child, all of whom AFAIK have recovered without lingering complications. So I can see why someone might think "eh, it's not nearly as bad as they say/it might be a problem *there* but it's not going to be a problem *here*" -- they're wrong, but I get where it comes from.

[sonia]

What you're saying makes sense. Numbers are very low here, which gives me a disorienting gaslight-y feeling, but doesn't stop me from taking it seriously. I understand your words, but I don't emotionally understand that attitude.

Then again, I had something in March, probably a light case of COVID, and as a singer and a bicyclist, I can tell that my breathing hasn't yet gotten back to where it was before that. Nothing like convincing personal experience!

[rosefox]

The gaslight-y feeling is SO WEIRD. We have it here too, the reverse of the way we had it in the spring. In April, NYC was screaming while most of the country shrugged, and now the news focus is on places going "45% positivity rates? Hm, maybe we should consider masks" and we're shutting down schools and businesses over hitting 3%.

Intellectually I know massive cultural differences like these are always present in the U.S. because it's so huge and diverse, but the awareness of it is really intense right now.

I'm sorry about your lingering lung stuff. I just had to use my inhaler last weekend; I hadn't touched it since the end of August. This virus sucks.

[sonia]

I'm so glad NYC is saying, "Been there, done that, not doing it again!" and tolerating the gaslight-y feeling. Your news focus example makes me whimper.

Yeah... cultural differences... you're not wrong, and at the same time it feels like that phrase glosses over blithely ignoring short-term consequences of actions. We've all been ignoring climate change, but this has a much faster turnaround.

Sorry to hear about needing your inhaler. Thanks for the lung stuff sympathy. It's scary, not knowing if it's going to get better, and not getting help with it, because it's not at a medically dangerous level and I'm choosing not to go for bodywork. I think the wildfire smoke set me back, so hopefully it will get better again...

[castiron]

Indeed. I figure, I don't want to get it (especially given household member who's in a higher-risk category), and I really don't want to be responsible for spreading it to someone else.

[sonia]

Exactly!