It is Day 8 of school closures and Week 3 of me staying at home from work.
Things are getting grimmer since March 11 which is when the World Health Organization (WHO) declared coronavirus as a pandemic. As expected the number of infected is growing exponentially all over the world, number of deaths increasing too. More and more countries are in the lock-down, more and more governments are waking up to take actions like UK, Rwanda, South Africa. No country is spared. We are climbing towards the peak so the worst is not over yet.
More and more warnings are being sent by health officials about the seriousness of this disease along with instructions for staying safe and creating safe environment for others. More political solidarity in response is needed along with more offensives measures such as testing every suspected case, isolating and caring for every confirmed case, and tracing and quarantining every close contact, prioritizing protecting health workers and effective therapeutics!
https://www.who.int/dg/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media- briefing-on-covid-19---23-march-2020
Every social media and every personal message is about this as everyone is grappling to come to terms with it, wrap their heads around it and trying to find a stable ground!
Last week was a lot about calm resignation. It was very new. Everyone was still into "reacting/doing" mode here in the Bay Area. Getting groceries and supplies in order to be at home as a family all day- which for most families is not a norm. Who is going to work where? How are we setting up kids's schedules for the day? Do they have private spaces to call into school zooms? Do they have enough other activities to do including physical and social? Fairly divided calendars for chores such as cooking, cleaning, kids studies and play time. But women are on the front line in most cases - cooking/cleaning/office work/ kids's work/playtime. In India, most people were still chilling - until the PM's speech along with the curfew and and clapping/banging woke them up from a false sense of security.
This week is different. We are at home for at least a week now and the visceral reactions are coming out. I see them in me, I see them in people I connect with. The actual feelings are all over - when is this coming to an end? what if it takes really long time? Am I going to lose job? What about kids's schools? I can't be a full-time parent+cook+cleaner+employee for too long. What about my family? My friends? Are things ever going to get back to old normal again? what about the 100s of healthcare workers everywhere? Are they going to be okay? God bless their souls ----all legit emotions, many rational thoughts but too fast and too many. Our brains are not used to handling so much uncertainty. We like control, or at least the feeling of control - to feel strong and grounded. We are not yet coping - we are just winging it. But maybe in the next few days, we will learn to calm down and cope more elegantly.
“It would be so nice if something made sense for a change.” -- Alice in Wonderland
I have been somewhat lucky because I have been quarantined in my room since last week because of flu. YES, I got the flu in the midst of this (and was refused covid testing). So while I have been sleeping, medicating and trying to shrink away to not infect anything else, poor Abhi has been on the forefront of home, kid, his own work and a patient who he absolutely wants to stay in one room! But that means I have also had a lot more time to read every news, watch many videos and reply to every what's app message with no office work to ground me/distract - and it has made me a visceral mess. I mostly feel deeply sad and helpless about what's happening around me.
One video by a ER nurse in UK crying because after 48 hours of ER covid shift, she went to buy groceries only to find empty produce sections particularly hit hard. So I sent emails to all major grocery stores and Jeff Bezo requesting them to let all healthcare workers register with the stores and prioritize and home-deliver their groceries to them. Crazy times!
--- Can't wait to get back to work/house and feel useful again..
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