And honestly, I’m not sure of the answer.
I work in customer service where I have the potential to come in contact with a lot of people. Even though I don’t have any preexisting conditions or a compromised immune system (as a matter of fact, my immune system is pretty bad ass) I don’t want to risk it. At least, not for my low-paying, non-benefit having job. I mean maybe if I were doing something I loved I’d be all in, but all I get from my job really is a paycheck. There’s no sense of satisfaction or fulfillment, what’s more, I don’t even feel valued. Translation, I’m not trying to catch the Rona for this job, even if it’s highly likely I’ll recover.
What so bad about this virus is, well, a few things. One, it’s new as fuck, so even the doctors and scientist aren’t sure what to make of it. We’re all guinea pigs. Two it’s apparently contagious as fuck, so even if you don’t have it now, there is no guarantee that you won’t get it. Like, the only way to ensure you don’t get it is to stay away from people. And three, one and two have altered life as we knew it so drastically, that even though I’m happy I don’t have to go to a job I can’t stand, since you can’t really do anything, or go anywhere, the only reward I get from not having to go to a job I can’t stand is not having to go to a job I can’t stand.
You know like in high school when you ditched class (I never did, but) to do something fun like go to the mall or Magic Mountain? Or even at work when you call in sick to go to a concert or a on mini-vacay? With this virus, those things are off the table. You can’t go shopping, go to the movies, people watch while dining al fresco, none of that. It’s just sitting in the house and watching TV. Granted that’s what I do most of the time anyway even before the coronavirus, but I like to know that I have the option to do some of the aforementioned things if I wanted.
I don’t watch the coverage as much as I used to. When the shelter-in-place orders first started coming out, I stayed abreast of everything. Trump’s daily briefing: I was there. The governor and local officials preempting regular programming: I was all ears and eyes for that matter. But now, there’s nothing new. It just seems like the politicians are jockeying to be the one who’s handled this pandemic the best, to build their resume for when election time comes. We just had the Los Angeles mayor touting that LA would become the first major city in the country to offer testing to all residents whether they were symptomatic or not. Before that he came up with an Angeleno card, which was pretty much a lottery for low-income people to have at chance at winning a preloaded $1500 card to spend as they wish.
I just thought it weird that he was saying he was the first, even if he is the first, let the media say that for you. Like his concern should be less with being the first and more with helping the people. And if, while trying to help the people he just so happens to also be the first to implement something, so be it. And the Angeleno card, while great for the people who received it, just seemed so gimmicky. Since he didn’t have enough money to give to all low-income people, couldn’t that money have been put to other use, like supplying food banks with items to give to families in need?
What’s actually a developing story is that people are sick of not having a paycheck and they want to go back to work. Protests have popped up all over the country. I remember seeing this one lady on the news yelling, “you had six weeks,” at someone, I’m guessing a government official. That was interesting – I was thinking what authority does she have that she can say six weeks is enough time to figure this thing out.
Nevertheless, these are the sentiments people are expressing. They’re sick of the shelter-in-place orders. Some governors have lifted them while others never implemented them. Now the question is where do we go from here?
One thing I’m curious about is what job did all these people who are protesting to go back to work have. Because if they really want to work, grocery stores and places like Amazon fulfillment centers are hiring. Just the other day when I was coming out of Wal-Mart, they had a big sign out front “Now Hiring.” So there is work to be had.
While I would love to work too, I always came back around to is the risk worth the reward? The tricky thing about covid-19, the most insidious thing about this disease is that someone could have it and not even know it. These asymptomatic people are really a game-changer. Because let’s face it, everyone is not going to get tested. And even if everyone did, it doesn’t really matter because getting tested is not the same as getting vaccinated. There’s nothing stopping a person who tests negative from contracting the virus the second after they get their results. In that sense, the testing is practically futile, because how often are you going to test people?
Normally if you come in contact with someone who sounds drowsy and is coughing up a lung, you know to stay away. But with this thing, the person could be just fine, pass it on to you, and you’re just fine and then you pass it onto a loved one who has a preexisting condition, or someone whom for whatever reason is not so immune to it and there you go.
Now one could argue that it’s up to those with preexisting conditions to self-isolate and let the rest of us go about our lives. But I don’t know how that would work either.
The bottom line is there are no easy answers. It just seems like a loose, loose circumstance, where only hindsight and time will reveal the gains.
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