One week done, one to go. I remain afebrile and not coughing or short of breath. Perhaps all the aggressive OR-style handwashing and Purell dispensing worked!
The hardest thing about this is not seeing other people. I am an introvert by nature, but I never realized how challenging it is to literally not have a face-to-face conversation with another human being. Some of my work friends are going to stop by tomorrow evening so we can have a yelled conversation across the street. C’est la vie.
The other hardest thing is that I’ve had a lot of time on my hands to get angry at the abysmal government response to this plague. The surprise travel ban left both travelers and airports utterly confused and unprepared. Reports from IAD, DFW, and ORD of snaking lines, hours long, of standing cheek-to-jowl with others, some of whom looked visibly unwell. No temperature screenings. No information to travelers about what to watch for as they self-quarantine for the next 14 days. It was a shambles.
Make no mistake, thousands of people contracted coronavirus waiting in line at Customs and Border Patrol today. With the best published case fatality rate (S Korea, 0.8%) that means at least 100 excess deaths. Probably more on the order of 500. And every one of those deaths is a direct result of the president’s whimsy.
I’m really glad, after all, that my parents opted to delay their return another week. Hopefully by then CBP will have gotten their act together.
Off-White Coat 