Two Opinions

Throughout this outbreak/epidemic/pandemic, I've found myself wavering between two opinions.

Back in February and March, I was between, "This is nothing and will all blow over," and "We need to prepare right now for a months-long lockdown and I should have been stockpiling canned goods and planting a vegetable garden."

Then in the spring, I was between, "This is going to become a really dire situation with supply chains breaking down, and jobless people looting for food," versus "People will follow medical advice and do what they need to do and things will get under control."

Now I'm vacillating between, "People are slowly coming around [to things like masks], putting policies in place [like prohibiting certain types of activities], and making difficult decisions [like starting school online], this will all be okay," and "Our opportunity to control this disease is ending and people aren't doing enough."

I've been saying for a while, this all seems fun now, in the summer, when we can move certain businesses and activities outside. But I don't think anyone is going to want to enjoy patio dining in November and December, at least not in my area of the country, so if businesses want to be able to open more broadly anytime soon (or have more people feel comfortable patronizing them), we need to take action now. So far, we've only dealt with this disease in the spring and summer in the US. As more necessary activities move back indoors, where chances of transmission of the virus are higher, plus the regular seasonal cold and flu start circulating more, things could become very dire. I'd seen some writing about this a while ago, and thought maybe we were at least past that harsh prediction, but this STAT article, Winter is coming: Why America’s window of opportunity to beat back Covid-19 is closing, came out yesterday and is all over the place today. "Unless Americans use the dwindling weeks between now and the onset of 'indoor weather' to tamp down transmission in the country, this winter could be Dickensianly bleak, public health experts warn."

In other news, I'd been convinced for the past few weeks that I had a dental appointment today. I've seen a lot of interviews with epidemiologists and other experts who say they wouldn't go to the dentist at all right now unless it was an emergency, so I was nervous, but figured this is probably as safe as it'll ever be around here... I was getting myself mentally prepared to have someone inside my mouth, but, I realized this morning when I found that my two calendars didn't match that today was my original appointment, and I've been rescheduled for October. On one hand, I'm relieved that I don't have to deal with this right now, but on the other hand, who knows what things will be like in two months? Coincidentally, I saw an article today about going to the dentist during a pandemic, and they say if the positive testing rate in your area is below 5%, it's a safe time to go. It's 5.1% right now in my state, and 3.5% in my county, so hopefully it's the same or better by October 😕