Spent some time tonight doing a video thing with Chris and Ben. We were going to play some games together, but ended up spending the first part of our call catching up and just talking about the state of our lives.
It’s not much of a view at all, but I want to have some photos of this time. To look back and have some documentation of our experiences during the outbreak. I have a growing fear that seems to get validated with each day, that we will be looking to isolate ourselves well into April and beyond.
The chart above looks at the past 14 days, and determines how long it took for the total number of deaths to double in a given country. Currently in the United States, where many states have just begun issuing “stay at home” orders, we’re seeing the total number of Coronavirus deaths doubling every 3 days.
In countries like Italy, that are hard-hit but currently well into their “stay at home” orders, the doubling time is around 5 days.
In countries like China and South Korea, who have been battling Coronavirus longer and been more successful in getting citizens to remain at home, the doubling time is in the double digits.
“For many of us, it may not be much more than the flu.
And so it could be very confusing as to why schools are closed, restaurants are shuttered. And now the virus is taking what’s left of our precious liberty.
But the real problem is not the 80% who will get over this in a week. It’s the 20% of patients, the older, those that are…”
The two times I’ve been out to the grocery store, I’ve spoken to clerks and baggers, saying hello to other shoppers and saying good morning. And deep down, I was holding back a strong feeling of dread, looking for some words of assurance from the stock boy or the butcher, to tell me the world would keep on spinning.
Liz and I bought a folding table at Home Depot over the weekend, and she got this set up today in the dining room. Prior to this, she had been working in the bedroom and also sitting on the floor of the main hall area.
It did feel a bit eerie to me. Like we were at the very start of a zombie movie, where the main characters look around and realize just how few people there are walking around.
It’s a slow cooker meal, meaning it’s got to sit on “low” for about 8 hours. This morning, I needed to be online to help verify/test a significant deployment for our team… and that kicked off at 8:00 AM. So to have enough time to prep and get our meal started, I began cooking around 6:30 AM.
Before looking at the photos, I should say this: it was crowded. It was not great. But it wasn’t as bad as some of these photos may appear. Crowded, and less food – but I did walk away with every item on my list.
Anticipating a decline in people patronizing local restaurants, Grubhub has decided to forego all marketing fees to restaurants for the foreseeable future, up to $100M. The thinking behind this being that, during the Coronavirus epidemic, smaller, local restaurants are going to be struggling more – and this action would result in more money remaining in the hands of local businesses, during this time.
I debated for a long while and ultimately decided today that I’d be working from home tomorrow. And though I hadn’t really admitted it, that also meant I’d be working at home next week as well. Indefinitely, perhaps.
I happened across an article tonight, entitled The Extraordinary Decisions Facing Italian Doctors. And ever since reading it, I’ve been unable to shake it. I know there’s a lot of Coronavirus news and articles out there, and I’m trying my best to keep a balance of being informed vs being alarmed. This article though, really…