And still, Don’t Panic

 

I’ve been debating the usefulness of yet another post about the coronavirus. The first one I made still feels relevant: handwashing, don’t panic. However, since events have escalated in the last few hours, it’s on my mind. 

I’ll keep saying not to panic. I’d be saying that if the survivors were getting all bitey and mindless. Panic helps no one. Calm preparedness, on the other hand… 

So here’s what is happening in my neck of the woods. Schools have been canceled for the next three weeks (with the option to keep them closed longer) and online education may be happening. We shall see how that plays out. No one was really ready for this, it feels like. My local school had sent out a survey for parents literally hours before the governor made an announcement that the schools would close ASAP here in Ohio. The survey was for evaluation of readiness, and included questions like ‘will there be adult supervision at home during the day?’ and ‘does the student have access to the internet/a computer?’ Here at the Nut House, we are ready for online school. The question remains: is online school ready for us and all the other students?

I’m not a prepper. I keep a very well stocked pantry compared to some, but it pales compared to others. Could we be ok for a 2-week quarantine? Oh, yeah. Stuck in here for a month? Eh, we’d be fine but the kids might not like the meal choices by the end. Three weeks of a bored teen boy honing his culinary skills? Uh. I need to do some shopping. As I’d expected, hand soaps, toilet paper (hah!), and hand sanitizer are thin on the ground for buying locally. On the other hand, I was not expecting the complete dearth of chocolate chips. I’d looked at the first three items out of idle curiousity – we’re good. But chocolate chips?!? the world is truly ending. 

I was driving home from work, where we are doing some odd things to prevent disease transmission (desk shuffling in an open office really seems like an act of futility), and I was contemplating that this may be one of those pivot points in history where you can literally watch the world change in front of your eyes. It’s not the disease itself. I don’t have enough data – and I don’t think we will ever have enough – to truly look at the statistics of how many infected versus death rate, and so on. It’s frustrating, but there it is. Resources were squandered. What we do know, however, is that this illness touches lightly, if at all, on the young. On the elderly, on the ill? It has the potential to be very bad. It could very well overwhelm a healthcare system already stretched to it’s breaking point. However, I’m looking past the physical to the emotional. The impact that quarantines, school closings, event cancellations have on the economic system is going to be profound. Already the impact is being felt at the grocery store, as I found above when I couldn’t secure the ingredients for my son’s favorite cookies. We got butterscotch chips, instead. Improvise, adapt, overcome. 

What this is going to do is force changes. It’s going to shake up the systems in place, and where things will fall when it stops shaking? Who knows. I have hope. I always have hope, but two things from today made me smile and know that the world is going to make it through this. First, mere moments after the official email went out from our local school district, there was a post in the town facebook page offering free lunches to any students who drop by the local deli while school is out. This is co-sponsored by the deli and a local ministry. Heartwarming to see the community step up to the plate with things like this. Kids in this area are not as likely to be dependent on school meals, but all too often that is the case. The second thing was my Ginja Ninja telling me she had to call a work friend. Her friend is a single mother of two, and my daughter is going to offer babysitting to enable their mother to make a couple of work shifts at least. She can’t cover for all of them – she works, too! but she felt the need to connect and help with the kids who will now be home all day. I suspect that all over the country, people are doing little things to take care of one another. Community, ravaged by the global economy and slow distancing the internet allows us by pulling us away from forced social contact, is going to come back. For better or for worse. 

I’d like to think it will be better. After it gets worse for a while. I have no illusions this is going to be easy. As I alluded to above, the emotional impact is going to be long-lasting. The breaking of the trust – however blind and misplaced it may have been – in systems is going to ripple outward in ways no one can anticipate. Change is happening. I can see it. What I can’t see is where this shift of the course of history will end. 

 

Comments

15 responses to “And still, Don’t Panic”

  1. I expect it will become clear that for many parents the most valuable product of public school is the “free”babysitting during the day.

  2. Kathy Merman Avatar
    Kathy Merman

    Your post is so appropriate and right on target. People weren’t prepared, and it happened quite slowly and quickly at the same time. Americans tend to respond to crisis in one of two ways: ignore or panic. First, most of us ignored that this virus from China could have anything to do with us, and now we are all panicking and rushing to buy out everything in the stores that we could possibly need including extra cat food and foods that are non-perishable that we would never consider eating under regular circumstances. As a college professor (part-time) and tutor, I can’t help but wonder what will become of me and my students over the next few weeks, and for once in my life, money doesn’t seem as important. Let’s all be glad we are healthy, and if you so believe, let’s pray for a quick end to this threat.

  3. i’m not panicing but….

    how long do i wait before panicing?

    i mean, if the grocery store shelves stay empty… then what?

    of course,i will point out that the JIT ordering system for TP is going to be hilhariously broken for months…

    1. of course,i will point out that the JIT ordering system for TP is going to be hilhariously broken for months…

      Oh, gads, YES.

  4. Kathleen Avatar
    Kathleen

    The JIT ordering system for a lot of things is going to be broken for months, and some of it may not come back for years, if at all.

    Good post, Cedar, and good job being at least somewhat prepared! Like you, I suspect this is a turning point. But panic is so counter-productive. Much better to be prepared! :).

    And good for the Gina Ninja! How old are the little ones?

  5. You’re right, there will be definite changes in the long term. People and companies will take note of the advantages the new ways present (e.g. efficiencies of more remote tasking, improvements in inventory management, upsides of introversion).

  6. Shouldn’t we all be grabbing our towels at this point as well? Asking for a fellow traveler…

  7. Reading is Mindjoy Avatar
    Reading is Mindjoy

    So as always my mind went off on tangents. “Don’t Panic” or “Keep Calm” — which is better to tell people.? I tend to prefer keep calm, but I am not sure that yelling either one at a nervous crowd will work very well.

    And for those expecting this to change society, I say you underestimate societal inertia. Surely some of you remember the last toilet paper panic. Do you really believe this is the one that will change everything?

    Disposable gloves and face masks? Common in Hong Kong, but I doubt they will become common here. And while I agree that being prepared for a two week outage of services is a good thing, properly maintaining even a two week extra supply of food is a fair amount of work. So it is unlikely to catch on.

    Most likely, this will become yet another in the long line of seasonal flu variants. And remembered about as well.

  8. Kathleen Avatar
    Kathleen

    The opposite of panic is prepared. A lot of what you are seeing right now really is panic (my definition is running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off – a lot of unproductive activity). But a lot of people, myself included, like to keep a good stock of groceries in the pantry, and to ‘war-game’ potential problems, and try to be ready for those before they arrive. That’s being prepared, not panic. It pays off when you are out of work for a while or when you are laid up for a few weeks with a back injury, just as much as when there’s a bad ice storm, or a hurricane, or an earthquake. It doesn’t have to be ‘the end of the world as we know it’.

    Most people have several different kinds of insurance. That’s all ‘prepping’ is, it’s insurance. It’s a little more work than writing monthly checks for your car insurance, and your home-owner’s insurance, your medical insurance, and your life insurance. But it’s generally cheaper (unless you really go overboard), and it’s there when you need it. With prices going up, having a full pantry is at least as good as having money in the bank (though some money in the bank is good prepping, too).

    For those of us who are Christians, the Bible has a few things to say on this subject. Yes, we are most certainly supposed to trust God. But He says in Proverbs 22:3 “A prudent man foresees the evil, and hides himself: but the simple pass on, and perish.” In other words, when you see bad things coming, it’s your responsibility to do what you can to take care of yourself and your family.

    Proverbs 6:6-11 is about the ant, who prepares for the lean times (the parable is also discouraging laziness).

    The woman more valuable than rubies in Prov. 31 makes sure her household doesn’t go cold or hungry.

    Going to the New Testament, 1 Timothy 5:8 says, “But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.”

    Some Christians seem to have gotten the idea that it is a sin to be prepared, but it is, in fact, a sin NOT to be prepared, and able to take care of your family without handouts and donations. Yes, things happen, and people may lose their full pantry to a tornado, or be caught away from home, or their house burns down. It’s no sin to accept help when you truly need it. But to have your entire plan be to rely on handouts and the goodwill of others IS a sin. You don’t want to be one of those people who, when someone mentions the need to be prepared, says,”Oh, when X happens, I’ll just come to your house!” Or, after the hurricane, find yourself standing in line for water and ice from a charity organization. If you live where hurricanes hit, you should be prepared, because they happen fairly regularly! (Sorry – pet peeve of mine, because we see it every single time there is a hurricane!)

    If you are prepared, you are much less likely to panic. It’s that simple.

  9. Yet another manufactured crisis… Your post is dead on. Simple preparations, basic sanitation procedures, and calmness will win out in the end.

    1. Yep! I did shore up the pantry a bit, although it’s more to keep the Little Man busy with learning to make bread (and baked beans from scratch!). Also, given the level of insanity at the grocery stores, I felt the need to make sure I wouldn’t be caught if the panic lasts a few weeks rather than days. I have a full freezer, though. We’re good.

      The panic is going to be the biggest problem, though.

  10. No chocolate chip shortage here – I think heard a stocker complaining of the excess backstock of such, even,

  11. Celia Hayes Avatar
    Celia Hayes

    Here in South Texas, the Daughter Unit and I were following the news about this with some interest and concern – and we began quietly stocking up on otc flu and cold medications, sanitizer, bleach, paper towels when we did our usual first of the month stock-up. We have always kept a full freezer and pantry anyway, so we could easily do a couple of weeks, maybe longer of isolation. But it looks like most people didn’t even begin to consider the possibilities of home-quarantine until Friday morning…

    1. Here the precipitating factor was the schools being closed. Before that it was mostly the hand sanitizer, hand soap, and TP, and it was noticeable but not bad. After? Plagues of locusts leave more behind.

    2. Kathleen Avatar
      Kathleen

      Yeah, I saw the potential of what this could become back in January, and have been slowly but steadily getting ready ever since. I also keep a decent pantry most of the time, but mine was a little low because the house has been getting major work done, and I didn’t want to stock up on stuff that was just going to have to be shuffled around several times. When China locked Wuhan down, I said, stuff it. I’m stocking up again! I’m over sixty, and youngest daughter who lives with me has lupus. Neither of us needs to catch this crud. We have to make one more trip to town for three-month stock of daughter’s prescriptions, and then we are staying home for a while. Doing our part to flatten that curve!

      I expect we are going to be living with our gutted house for a while longer, but hey, we have power, hot and cold running water, and a roof that doesn’t leak! We’ll be fine!