Monday, I went out on a shopping trip and entered several different stores. No employee in the small shops was wearing a mask, and that included the vacuum cleaner store, the rifle & tackle shop, and the gas station.
People did wear masks at the bank, the grocery, Petco, the pharmacy, hardware, and our local one man fish store.
Nobody bothered to look at me to see if I was sick or to take my temperature or anything like that. Normally you would have to stand in line 6 feet apart to get into stores but I go when there’s no line (being retired) and rarely is there more than one person in front of me.
Hello; This experience parallels what I have been seeing for months. Since this infection triggered lockdowns I have been reducing my trips to places, only going for needed things. No fun run around trips. Even though my trips are reduced I have yet to make one where every one I saw was taking precautions. It may be a bit worse now but not by much. I see way too many noses even when people
are wearing a mask have a mask in the vicinity of their face. One guy last week had his mask hanging on the side of his face by one loop on his ear.
Keep in mind I am normally a glass is half empty sort of personality. However I do see some positive aspects to this general lack of precautions, especially when added to the way facts about the virus appear to be adding up. We have some general ways to see the end of this pandemic.
So far only the natural course is available to us, which is the virus works it's way thru the population. The impact of this could be much worse except that the virus is turning out to be more mild than first feared.
(Note - I do not lose sight of the fact many people have died from the infection. I do not lose sight that old guys like myself are still at greater risk of serious illness and death. Milder only in that it is much less deadly than earlier feared by comparison.)
We now know a large portion of folks who have the infection have such mild symptoms so as to not even be aware of being infected. The asymptomatic rate last I heard appears to be approaching at least 40%. The tease for this development hinges on if the asymptomatic actually make a strong immune reaction with antibodies. If they have good antibodies they will not be a vector for the disease and will add to the "herd immunity" we so very much need. Another thing I have heard, but am not sure it is fact yet, is the asymptomatic do not shed virus the way those ill with symptoms do.
While the virus is indeed deadly for old guys like me and for some younger folks with compromised health in other ways, it is turning out to be less deadly than earlier feared. I still have to be careful due to my age but the majority are at much better odds of good survival even if they get infected and become ill. This news is of little benefit for me and the other compromised people, but serves most well.
Yeah I get it. No one wants to be sick at all, but since we do not yet have a cure nor a vaccine then having good odds for recovery ought to be in some ways a positive. Maybe???
I either had a mild case of the virus back around Feb or still have it to face. If I indeed did have it I now hope for a good reliable antibody test at some point so I will know and can get back to a more normal life. If not, then I have successfully avoided it up to this time. There is some good news for those who have delayed becoming infected. There are better understood treatments that should help us when we do become infected. The medical people have been and continue to learn about what to do.
I get there are reported to be spikes of newly confirmed cases the last days or weeks. Not sure what to make of this yet as there is a lot of static and conflicting opinions about what is going on. Same for what appears to be a stable death rate. Too many opinions and conflicting information about both the recent spikes and the death rate right now. Best to leave these alone for a while.
Anyway there are now treatments that can help those who become ill with the virus. A promising drug and blood plasma treatment among a general better understanding. So if I get it now I guess I have a better chance to come out well.
This next way of looking at the spread of the virus is much harder to make into a positive. Even so I can see a glimmer of positive about the constantly increasing number of confirmed cases. Until we have a vaccine or some such the virus will continue to spread. As more and more folks survive exposure to the virus then the odds change for the rest of the not yet infected. (Here is where a condolence comment needs to be inserted. It is a tragedy when any individual succumbs to this illness and such is not lost to me.) When I go out and about today my odds of running into an infected person are going to be different than just a few weeks ago.
Better odds or worse odds will much depend on where we happen to be. For example I live in a rural area where the number of confirmed cases has remained fairly low. My personal odds may not be much better now than earlier. Folks in the more populated urban areas may well have better odds now than the recent past.
Let me point out the flaw in this before the sharp eyed beat me to it. It is very likely still too early in the pandemic to take much hope. Probably still way too few recovered with antibodies to make much difference. Too many of us still able to become infected. I get this. However that is the natural way for an outbreak to slow down and eventually fade away to very few new cases.
The last thing I will mention is that some number of folks simply do not become infected/ill even when exposed to a new illness. Sometimes the reason has become known. Smallpox come to mind. Back in the day when people milked cows by hand there was a mild disease which I think was called "cowpox". This is a decades old memory so forgive me if I blunder. Turned out people (milkmaids) who had had cowpox did not get smallpox. This was noted and led to an early vaccine if memory serves. Dr. Edward Jenner I think. Regardless much of the time some number of people do not get a new illness. Sad thing is we have no way to tell ahead of time which individuals are for some reason not going to catch a new disease. Enough from me.
