Back to work

2/18/2020

I finally crashed yesterday. I have not been sleeping well while working on this project. Aside from all the disturbing news and images regarding covid-19, my chronic pain is through the roof. Even before this project the pain in my back and legs has been getting worse. The injury to my spine was years ago but after multiple surgeries it never healed properly. I have an auto immune disease the effects my joints and the fact is I am not 20 years old anymore! All the hours spent looking at a computer screen and bent over a keyboard are not helping either. Other than being woken up by pain for short periods of time, I slept for about 18 hours! But it's time to start a new day.

I decided to write in this journal before even taking a look at what I missed yesterday. Every day there has been more news and information and none of it has been good. I am especially concerned with the lack of briefing in the private healthcare sector. Most of the G.P. docs and nurses I have spoken too have not been told anything about the situation, let alone prepared to keep a look out for a local outbreak. I have been getting unverifiable reports that there are small outbreaks here in the US and truth be told, I would be shocked if I wasn't.

Millions of people left Wuhan alone in the days between the beginning of the outbreak and the sealing of the city on 1/27. The quarantine zone has expanded to cover 3/4 of a billion people but flights are still coming and going every day from the rest of China and other effected countries. It is definitely out in the wild in Japan, Malaysia, Cambodia and the UK. It is also certainly out in Hawaii after the couple returned to Japan from there and were diagnosed with the virus. They either got it there or brought it with them but either way it's there now. There is no hope of tracking everyone down and the authorities in Hawaii are not even bothering to try. They have put out a phone number for people to call if they start showing symptoms but that's about it. Who bloody well knows where all those people have gone!

Getting a full picture about this situation has not been easy. The media releases the information in tiny separate pieces without context. A person who does not have the time or skills to mine all the data and put it together would have no idea what the situation really is. The fact is that nothing about this is under control. We found out too late due to the secrecy from China. We might STILL not know if it were not for the sacrifice of the brave people in China who have given us information and warnings. I fear that other governments are making the same mistakes China has made.

All I can do is keep working with the others to do what we can and hope for the best. Maybe I will get a pleasant surprise when I log in today. Maybe there will be good news. I doubt it, but it could happen. Either way, it's time to finish my coffee and stop stalling. Time to get back to work.