One View of the Pandemic, One Year Later: Part 2

It's mid February, 2020. I have a business meeting over a drink at nice Napa Valley bar and grill. There's no way of knowing that such simple pleasures will soon become off limits for more than a year.  

At the theatre my biggest worry is the new law, AB5, that is going to turn community theatre financials upside down. But our rehearsal room is busy with dance classes and vocal lessons, and two new projects are underway - rehearsal for Sweeney Todd, and a theatre arts unit for a local elementary school that will wrap up in three weeks, on March 10th. That turns out to be a significant date.  

On the weekend, I catch a show in Rohnert Park and see my granddaughter perform in Sacramento. We sit shoulder to shoulder and there's lots of hugging like always around theatres. We go out for food, naturally. There are no hand sanitizer stations, no markings on the floor six feet apart, no one wears a mask because it still seems the thing can be contained. Or it's like earlier scares - SARS, MERS, Bird Flu, Swine Flu - big media overreaction and it turns out as no big deal. 

In the news we are still calling it "the novel coronavirus." It's been swirling around us in the Bay Area for a month, minimum. It's been two weeks since the WHO has called it a public health emergency of international concern. Later we learn what is being discussed in the "Red Dawn" e-mails, circulating to infectious disease experts. Wikipedia, quoting the New York Times, says:

By the third week of February, the group had "effectively concluded that the United States had already lost the fight to contain the virus, and that it needed to switch to mitigation" such as NPI's (non pharmaceutical interventions like lockdowns). This was based on the "realization that many people in the country were likely infected and capable of spreading the disease, but not showing any symptoms."

It's known that the disease is passing from person to person, and there are already warnings about medical equipment and supply shortages. Congress allots money but there have no efforts to enact any kind of plan in the US, other than travel restrictions. Hindsight tells us this was closing the barn door after the horse was gone. 

It's the last week of February, one week until Super Tuesday. Bernie Sanders has the lead in the delegate count for the Democratic nomination. The next week will be busy with election night coverage at the radio station, rehearsals, teaching projects, production meeting, and time set aside for the Manchester Derby. 

As February ends there are many more reasons to worry than we know. Within two weeks much will be revealed.