Life in the Pandemic

 My university has been in session for a week; the kid's university starts on Monday. All of his classes are what we're calling "remote delivery," which basically means online. So his chances of catching Covid-19 are lessened.

Dr. Skull also goes back to work on Monday. This, I am less sanguine about. Our public schools are all meeting f2f. We've had over 200 teachers* resign in our school district rather than risk catching the virus, so there's lots of work for substitute teachers. And he plans to wear his mask. And we desperately need the money.

AND YET.

I'm resting my hopes on him having caught Covid-19 when I had it, back in May (if I did have it, which was never confirmed), and thus being immune now.

Capitalism. 

You have to open the schools, even if it's going to put lives at risk, because how else can parents go to work, and you can't pay people to stay home, because if you did that, people wouldn't take shit jobs just to stay alive, and of course they don't have enough money saved to stay home on their own, because they've been paid shit wages all their lives.

So people are going to get sick, and then of course you can't pay for their medical care, because how else would health care executives be able to afford six vacations a year and three houses? Not to mention that private plane! So people are going to be saddled with immense medical debt, which means they'll have to take the shitty jobs at the shitty pay being offered. What a system!

*Obviously resigning is not an option for most teachers. No unemployment if you quit, so you can't quit unless you have someone who can support you. For teachers with wealthy partners, or those old enough to start drawing retirement, it's an option. Not for most people.

Books Ordering Accomplished

It is accomplished.

I have put all the books in order. Some of them were duplicate copies, bought by Dr. Skull when he couldn't find the copy we already have. Having the books in order should put a stop to that, at least.

I also weeded out three more boxes to donate to the library, when it re-opens.

The library home page used to tell us they would open two weeks from whatever date it currently was. Now they're saying "closed until further notice."

Luckily they're still letting us do curbside pickups. I can't afford to buy as many books as I'm reading, and also where would we put them? Even weeding out the excess books, our shelves are still crammed full.

Money Money Money

Yesterday our stimulus check finally arrived. Since it arrived after the banks closed, we can't put it in until Monday, but that's okay. Dr. Skull's unemployment money means we're not hard up at the moment anyway.

Still, I'm relieved to have it.

The kid, as it turns out, will not get stimulus money. He's still on our tax returns as a dependent, so he can't get his own check; and he's too old to qualify for the $500/credit. So that kind of sucks.

Meanwhile, everyone here is still well. The kid has a friend whose father, a man in his 40s, got the virus, and is now in the hospital with blood clots. And one of my colleagues at the university (no one I know) has it. That's as close as it has come to us so far.

The weather continues to be amazing. Highs around 70 every day, lows in the 50s, sunny and breezy. We keep the French doors and windows open all day long. And on our walks down by the river we're seeing all sorts of birds, including a black bird with white on its wings and back. IDK what bird this is -- I'd think it was this guy, but the range is wrong. In any case, it flies in flocks, and is very lovely in flight.

Also, I think I've identified the purple flower that is blooming all over the walking park at the moment, thanks to this site. I think it's cow vetch, which is an invasive species. But very pretty!



How's things where all y'all are?

Yep

The venn diagram of "zygotes have rights" people and "fuck your grandma, she's gonna die anyway" people is one big sociopathic circle

— Jessica Valenti (@JessicaValenti) May 6, 2020

I mean, we always knew that "pro-life" people had absolutely no interest in "saving babies." They were always in this in order to create more low-wage workers and keep women disempowered.

There's been some bitter satisfaction in watching them reveal this truth to the entire world, though.

I Mean, It's Just Your Death

I have been lurking on the pages of MAGA Americans, a practice I am now putting a moratorium on, because it is just too depressing.

But meanwhile I have learned that they currently hold the following positions:

(1) The virus is real, but the pandemic is propaganda

I've heard some version of this phrase maybe 15 times now, so I suspect it's something that got said on either Faux News or Rush's charming show. This claims says that sure, Covid-19 exists, but hardly anyone is actually dying from it.

What about the seventy thousand dead in America so far, and the 258 thousand worldwide? FAKE NEWS, they screech. Those people are actually dying of heart attacks, or car accidents, see, and then their doctors are all lying about it.

Why would they lie about it? Because if someone dies of Covid-19, the hospitals get $$$ in the form of grants. So clearly they're just inflating the numbers of dead.

A vast medical conspiracy, stretching world-wide, so that US hospitals can bilk the US government. What genius!


(2) Sure, people are dying, but everyone dies. You can't destroy an economy just to keep people from dying!

I mean, you can sure destroy people's right to control their own bodies to protect the life of a zygote; and you can destroy the lives of 100,000 Iraqi citizens because Saudi Arabian terrorists killed 3000 Americans; and it's fine to murder some guy who was jogging aggressively because you're "defending yourself."

But taking precautions to protect the lives of the couple hundred thousand people who will likely die from this virus? Psh, pointless. They'll just die anyway.

(3) Forcing people to stay home, wear masks, or avoid large gatherings is tyranny. 

In fact, it's pretty much exactly what the Nazis did to the Jews. And if we do what those Jews did -- just go along with it!! -- then we'll end up in death camps just like they did.

(An actual argument I've seen two different MAGA Americans make so far.)

An alternate to this claim is that "the government" is using this virus to destroy "your" civil rights.

Which government? Federal? State? Local? The evidence for how "your" civil rights are being abrogated is that some stores and parks are closed, and some places are requiring face masks. All this is mainly being done by local city governments, though also by some state governments. But their argument is that the Constitution gives them the right to shop wherever and whenever they please, and also they don't have to wear masks, and also the masks don't work anyway.

Also, wearing a mask and socially distancing is just "living in fear," which none of this yabbos do. That's why they own so many guns. Because they're not afraid.


(4) The virus was "micro-engineered" in secret labs as a bio-weapon. Also, it was set loose upon the USA so that vaccine manufacturers could make money.

First, no it wasn't. 

Second of all, oh my God.

Also, by the way, you'll be interested to hear that the vaccine is just a plot to microchip American citizens.

(5) The pandemic is just another witch-hunt aimed at destroying Trump.

In the movie Contagion my favorite line is when Military Intelligence asks the scientist if someone might have weaponized bird flu, and the scientist gives him an exasperated look. "We don't have to weaponize bird flu," the scientist says. "The birds are doing that on their own."

We don't have to destroy Trump. He's doing that just fine on his own.


(6) We have to open the economy to save the economy. People die just as dead of starvation as they do from a virus!

On the surface, this almost seems logical. But it's a false dilemma. It's possible to save the economy while still practicing social distancing and basic hygiene.

Also, the idea seems to be either that we "save" the economy, or people die of the virus. Which, no. If we get rid of social distancing, we also increase the spread of the virus. Then instead of a hundred thousand dead (the low-ball estimate at the moment) we get a couple million dead.

You want to see a damaged economy, kill off a couple million Americans -- most of whom need medical care while they die -- in the space of a few months.


(7) Social distancing is the wrong solution! We need to develop herd immunity and we can't do that except by letting people catch the virus. 

People who parrot this one have no idea what herd immunity is.

Also, their corollary is almost always that "only" sick and old people will die from it. Also not true, and besides which, wow.

FINALLY

Dr. Skull finally got his unemployment benefits -- four weeks in one payment.

Such a relief.

Normally unemployment here is 40% of your base pay. But now it's 40% plus that six hundred, so this is actually a useful amount.

From My Student

I have an immunocompromised student, Hannah. She survived a heart transplant at age thirteen, but as most of us know, getting an organ transplant is just the beginning of surviving.

I asked her to write a guest post for this blog, which she very kindly did:

On April 30, 2011 I received my transplant. I was thirteen at the time, and I did not understand everything. My doctors explained everything in detail for me and did an amazing job, but being so young, it didn't make sense. An example, I cannot have kids. Well, my own that is. I can conceive a child but cannot carry a pregnancy for more than a trimester, if even a month. This is due to my medication which harms the baby and suppresses my immune system.

Which is where I would like to focus on next. I know many are tired of hearing about and discussing COVID-19, some of you may be following the Stay at Home order, the social distancing, and all that jazz. Good for you! Gold star, A for effort, whatever. I want to focus on those who are not. The ones who say "Well it's not that bad the news/CDC is making it out to be. It's my right and my choice if I want to go to the store every day, talk to every person I see, and I'm not following those guidelines! I can't stay at home for more than a few hours, I'm going crazy!"

Now, I understand, trust me I do. But it's not about you and being bored in your house. It's about saving lives, about keeping exposures at a minimum, keeping your family safe. Yes, going to the store for groceries is essential and important. As well as going to work, if you were able to keep your job.

Now, think back to the introduction. Remember how I stated I can't have my own kids because of my medicine. I stated that my medicine suppresses my immune system. Do you know what that means? A 24 hour stomach bug lasts a week for me. It can kill me. Strep throat can kill me. The common cold and flu will kill me. Whenever flu season rolls around, I have to wear a mask and gloves at school. Sometimes, I have to move completely online instead of being on campus for that semester. My job (which I am unemployed from due to my health and safety) has to make accommodations around me. I have to stay in the back all day, meaning no interactions with customers or coworkers. Right now, I cannot go back to my job until COVID either blows over, calms down, or there's a cure.

For my final point, this is difficult for me to explain and talk about in a serious manner. I like to joke and make light of dark subjects, dark humor. Especially when it comes to my death and near death experiences. "Wait, how can you be alive if you died?" Long story short, once I did crash and had to be shocked back. The second is when they took my old heart out and put my current one in. My near death experience happened in the fall of 2018. I had just started at the university. I didn't know anyone, and didn't know how to explain the situation to my new fellow students and instructors. Thankfully everyone there is very understanding and was happy to work with me if the time came.

Sadly, it did. My mother, friend and I were at a check-up clinic visit in Arkansas Children's Hospital, North Little Rock. Everyone is laughing, we're all having a great time. Until my doctor comes in. (I won't give out names out of respect and privacy.) My doctor tells my mother and friend to leave the room. They asks me if I've been around anyone sick, how bad the flu is where I'm from, if I've been taking my medicine, standard stuff. After going through the process and answering questions, he tells me I am in rejection. Meaning, my body, antibodies, were attacking my heart, essentially killing me. My heart wasn't pumping fast enough, and I could die in the next few days, or even hours. Shock was obviously in my system, because all I could say was "I''m supposed to go wedding dress shopping this weekend."

That's right dear reader, my wedding plans were put on hold until I made it out, if I even made it. I asked for them to not tell my mother or my friend, and I needed to make a few phone calls. So I lost my job then too, in November of 2018. After doing so, my mother and friend come in, and my doctor tells them what is going on since I was a blubbering and sobbing wreck. I had to move completely online for that semester and the spring of 2019. Luckily my professors went into the immediate "Ok, whatever we can do for you we are going to do. Don't worry about any assignments coming up, you are excused from them. Just rest and feel better."

Which is exactly what I did. Luckily my treatment was just to pump me full of steroids and wait. If that did not work, I would need a new transplant. Now you may be going "Ok, but how does this apply to me? Why should your story matter to me? How is this important or relevant?"

This is how. This is temporary for you. This stay at home, social distancing, etc., that is all temporary for you. For myself and other immune-suppressed people, this will be our lives from here on out. We can't do things others can. I cannot have kids, I cannot do things other normal women can. Such as swimming, if it's not a pool, it's not happening. If there's a virus outbreak, I have to stay home and not interact with the public. I can't even see my own family right now. I. Can't. Even. See. My. Family. I had to rush my own wedding because of COVID. My near death put it on hold, and the pandemic had to rush it.

Life's not fair, we can all agree to that. But at least you can live your life when things go back to normal. I will never be able to go back to normal, not after 2011.

*** *** ***

I've edited out some identifying information, though I suspect everyone who works in my department knows exactly who I'm talking about. She's smart and tough and someone we all love working with -- one of my best students.

Her identity isn't the point, though. This is who people are talking about when they say "only" people with other problems will die from Covid-19, so no big deal. (I've actually seen protesters claiming that "only the weak" will die, because apparently for some people eugenics is cool again.)

Anyone who is whining about how they're being "oppressed" because they have to practice social distancing right now, that's the message you're sending, to my student and to everyone else: Some lives don't matter.

Or at least they don't matter enough for you to suffer a tiny amount of social inconvenience.

Give me Liberty, so long as it's only Your Death We're talking about

Babushka Cat

How we're occupying ourselves during the lock down:

What I'm Doing In the Pandemic

Writing a lot.

Reading SO MUCH.

Cooking actual meals.

Still putting our books in order.

Studying French with Duolingo.

Thinking of learning to knit.

Walking with the dog and the kid.

Thinking of shaving my head.

Watching more YouTube than usual.

Also finishing the semester -- so many papers!

Cat Pictures

My cats, not fighting for once:

Cats on the Porch

I finally got a picture of my cats on the little porch, their favorite place to be when the French doors are open.

The Dangers of Normalizing Ignorance

Not gonna lie, when I saw Trump say this during his press conference, I wasn't even going to talk about it. "Trump says something ignorant" is hardly news. It's our normal state, at this point.



And of course everyone on Twitter and FB was already screaming and building memes, so it's not like Trump's ignorant ranting needed more commentary.

But then I saw that people on the Right were defending the statement.

"Inject disinfectant," Trump says, and the Far-Right finds a way to defend it.

At no time did Trump actually propose injecting patients with disinfectant; he deferred to “medical doctors” to figure out how to apply Dr. Bryant’s research.

I mean, who are you going to believe, these boot-lickers or your lying eyes?

This is what happens, obviously, when you accept authority blindly -- when you are trained to do that from childhood, and punished for asking questions and raising objections.

It's also what happens when you lack the ability to discern a credible source from a piece of propaganda.

And that's how we end up with fifty thousand Americans dead -- at least, and so far.


UPDATE: Oh my God

Trump says his comments on disinfectant inside people’s bodies was sarcastic pic.twitter.com/t7bPUAUU0u

— Jeff Mason (@jeffmason1) April 24, 2020

My Stimulus Check

So, since we didn't get a refund in 2018 (or 2019, but never mind) we'll be getting a paper check.

When?

The schedule is set up wisely -- the people who make less money get theirs first. But this means we don't get ours for quite some time.

There's a way you can enter your account number if you want direct deposit, but ours has already been processed, so we can't do that.

Dr. Skull still hasn't gotten an unemployment check. If he starts getting those soon, we should be okay. Otherwise, fuck if I know.

Another Beautiful Day in the Fort

I'm still having intermittent symptoms -- stabbing pains in my lower gut, mostly, along with queasiness and no appetite at all.

But no fever, no coughing, and no more body aches. So I'm going to call this one as "Not the rona."

Meanwhile it is another beautiful day here in the Fort. Maybe we can have a walk on the riverside trail this evening, if the kid ever wakes up. (He has taken to sleeping until mid-afternoon, unless he has a class, and why not?)

The little cat has taken to sleeping in the dog's cage (the crate we lock him in when we leave him alone in the house). The dog is bemused by this.

I am up to the L's in my quest to put all the books in the house in alphabetical order. Except the cook books. And Dr. Skull's music books. And the anthologies. Also I'm probably going to put the history books in a different section.

We have too many books. (Whenever I say this, Dr. Skull pretends confusion. "What's that? What language are you speaking? I don't understand!")

Not only have we not gotten our stimulus money, we have yet to receive the first of Dr. Skull's unemployment checks. Things are getting mighty tight here at the delagar household.

From the Nib:

New from @kendrawcandraw: We're all socialists in a crisis: https://t.co/Y03mLDiqfu pic.twitter.com/VJ2RvNMxk1

— The Nib ✒️ (@thenib) March 20, 2020

Pandemic Fiction

Among all the other books I've been reading over the past weeks, I've also been reading and re-reading heaps of pandemic novels. This appalls the kid -- why would I want to read about what I can watch happening in real time?

I can't say why, but I find it comforting.

In case you do as well, here are some titles featuring pandemics:

Naomi Kritzer, "So Much Cooking"

(Here's the essay Kritzer recently wrote, about seeing your story come true)

Connie Willis, The Doomsday Book

Meg Elison, The Book of the Unnamed Midwife

Mike Conner, Archangel

Emily St. John Mandel, Station Eleven

Cecelia Holland, The Lords of Vaumartin

Geraldine Brooks, Year of Wonders 

Laura Kasischke, In a Perfect World

Stephen King, The Stand

Sarah Pinsker, A Song for a New Day

Daniel DeFoe, Journal of the Plague Year

George Stewart, The Earth Abides

Pat Frank, Alas, Babylon (Not a pandemic, but hits the same buttons for me)

Frank Herbert, The White Plague

Virginia Bergin, Who Runs the World?

Joanna Russ, The Female Man (Plague occurred eight centuries earlier)

Also worth reading

New Recipe

Here's my recipe for a Dutch Baby pancake.

The kid has made me make this for breakfast every day for the past week, so apparently it's good pandemic food.

Spring in the Fort

Spring is emerging, despite the pandemic. Our yard at the new house is filled with violets, not to mention some sort of flower that is kind of like an iris? Purple and very pretty.

Hold on, let me google that.

Spiderwort

It's spiderwort, according to this site, and an invasive species. Well, still very pretty. I have daffodils, but they did not bloom.

The tree I have not identified in my yard -- it has a small round dark red/brown fruit with a hard pit -- was briefly covered with tiny white flowers. Now it is leafing out in brilliant new green. All the other trees are likewise sprouting new leaves. The colors are all very Easter-appropriate.

Meanwhile I am feeling much better after my root canal. I can even eat again!

The town is dead quiet. We had to take a flat tire in to get mended, and we were the only one at the tire shop. A local shop, Darrell's. Plenty of automotive repair guys were around, so I'm guessing the boss is keeping them employed; but the lot and the bays were empty.

We had to get the tire fixed because I ran over an abutment coming back from my root canal yesterday. In retrospect, I probably shouldn't have been driving.

Everyone here is still well. How's everyone on your end?

What Do You Have to Lose?

Trump's going to start touting forsythia next.



More here.

Key section is several paragraphs in, where the high "success" rate of Trump's snake oil drug is explained -- those doing the study only included people who were cured in the study. Not cured by the drug, necessarily -- just people who got better, as most people who contract Covid-19 do get better.

It's like the person who stepped outside their house every morning and shook their anti-tiger charm in every direction. Hey, they never got tigers, right? So the charm must be 100% effective!

What have you got to lose?

What Are We Doing at the End of the World?

My kid is having a hard time doing school work because, as he puts it, the world is ending.

I can relate. I'm having a hard time finishing my stupid novel (I have literally one scene left to write and I cannot write it), though the good news, I guess, is that I'm well up on my academic work because I use that as a way to kill time while I'm not writing the stupid novel.

We're also cooking a lot here. I am hunting for the perfect hush puppy recipe, and meanwhile cooking all the old favorites -- tuna casserole, chicken enchiladas, pancakes, stir fry, bagels, banana pudding, Dutch babies... every now and then the kid will say remember X? Remember how you used to cook X? Could we have X?



So I make X.

If you haven't read Naomi Kritzer's "So Much Cooking," now is the perfect time. It's about a woman running a food blog during a pandemic. Both wonderful and apropos.

I'm also reading so much. The public library letting us do curb-side pickups is keeping me in books, at least so far. I just started Emily St. John Mandel's new book, The Glass Hotel, which would normally be a seven-day book but which, thanks to the quarantine, I can apparently keep indefinitely. (In actual fact, though the return date on all my books is "whenevs," I can only have 25 out at a time, so I have to bring some back to get new ones.)

Emily St. John Mandel wrote Station Eleven, an excellent book about a pandemic and the world after the pandemic. I should do a post strictly on pandemic books.

I'm also listening to podcasts, which I never did before. My main ones are NPR's Science Friday and the BBC's book club. I listen at night, while I'm too tired to do anything else, and do jigsaw puzzled at the same time.

Long walks with the dog and the kid help keep me sane. The parks here are still open, and everyone keeps their distance. Also sometimes I just walk the neighborhood, though we don't have sidewalks, which given how busy some of the streets are around here (even now) makes that less enjoyable than it might be.

Also I sleep very late, though not as late as the kid does.

Also it's almost Passover. Even though we won't be able to have our usual tableful of guests -- our favorite part of Passover -- we're still looking forward to it, and getting ready for it. Dr. Skull is making chicken soup for the matzo ball soup, and we're planning the menu -- chicken and asparagus so far, plus a KFP cake which Dr. Skull has promised he will make.

What are all y'all doing?

Pandemic Update

According to the CDC, there are now 277, 205 cases in the USA, with 6, 593 deaths. UPDATE: Over 300, 000 cases as of 6:00 p.m.; over 8000 deaths.

That doesn't count the cases (like that of one of my co-workers) who have almost certainly got the disease, but who have not been tested, because we don't have enough tests; or the very mild cases which are being treated at home, and again not tested (because no tests).

A month ago we had 98 cases in the USA, just for comparison. A week ago we had 68, 440 cases.

And yet: we still have Covid-Denialists spreading lies and ignorance, and plenty of those who are determined to believe the lies.

Also, I see our incompetent president is, once again, pushing quack cures. I expect him to start touting forsythia as a treatment any moment.

(Here's an anecdote to ignorance, or at least a palate cleanser.)

Oh, and Rod takes a break from his attempts to be sane to screech about how persecuted Christians are, one more time.

Here in the delagar household, we're doing okay. No one is sick yet, everyone is keeping themselves engaged, almost all the work is getting done. I still hate on-line teaching, but I'm getting a little better at it.