Koronawirus

It took less than two weeks to go from no known cases to Poland's decision to close their borders.  Here's a timeline, condensed to match the information I was aware of as it became available:

• 4 March- First confirmed case in Poland.
• 8 March- First case in Krakow (and still the only case in this city).
• 10 March- Total of 22 confirmed cases across the country.
• 12 March- Total count is 51 with one death. Polish Prime Minister closes down schools, kindergartens, and nurseries until at least 25 March. Theaters, cinemas, and museums are closed until further notice. Recommendations to the public to avoid public transportation. 
• 14 March- 68 known cases. All shops, other than grocery stores and places that sell personal hygiene products, are closed. Restaurants are not allowed to have eat-in customers, so only take-away and delivery food options are available. Pubs and clubs are shutdown. Any meetings or gatherings over 50 people must be canceled.
• 15 March- 104 cases and three deaths. Borders are closed. Polish citizens may return home but will be placed on a 14-day quarantine after crossing the border. The borders can only be crossed for the movement of goods. 

My personal concerns are following a similar trajectory as the graphs showing infection levels of the virus. Right now I am not panicking, although we are a little more stocked than normal on food and household goods. I'm not interacting with tons of people, but that is largely because of governmental and work-from-home mandates which facilitate "social distancing." Currently I feel pretty good about my own chances (I am after all a  young healthy person with a really good chance of recovery) but I'm trying to be more conscientious about other people's concerns. For the most part, I am trying to live as normally as possible, but I would really like these bell curves to plateau soon so that way I don't start working myself up to a panic. There is now a recovery count; of the 104 total cases in Poland 13 have recovered so far, so I think there is hope.

My natural inclination for experiencing a world-wide health-scare would be to think "I wish I was home." Home is the place where you go for attention and care when you are sick. There is a safety and comfort to home. But home (specifically Seattle or Las Cruces, but broadly speaking the full US) is not a safer place to be right now. Home is arguably a lot more dangerous. I feel safer under the quick-acting Polish government than I would in the United States.

I keep seeing posts on Facebook and stories from my parents and former coworkers about American's reactions. Most notably, the craze to buy toilet paper and hand sanitizer. Polish citizens seem to act far more practically. Yes, there are certain shelves at the stores that are getting more attention than normal (mostly pasta, crackers, and other durable foods) but no one is going on crazed shopping rampages and the stores don't feel any more crowded than normal. There are noticeable increases in safety. For example, all of the self-service pastries and breads are pre-wrapped, all of the cashiers are wearing gloves, and shoppers are asked to stand 1meter apart in the check-out lines. The restaurants that are open are asking customers to wait outside while their take-home orders are being prepared. More people are wearing smog masks, even on the good air quality days. 

Maybe Krakow is an anomaly compared to the rest of Poland; I don't know since I haven't spent time anywhere else in the last week. Since Krakow only has one case, and that individual went into immediate quarantine after returning from Italy where he contracted it, some people believe there may not be any spread in Krakow. That's probably unlikely given the number of tourists that pass in and out of the city, but we'll see. Regardless, I get the sense that everyone trusts that the government is making good decisions and will continue to do its best to protect its citizens. The quick enactment of protective protocols is one example. Early in the week everyone got pamphlets in the mail about ways to protect yourself and what to do if you think you might be sick. Bus doors now open at ever stop so that way people don't have to touch a communal button to get on/off the bus. If you have a child under 8 and need to stay at home because daycare services aren't available, you will continue to get 80% of your pay. 

Cameron and I both have jobs where its easy to work from home, so we will continue to work full time for the next few weeks. In general, I think auditors are pretty flexible about our workplace, so I don't expect this will be seen as an inconvenience. Cameron's coworkers, however, are struggling! You would think that a bunch of computer geeks would prefer the anti-social nature of being holed-up at home, but it seems to be quite the opposite. Many of them have kids that are distracting, they don't have their fancy monitors and keyboards, but it seems the biggest anguish is missing out on "tribal coffee" (Cameron's words, not mine). 

At around 11:30 yesterday Cameron told me he was going to be on a call. I didn't realize that "call" was a social video chat that would last for an hour and a half with a rotating mix of coworkers. I even got pulled into conversation for a little bit and I got to virtually meet a baby, a toddler, and a cat (from three different coworkers). It almost was like the grown-up version of show-and-tell. 

My prediction is that once this is all over, a few of our habits will have permanently changed. Companies' willingness to let people work from home will probably go up (assuming people get used to the workday isolation after a few weeks of this). I'm guessing our improved hand washing skills will stick with us. I bet people are going to get more used to cooking at home every day once they get used to not relying on the convenience of restaurants. Handshaking might become a thing of the past. I know we have a lot more Coronavirus contractions and deaths to get through, but I'm remaining hopeful that this will taper off relatively soon. 

A friend sent this meme to me and I laughed unreasonably hard at it. 

Social distancing at the grocery store- tape marks the floor where customers are asked to stand one meter apart.

I had to pop into the office and I was the only one.

Government-mailed pamphlets on how to stay safe.

Many stores in town have signs explaining that they will be closed indefinitely.

There weren't many people out yesterday. We think most of them were tourists making their way to the train station so they could get home before the travel ban went into effect at midnight.