Wear the Damn Helmet… Coronavirus Day 1

The other day, in a matter of 5 minutes I saw no less than 4 posts where WHO was calling the Coronavirus (COVID-19) a Pandemic. Okay, so what does that mean?

Epidemic – noun – a widespread occurrence of an infectious disease in a community at a particular time.

Pandemic – adjective – prevalent over a whole country or the world.

Okay, what does that mean though? We know this is prevalent in multiple countries. We know countries like Italy are on lockdown and the U.S. has put a ban on travel in and out of regions around the world. But 4 different places telling us it is a pandemic, do we need to panic now or something? That really didn’t tell us anything other than something we already knew, they just declared what we already knew. I’m still scratching my head.

Then all the contradicting information out there. No wonder people are so confused and scared. Every news site wants to have the latest and greatest to state on the topic. But they are all saying the same thing which is, we don’t know. Yes, they give you symptoms. Those symptoms don’t really seem much different than the flu. So how do you know if you have one or the other? Oh, because you were exposed to someone who had it. But again, how do you know unless someone flat out states it. And yes, they should stay home. But gosh.

Ron White and After 9-11

A few years after 9/11 Ron White was doing a performance (concert? gathering? what do you call it for a comedian?) in Tulsa. My parents and I went to see him. Obviously he is a comedian and trying to make people laugh, but there was a part he did that has always stayed with me. If you remember after 9/11, the heightened state of security went from yellow to orange to red and back again.

He said that his mom called him, Ron, they changed the heightened state from yellow to orange. Ron, what do I do? He joked and said, well heck I don’t know. Then he decided that they should have 2 “heightened states of security.” Find the damn helmet and put the damn helmet on. That way when his mom called him and asked him what to do, he can ask what they said. When she responded, “Put the Damn Helmet on,” he can say, “Mom, put the damn helmet on.”

Right now, I wish that’s what we knew. Yes, they are saying to stay away from crowds, etc and self-containment, but is that just for people who are affected? Or should everyone be on lockdown? There’s a lot of contradictory information… One thing you read or hear on tv says yes and the other says no. Yes to what or no to what, well, that’s a good question.

Washing your hands

The memes that came up after them telling you to wash your hands were quite entertaining. I particularly liked the one about how I was washing my hands before washing my hands was cool. Yes, there are a lot of funny memes out there. I even saw a funny picture of a friend of mine tp-ing a tree. Oh let’s not even get started on the memes of the toilet paper epidemic. Why just this morning I saw someone complaining that the toilet paper that was on the shelves was the expensive stuff. I had to giggle. I think at the point you need toilet paper, you shouldn’t be choosy. Just my opinion though.

Maybe I just give up. I’m so over this. I’m not sure if I should be scared, angry, holed up somewhere, maybe we should go off the grid. <Sigh.>

Wash your hands, get a helmet, and maybe, put on the damn helmet… just as a precautionary measure.