In the midst of suburban dystopia 🌒😷, this afternoon I ventured out in search of foam balls and crafty bits for my 11-year-old’s science project (due tomorrow, of course, presumably the key learning objective being to build a miniature model galaxy solution for where-TF we humans go when COVID-19 panic compounds 😷🤯 – and earth completely stops spinning on its axis.).
My parent-of-the-year generosity of material provision 🥇 was because I also figured the 11-year-old might be at home now for a while if schools close (so go bloody nuts with your project and take it to the next level, baby ‘cos – full disclosure – home-schooling ain’t gonna happen in this house in the education interim …)
The cashier who served me as I handled and then handed over the coveted balls was decked out in an over-sized mask 😷 and surgical gloves 🙌🏽, with a 2-litre super-sized hand sanitiser pump at the ready. 💥
She barely graced me with her eyeballs during the purchase, then wiped the EFTPOS machine with a disinfectant cloth once I’d tapped to go. 👀
Me, the presumed germ-riddled host, then hasted out into the street where, ahead of me, a man coughed. 😱
The pariah. 😱 Public panic. 😬 People dispersed. ⬅️➡️
Black Mirror is here. ⚫️ This is real life.
Excuse me for a minute, but what the serious F is going on?
Where did common sense go?
How quickly do we descend from order to chaos?
How can a black swan so swiftly sail into the global psyche and make us all freak the F out?
I’m not battening down the hatches. I’m BAU.
That is, staying rational, keeping calm and taking my business, social, behavioural (and shopping 🚽) cues off fact, not fiction – or fabrication.
Across the world there’ve been 126,483 confirmed coronavirus cases (80,796 of these in China).
Of the global total, 4636 people have died – but 68,314 have recovered.
Back home, there are currently 21 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Victoria, 8 of whom have recovered, of a total population of 6,594,804.
Do the numbers.
Do what makes good common sense to suppress transmission – but only relative to the tiny percentage spread of this virus, with a very low mortality rate.
Viruses are contagious, but so is fear, hysteria, kindness and calm.
Choose wisely. 🙏🏼