2/21/2020
Cover Up
While the learning curve for some
health workers to consistently and correctly use protective personal equipment
(PPE) was high in one nursing home I worked in, it was not a high bar for Dr.
Kentaro Iwata whose specialty is infectious diseases and control. In a YouTube
video he spoke of his alarm at the breaches of infection controls or lack of
them on the Diamond Princess Cruise Ship. I lump together cruise ships, airplanes,
nursing homes, high rise apartment buildings, dormitories, prisons, military barracks
and similar places as playgrounds for germs and viruses. I got up from my cushion
where I sat as the thought of a cruise ship turned on its bow. There it was a
high rise docked in the bay. Dr. Iwata said that appointed officials seemed to
be in charge of quarantine on the ship instead of health care professionals.
This did not surprise me as we have seen the global trend to place administrators
and political appointees in positions above the actual practitioners. This is
across the board in all professional fields. Health, Science, Economics,
Environmental Action etc.
Expensive Teatime
For a long time, I questioned why
it is necessary for anyone with a few hundred dollars in their pockets to plunk
down the cash to fly, fly, fly, away to exotic places, to stomp through them
and oh and ah. Well if that’s your cup of tea then have at it. According to PBS
“In China, travel restrictions and quarantines have decreased carbon emissions
by 100 metric tons over the past two weeks”. I was once asked did I ever want to go to
China. That time came and went with the Tiananmen Square Democracy movement and
the clampdown on Americans traveling there for five years afterword. I said to
my questioner, “China does not need my ass there, they have too many people
already. Do they need me there too?” I prefer my ass to be sitting zazen. From
that position I can travel anywhere. The point is to be here not there. But you
know, the mind does wander. It needs to have safety valves like a faraway
place, time, emotion, people, things and nothing but a breath. Teatime.
What about all the people on this
planet? I attended a recent seminar taught by esteemed experts on the climate
crisis. I realized afterword that the reality of overpopulation was not brought
to the table. Is this reality not in vogue anymore? Don’t we need to talk about
it? Is it not trending? Is it considered taboo to bring it up? Isn’t overpopulation
still an issue?
Not One but Two
Overpopulation is back in the
limelight. When cities have 20 million people, they need to eat. Why can’t China
which produces field hospitals in ten days produce enough protein foods, so
their people don’t need to cling to medieval eating habits holding on to
magical meat from hillside warrens brought into town? The issues of people, food, behavior and public
health are always in my face. Public health is a global reality. I know that the
restaurants in Chinatown are empty. Is that really a racist response or is it
one that is more about resilience? Look deeper. People are worried about their families and
each other. Chinatown is mostly a tourist haven. It is also my home base. Not eating
in Chinatown because one is afraid of getting sick either from the annual flu
or COVID-19 which has a complicated trajectory and defaming Chinese people are
not one but two things. On Tuesday my husband and I took the M9 bus which winds
its way through Chinatown to get out of the apartment on a bright day. Our
destination was Battery Park (formerly a land fill). People on the streets were not tourists, they
live in the community. Most of them do not work in the restaurants or own them.
Every now and then there is brought forward the idea that perhaps tourism has
been overdone. Trust me, it is. We can do with less tourists in my opinion.
Notice I said less.
Risky Business
Mass migration of people for
specific holidays is always a flashpoint for possible disease. Yet every time
these viruses erupt in specific population the idea of some “ism” is brought
up. We can be more nuanced than that. To disparage others is hateful in
response to someone’s personhood. But a lot of Chinese people are staying out
of restaurants too. Are they racist or do they care about public health? Did
China close restaurants because they hate money and commerce? I think we know
the answer to that.
In New York State, according to
the American Hospital Directory there are approximately 60,000 beds. Because
COVID-19 is endemic and evolving there is a subclinical infected aspect to the
virus. It also spreads through just about every way possible. Through droplets,
aerosol, oral fecal, and fecal aerosol, it lives on surfaces and is extraordinarily
infectious. About 20% of cases require very expert and careful hospital care
with breathing assistance, specialized medicine and staff. This resource
demanding virus is a humanitarian crisis.
And who wants to get sick? The
restaurants will eventually recover with financial assistance as a distressed
area. There is no reason to risk lives.
As I write today, we are on the
edge of pandemic COVID-19.
