It makes sense. Lot of sun, fresh air, and "social distancing". Just the sort of stuff a virus can't stand.
Just the sort of stuff, too, that perhaps would have kept this all from having gotten rolling in the first place. Modern living, with everyone stuffed in boxes of one kind or another, all day, isn't good for anything.
Of course, virus epidemics, or simply viruses being endemic, isn't anything new. In earlier eras, certain diseases were both deadly and routine in a way that we can't imagine now, smallpox perhaps being the best example.
Anyhow, I did go out fishing myself, but not because of the doctor's advice, but rather because I was planning on it anyhow. I was really amazed by how many people were out, however. Maybe it was due to a collective common thought that, if I shouldn't go here or there in town, I'll go out in the country. Or maybe it was just because it was a really nice day.
In my travels for fishing, and I didn't get a single bite, I listened to the weekend shows, as I usually do. They were scary, and both of the ones I listed to featured Dr. Anthony S. Fauci of the National Institute of Health on them. Fauci, who is 79 and therefore not new to the scene, is highly respected.
Dr. Fauci is of the view that what the country is now doing is correct, and he supported the view, now widely cited, that Italy really blew it in their reaction. Fauci broadly hinted that he wants the entire country, everything, shut down for fourteen days.
By the time I got back to town in the afternoon that was starting to happen. It'll be interesting to see how today goes, but it's pretty clear that a lot more things will be shutting down. New York City was resisting shutting down its schools last week, on the basis that lots of children are fed there (which makes the children a type of ward of the school in some ways, which is disturbing) but when asked Fauci's reply was that it was better to worry about that later than spread the disease now. By Sunday evening New York was closing its schools. So did the local district, by way of extending its spring break.
That will, of course, have an immediate impact on the economy, which is already reeling.
While the government, or governments, is now urging nobody to go to mass gatherings, my day started off with a mass gathering, going to Mass. Mass attendance isn't an option for Catholics unless they have a good excuse and simply being worried about this isn't a good one. However, the Bishop of Cheyenne had decided to suspend public Masses until further notice and therefore Sunday's Mass was the last Sunday Mass for awhile here, with today's daily Masses being the last ones, period, for awhile.
I don't know what I think about that. Our Diocese didn't cancel other things, such as Confession, but I really don't know if I like the idea of Churches closing their doors in a time of crises. Having said that, I'm informed that this was done during the 1918-19 Spanish Flu Pandemic and as that's one of the events that was discussed here in real time, century delayed, that should have occured to me. Its' just so odd that it really didn't sink home.
Suspending the Masses has been causing me to think of Fr. Nicola Yanny, an Orthodox Priest, who may be canonized as a Saint soon. The Syrian Antiochian Priest was a widower with four children with his community asked him to take holy orders, which he did. His territory was vast, covering more than one state, and he continued on in his duties ministering to his congregation in spite of their coming down with the Spanish Flu. He in turn contracted it and died of it.
This in turn calls to mind something I read last week, but I don't know if its still accurate. Catholic Churches have been closing their doors in Italy due to the disaster there, which is apparently very severe, but the Orthodox, at least as of last week, were not, and they were not taking kindly suggestions that the Eastern method of communion ought to be changed. Given as the Italian government is really clamping down on things there, this news may be old and changed.
On religion and the pandemic in general, it occurs to me that one thing that may be really different from the 18-19 Pandemic is the degree to which our society has become really selfish over the last century. People hoarding toilet paper and buying up 9mm ammo is a sign of some sort of societal sickness.
I've written on this before, but I'm old enough to remember the tail end of the Vietnam War and the Cold War and all the of the controversial politics of the era. But it's only been recently when some Americans seemed to be gleefully looking place to urban combat, or that partisans on both sides of the political aisle publish rants that are so hateful. A trip through Facebook proclaims, on one side, that the pandemic isn't real and is just a conspiracy aimed at President Trump. On the other side people blaming the President or an entire generation, proclaiming the virus to be the "Boomer Remover".
This stupidity extends even to columnists and politicians certainly aren't exempt. In two consecutive days in the paper I've read articles by left of center columnists who are almost gleeful in their screeds that the whole thing is the President's fault and the opposite from hard core defenders that nothing is his fault. The two ancient Democratic candidates allowed to debate (with the one young one shut out) claim that they'd go better, but it's simply impossible to believe.
The whole panic is awful and part of it is that the nation has descended into both pure secularity and materialism and doesn't know much else. At the point at which you're willing to defend your toilet paper with your 9mm, you really need to rethink your priorities.
Empty paper products aisle at a local grocery store.
This sickness was pretty evident on a Sunday morning trip to the grocery store right after Mass. I went there for a couple of routine items I needed but you couldn't ignore the paper aisle. The frozen foods isle was pretty bare as well. A guy in front of me was buying enough meat to feed a regiment of Cossacks for a month and I suppose he could have been going to a giant barbecue (ti was all stuff that you could barbecue, I'd note) or he was filling his freezer in anticipation of riding out a long quarantine on pork and chicken.
A person might also hope, although it might be hoping too much, that some rethinking on some things is inspired by these days. The 18-19 flu remained in people's minds for a long time after that, although I don't know it improved people in any fashion. There's some thinking that could clearly stand improving, however. Maybe people will have time to do that with everything closed.
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