My coronavirus update

When I see people on twitter talking about pubs full of people I am in disbelief, and while it sounds like a lot of states in the US are initiating bans, apparently there are 6 states that haven't done anything at all. ANYTHING. Has anyone seen the trajectory of the US recently!? It's headed straight where Italy is headed - do you really want your doctors doing war-time triaging?

And when I see people on the news still physically going into work - please, please don't (unless if the place you work was too derp to have enough infrastructure for everyone to work remotely - which I know is true for some of my friends and in which case I can't believe these places are throwing their employees' health under the bus like that). Carriers of the virus can be asymptomatic yet still spread it, and if you think 20-30 year olds aren't affected that much, check the South Korean numbers. They've done much more testing (without the narrow criteria Australia has for whether someone should get tested) than other countries and 20-29 year olds account for a substantial proportion of cases.

When I see people's blase-ness now, I just feel like pointing out that their ignorance is going to result in a highly stressed out healthcare worker in the future trying to triage which almost dying patient gets one of Australia's 2000 ICU beds. Don't be a super spreader like patient 31!

After monitoring all the news and reading what people around the world are saying - about how dire things are in Italy, about how people in Hong Kong, Singapore etc. are already gradually coming back out on the streets without face masks (because those countries contained the virus so well), about how Germany has closed all its schools and announced a huge stimulus package, about how people in the US are lining up to buy guns in case things get chaotic (so heartbreaking!), about all the research and charts on social distancing, anything Dr Norman Swan's saying etc. I don't understand WHAT IS THE CASE FOR NOT ACTING NOW!?

Looking at my own Government, and my own University, and seeing how tardy and uncommitted they've been to responding to the virus, makes me despair at our institutional leadership.

I know the whole social distancing thing is a suspension of individual liberties and it is sad seeing weddings and funerals unable to go ahead, but honestly I think most people are willing to make the tradeoff and know when the greater good is more important. It's also sad seeing people lose casual gigs and jobs in event management, hospitality, retail, tourism and related industries etc., but acting as fast as we can gives the economy the best chance of bouncing back sooner. Don't do anything if you want to make a recession as long as possible.

Since my last post -

• Brendan and I have settled on self-quarantining for the full 14 days (don't know what will happen after that, but my guess is the numbers will look so much more drastic that uni will have actually stopped all physical classes by then).
• Brendan has been wfh.
• I've told uni I won't be tutoring next week either, given my recent cold.
• I've installed zoom (lol) so I can still meet with potential advisers (some of whom had to cancel their fieldwork now because of the travel ban).
• Brendan and I decided to donate to the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital who are (or were, as of today) raising money to fund a clinical trial of what they think could be a covid19 vaccine, and Foodbank. I am not trying to pressure anyone into donating, or virtue-signalling etc., but if you want to help here are just some ways. Of course, the best way to help is to keep your distance.
• We realised Brendan's brother is in the events/venues business and his company might not survive this shock. 😢
• Dad called to ask my advice on whether or not he should stop classes, and sadly, I said yes.