The lock down is getting the better of me these days. It is so difficult to self-regulate – there is nothing but vast stretches of time between sunup and sundown. The highlight of my week is donning my face mask and heading to the grocery store. Trying to remain 6 feet apart from other shoppers is a Herculean feat. Yet, this is what we have to do. Returning from grocery shopping is another exercise altogether: my daughter, armed with disinfectant, stands vigil as I cart the spoils of my journey into the kitchen, where she wipes down each item before I can put it away. She grumbles throughout the process: “I am the only person in this house that takes hygiene seriously” or “don’t forget to wash your hands when you’re done!” tend to be the common admonishments.
It’s hard to imagine that the kids will be back in school in a month; or that summer camp will actually occur. The curve in New Jersey has yet to begin its descent; in fact, I think we are on an upswing – not promising news. But we could see staggered lifting of restrictions.
Frankly, I am skeptical of any early “opening of the economy” – and frightened of a surge in infections. Because that will surely mean more sickness and death. I am resigned to a life of masks in public and no large public gatherings (what does this mean for the conference industry??) – and what about air travel? Stuck in an enclosed space teeming with germs, old and new, doesn’t excite me. All the things I never paid attention to, and just took for granted that because I practiced good hygiene, I would be protected. No more. Now is the time to buy stock in cleaning and sanitizing companies, because the world will be sanitizing everything every day.
In New York City, starting today, the subway will close from 1 to 5 am every day to allow teams of people in hazmat suits to disinfect every single subway car in the city. The only obstacle remaining are the homeless that live in the subway system. MTA workers will have to remove the homeless and attempt to get them into shelters in order to deep clean the subway cards. Since the advent of social distancing, the homeless are left even more to their own devices. The programs that conduct outreach to the homeless have all but shut down; those people aren’t combing the streets to get those less fortunate to safer, cleaner places. This means, too, that many of the homeless in New York are unaware of the pandemic or their vulnerability to the virus. They may have no understanding that they are at risk.
And will we even commute into the city again? It seems unlikely. I asked my new boss about that yesterday. He can’t see us doing a daily commute ever again – and is even thinking about the space we lease and whether or not we need it. It is possible that this new job will be entirely remote. It just doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense – clearly putting people at risk just to get to an office? Nope.
I am hopeful that we will be able to stave off the rate of infection and death; to have some semblance of normalcy by the fall, because, well, I just can’t handle it.