Coronavirus SF: November 30, 2020 Update
Hello coronavirus-sf subscribers!
As summer turned into autumn, and soon into winter, this pandemic that I thought we could basically contain within 3 to 6 months (referencing China/Taiwan) now feels like it’s gone deep into overtime. 😂 There’s been some promising news about American ingenuity and innovation in the form of biotechnology and vaccines that are potentially very effective. But I think I’ve learned this year to not assume the pandemic will end quickly in 2021, until it actually does. 😉
To be honest, when I look at the recent virus growth rates for San Francisco and the Bay Area, they do not look horrible to me (relative to earlier in the year). We definitely didn’t “flatten the curve” in terms of case counts this year. However, the recent death growth rates in San Francisco look remarkably flat (scroll to the bottom red graphs here). We shall see whether the rise in case counts in December will be significantly worse than it was in July.
The big challenge of the pandemic is not just in avoiding Covid, but in doing so while maintaining some level of mental health. I’m lucky in that I haven’t knowingly interacted with or met anyone who had Covid (positive cases are now about 4% of the American population). As the pandemic wore on, I went from avoiding grocery stores to hopping on multiple airplane flights. I’ll be flying to visit my parents in the Washington, DC area next week (with a post-flight quarantine to test that I’m still Covid negative).
My Covid-safety strategy has basically been the religious wearing of masks. On a recent trip to Mexico, I met a fellow traveler who said she escaped from the lockdown in France — and then proceeded to take some amazing getaway pictures in Mexico. This got me thinking: if government officials seriously think traveling is Covid-risky for everyone, they should ground the airplanes. I avoided eating/drinking while on flights, and also avoided Covid during the entire trip. By the way, French lockdown rules included: exercise for only up to 1 hour within a 1 km (0.62 mile) radius of home (Euronews).
One of the things I observed in Mexico was how grocery stores, retail shops, restaurants, and hotels are required to temperature check and provide hand sanitizer to each patron. It was common for me to get temperature checked and given hand sanitizer multiple times a day! I wondered whether implementing this strategy would’ve been helpful or possible in the USA. As a visitor, more things including indoor dining were open to me in Mexico than in San Francisco (though I generally avoided indoor-only restaurants). When I looked at Covid numbers in various locations I had visited, I didn’t feel Covid-unsafe. When I got back to the USA and started reading more news, I felt more tension. As they say, ignorance can be bliss. 🏝
My best wishes to you and your family for the holiday season! I realize that many of us will not be traveling to visit family and friends in December, and hope that by this time next year, we will all be Covid-immune due to effective vaccines! 🍀
Happy Holidays! 🎄☃️🎉
— Xian
Originally published at https://mailchi.mp.
