- Schools were closed
- Non-essential businesses were closed
- Churches were closed
- Temples were closed
- Missionaries serving abroad were called home
- Hospitals ran out of PPE and respirators
- Races were canceled or postponed, including the Boston Marathon
- Some national parks were closed
- Theme parks like Disneyland and DisneyWorld were closed
- Hunting and fishing seasons were delayed or closed
- People were told to stay home and limit contact with people
- There were no large gatherings. No celebrations. No weddings (although some places did allow funerals).
- If you went out in public, it was recommended that you wear a mask
- Some states monitored your entry by having you fill out a travel declaration
- Airlines canceled flights
What in the world caused such a disruption to "normal"? A virus called the Novel Coronavirus (COVID 19). It was first noticed in China late in 2019 (I think it was November). But China, being China, hid the infection from the world, under-reported their numbers of affected, and tried haphazardly to contain it. It wasn't long before the virus migrated out of China into other parts of the world. It took the governments of the WHO about 2 1/2 months before they finally said that COVID 19 had reached a pandemic level. And then everything shut down.
COVID-19 hit the elderly and immunocompromised hard! Those populations got very, very sick and overwhelmed the health care systems. In Italy it got so bad that they started rationing health care in such a way that if you were elderly and very sick with COVID-19, you were treated with paliative measures only. In the United States, our hospitals didn't ration care, but they did ration tests and PPE for health care workers. It was a scary time for a lot of people.
So what did it look like to be infected with COVID-19? Well, that's the hard part and what made this social distancing so frustrating. For some, there were high fevers, compromised lung function, kidney failure, cough. For others, it was like having the flu with body aches, fever, and cough. And yet others were completely asymptomatic. For those that did have symptoms, they were sick for about 14 days.
Of course the media didn't help the situation at all. Always one for grandstanding, they highlighted the cases and deaths, but didn't really talk much about the numbers of people whose tests came back negative or who recovered. It was hard to maintain a sense of perspective and not get caught up in the hype. It was also hard to feel like our economy will ever recover from this shutdown. Currently, 10% of the United States' population is unemployed! Even with the $3 TRILLION stimulus package that was passed (completely with small business loans, bailouts for the airline industries, and checks for people making less the $75k or $200k depending on filing status), people are hurting and our economy is at a standstill. Plus, how in the world will we ever be able to repay $3 trillion?
I feel like this was God's way of sending us a practice drill before the Second Coming. It allowed us to see where the holes where in many different systems. It gave families more time to reconnect without all of the distractions. It helped identify what was essential and what could be lived without (apparently, TP is essential). It gave us all an opportunity to live with more grace and understanding for each other. For many people of faith, it was a time to remember that God is in charge and that He knows His people and he will not leave them comfortless. It was also a time when people remembered God and cried out to Him for healing and relief from this pandemic.
We are quite through this yet. We are still on lockdown until May 4th and even then it is uncertain of how many things will be able to open. But I know that we will get through this and hopefully changed for the better because of the lessons we learned during this time.
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