It seams so long ago now when I think about it but it really was only about 2 months ago that I recall hearing about the first confirmed case of Coronavirus COVID-19 (it hadn’t been named yet, or at least the name wasn’t being used much then as I recall) being found in my home state of Washington. I’d obviously heard about the initial outbreak in Wuhan, China, it’s spread to other parts of Asia, along with stories of cruise ships changing routes and destinations and airlines limiting service to China in the news in the previous weeks. Unlike previous virus scares like SARS and MERS, this one had been found in the US rather quickly and instead of it being found on the East Coast of the country as the others were when they were found to have arrived here, this one was in my own backyard.
This week the governor of Washington State announced a shelter in place (also known as stay at home) order for the whole state. There had already been steps taken to get folks to work from home in the greater Seattle area. Downtown Seattle has looked like a ghost town for a couple of weeks now and the additional businesses closing for this shelter in place order will make every town statewide start to look this way. Part of the reason for such a strong response is that Washington State now has the 3rd highest number of COVID-19 infections and the concern is that if folks don’t socially distance to the extreme of a shelter in place order now we run the risk of the infections continuing to increase exponentially and will have no hospital capacity nor supplies for those patients.
The economic impact this virus and it’s response has already created is immense. I fear there are already businesses that will close for this shelter in place order and won’t be able to re-open when the order is ultimately lifted. The stimulus package the government is trying to pass currently may help some but I still worry that a prolonged shutdown would crush a lot of small businesses and squeeze the middle class further. It’s just amazing how much has changed in a few months. While this new normal hasn’t fully set in yet I’m hoping we can somehow find our way back to some sense of normalcy before end of the year. I had hoped maybe by this summer but considering the rumor is the schools are preparing to possibly be out the rest of the year it’s hard to see things truly returning to normal anytime soon.
Stay safe and be well out there. I know there is little written here that is more than a summary of what everyone is currently living and feeling but I felt I needed to record a short summary of the current state of things. – Tom S.
