You know, you stop paying attention for a few days and then all of a sudden the coronavirus is knocking on our doorsteps here in San Francisco. There’s confirmed cases now in Santa Clara, Alameda, and just yesterday, Berkeley. It’s as if this tiny seven by seven mile peninsula of ours is being besieged and taken hostage. Soon it’ll be our turn to face the consequences.
At least the citizenry is ready if the shelves of the local Costco is anything to go by. This past weekend the Costco our family goes to was at its busiest I’ve ever seen, as people clamor to stock up on the essentials before disaster strikes. Cart after cart of toilet paper and bottled water can be seen coming out of the store in perfect procession just as we were entering, merely looking to buy our usual week of groceries. Kudos to the power of Asians, as the rice section was completely emptied of product.
Earlier in the week I was at a Lucky’s and the entire stock of hand sanitizers was gone, though curiously there were plenty of antibacterial soap left. I guess people can’t be bothered to wash their hands even in the face of a world-wide pandemic.
I can understand stocking up on toiletries and non perishable food items, but why bottled water? What does a viral disease have to do with the water supply? This isn’t a Ra's al Ghul situation in Batman Begins: tap water will still run and be fine to drink should there be a home quarantine order. Maybe Bay Area citizens got it mixed up with earthquake preparedness and bought bottled water on instinct, which I guess isn’t a bad thing because they’ll be ready when the next ‘big one’ hits.
To prevent contracting the coronavirus, we’re being told to wash our hands frequently and to not touch our faces. I’ve no problems with the former because I’m an avid hand-washer; the first thing I do after getting to work is wash my hands, because public transportation is full of germs. However, not touching my face is proving to be difficult, because it turns out I do it frequently: a rub of the eyes, a scratch of an itch. I’ve made a conscious effort to use the sleeve of my shirt instead, but habits are really tough to break.
Stay healthy, my friends.
You think this is enough hand sanitizer?