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(Content: Covid19, gloom)
Y’all know this isn’t over yet, right? Even in NZ people are still dying. It can take quite a long time to die from this Illness it seems; I imagine even if we had no new cases from today we will continue to see deaths for another six weeks.
Y’all know this isn’t over yet, right? Even in NZ people are still dying. It can take quite a long time to die from this Illness it seems; I imagine even if we had no new cases from today we will continue to see deaths for another six weeks.
We aren’t through this yet - we are on the brink of an amazing window of opportunity, opened for us by courageous decisions, a bit of luck, and concerted collective action. We could still fuck this up.
And from what we know so far the people who will suffer most, who will die or suffer ongoing poor quality of life, will be those already most vulnerable. Many of us may have it mildly AND many of us may give it to people it kills.
I keep thinking about our elders in retirement villages. My mum was nearly one of them - she was scheduled to move to a nice seniors apartment complex mid April, having sold the 3 bedrm family home after 45 years.
The place she was moving to (still will be in Level 2) is Very Nice - pool, spa, library, pétanque, garden allotments, cafe, bowls, a short walk from a major PT hub and host of good restaurants, bit of a longer one to her favourite shopping centre.
And since Level 3 the place she is going to, which you have to pass a health test to get in to showing that you don’t have high health needs, has had to shut all that down, with all those people confined to their apartments. Probably no visitors allowed too.
I mention this because that’s a pretty shit quality of life. And that’s what not taking this seriously will condemn many people to - many people you love, if not you yourself. (And yes it’s a lot like prison with higher thread count, in terms of the loss of liberty...
... and that’s a shit quality of life we shouldn’t be ok with too). And while we are at it let’s talk about what it’s like to be in ICU and how frankly terrifying that is. I held my Dad’s hand while he died in North Shore’s ICU. With Covid19 there are no daughter’s holding...
... dying father’s hands.There will be amazing medical personnel, doing their best to provide comfort and care, but they will be suited up in PPE and you won’t even be able to look them directly in the eye. You, or someone you love, will not be able to hold anyone’s hand, skin...
... to skin. I’ve had the experience of facing a room full of medicos who thought I had a deadly illness and were fully kitted up like in ET, I posted a thread about that as a humourous anecdote some weeks back.
What I didn’t mention in that thread, cos it was for lolz and I was trying not to think about this aspect, is how frankly TERRIFYING it was to be surrounded by masks and biohazard suits. And I just had a bad cold and was pretty sure that was all. Imagine how that would be...
... if you knew you had Covid19. If you knew you had one of the vulnerabilities (which include asthma and diabetes, both of which NZ has A LOT of). To know you could be about to die without seeing your family again. Fuck that.
And we can ALL say “fuck that” by keeping to the Level 4, and soon hopefully Level 3, rules. They are to keep you safe. They are to keep Other People sage, Other People who might be more at risk than you. Other People who might have to die in an ICU...
... with no one they know, alarms going off around them, human beings who are amazing but don’t look v human right now holding their hand through latex gloves. Some of those Other People will be people you love if we are not v v careful at this critical point. Fin.
