[Various Authors]
"It needs to be kept in mind that half of all positive cases in California are in the 18-to-49 years age range..." W.D.
"Make no mistake. When loved ones are removed from your home by ambulance because the virus has hit them hard, you are not going to be able to follow them there, sit by their hospital bed and hold their hand. You are not going to be able to pop in at 7.00 pm for visiting hours. They are going to have no one other than exhausted and brave hospital staff to see them through days or weeks of barely breathing through a ventilator until they either die or recover. They are not going to be well enough to text you.
You are not going to be able to phone the ward to check in on them regularly (staff will be too busy for that). During that time, they will be completely alone, while you sit at home waiting to hear whether they have made it through.
Imagine that person is someone you love dearly. Because it's going to be a reality for many in the coming weeks.
And if that person in hospital happens to be you, going through that ordeal completely alone, it would be nothing less than terrifying.
Please stay home and only go out if absolutely necessary. Social distancing is imperative right now for your family and mine." -- Billy Theall
"Let that be a reality check because it's 100% true" - R.B.
"Have you witnessed someone dying from a corona virus? Or an upper respiratory infection?" D.P.
"Who are you asking D.P.? If you are asking me, the answer is yes.
First a long time ago that you might recall. Back in my Herbert Green days MILLIE, our Yard School Teacher and mother of my good friend, died of emphysema. She had to use a water pipe to smoke tobacco in the end. I think we all know how fucked up emphysema is... That alone stopped me from taking up cigarettes.
My grandmother, mother, and most of my family smoked but watching Millie go that way cured me from cigarettes!
Then many years later my mother was taken out by her third cancer, lung cancer - enough said about that!
I believe that only people that have nothad a loved one die slowly this way, or has not had loved one die remotely when you could not touch them or look into their eyes one last time, would ever say things like, "It hardly kills anyone" and then brush it off like it is not a big deal if we spread it around a kill a few people...
D.W. wrote "It needs to be kept in mind that half of all positive cases in California are in the 18-to-49 years age range,"
So I responded: "[W.D.] you need to keep in mind that half of all positive cases in California are -NOT- in the 18-to-49 years age range."
How bad is it really? For some depends on who is in the hospital bed!
If you care about those around you, even total strangers you will never know, than please follow the simple instructions of "Social Isolation." It is a big inconvenience we all know, but dying slowly and isolated away from those you love is so horrible, that a serious inconvenience on our part is a very small price to pay to help stop the spread of COVID-19.
Cris Alarcon, 2/25/20
