Pandemic. It’s a word I knew, of course. I had heard of the Spanish Flu before. In recent years I learned the most about it from watching Downton Abbey. We might have learned about it in school, too, in history class, but it was high school and my mind was preoccupied with writing and passing notes to friends about what we’d get up to after school.

I am old enough to remember my parents talking about the polio epidemic. I can remember as a really young child playing with a girl at the home of a babysitter. The girl had heard about how they used iron lungs for polio victims. She wanted us to “play pretend”: she’d be the doctor and I’d be the girl in the iron lung. (Odd that I remember this). I remember telling my mom I was afraid I’d get polio and have to be put in an iron lung. My mom said I didn’t have to worry because the sugar cubes my doctor gave me at my check-ups protected me from polio. I certainly loved the sugar cube vaccine more than the DPT shot!

Pandemic: Fifty Years Later

Now, 50 years later, here we are in the middle of a pandemic. It is crazy to think that our society, which can do anything on a smart phone from ordering food to hosting virtual happy hours for 20 friends, could be cut down at the knees by a pandemic. Didn’t this happen only in the olden days?

I have friends out on the frontlines of the battle against this virus doing very important work for our city and our region. They are super-heroes. They are not medical personnel, but they are deeply involved in the on-going work for our area. I am proud of them and of the work they do. I am proud of their fearlessness and their bravery, while I stay home hiding from the virus and trying to score toilet paper that I could have easily acquired online just a month ago. Now I have to wait weeks for an order or risk crowded grocery stores and infection while scouring empty shelves.

This is not who I am. I am usually one of the first people at a shelter after a hurricane. I always raise my hand to help. Being able to pitch in to help strangers and friends in the midst of a crisis helps me feel some level of control over whatever is going on. I can’t this time. I am in high-risk group because of a medication I take for an autoimmune disease. I don’t have an essential job that requires me to be out in public. The truth is, the world doesn’t need me out there. So I stay home.

Here’s the thing, though. Staying home is also a super-hero thing to do. We have data that shows that staying at home can flatten the curve: we can spread out the infection rate of this virus; that will help our hospitals manage the number of cases they must handle at any one time; that will ensure that we can treat the sick and help our doctors and nurses manage their workloads — and their own health.

Pandemic: The Staying-At-Home Thing

But, it is hard, this staying at home thing. It doesn’t feel super-hero-ish either. How much Netflix can one watch? (Apparently, a lot). But, while binging Schitt’s Creek and Tiger King, I continue to pray for our elected leaders — for all of them, even the ones I don’t like, and for the doctors, nurses, first responders, Amazon employees, and all the wonderful people out there who continue to keep grocery store shelves stocked, our internet working and for all who help provide the other things we need to keep the basics going until we can all meet together again. I pray for all the people that have lost jobs or will lose jobs and businesses. I pray for the sick and their families. I pray for the people who need medical care and cannot get it because COVID-19 has monopolized health care. Most importantly, I pray that this ends soon.

I encourage you to be a superhero too! Stay home and stay healthy.