Corona School - Week 2
Corona school... a month ago if someone said those words I'd assume they were talking about some sort of corporate training about a lovely pale beer that is typically served with a wedge of lime. Preferably near a beach on a hot day.
Today is a different world.
We are in the midst of a global pandemic, which is caused by a coronavirus, specifically COVID-19. It began in the Wuhan province of China, where the outbreak went from non-existant to rampant in the blink of an eye. It was like something out of a bad movie... I've heard that the first reports were in December, although I don't remember hearing anything until last month (February). By then there were thousands of cases and the Chinese were frantically building hospitals to house the sick, people were being transported in bubbled and received by medical staff wearing haz-mat suits... crazy sci-fi stuff. Then people started traveling, as humans do, and it spread.
There have been rumors of all kinds. A weaponized virus. A deliberate attack. The Chinese stole the virus from a top secret lab at Harvard. The Americans released it in China to take them down. You name it. There's a lot of flavors of crazy.
But here's the facts as best I know them. The virus made it to the US. The worst first hit was in Washington state, then California. A cruise ship landed here in NJ with a few sick, but they were contained. Landlocked states seemed pretty safe. A lot of us (me included) thought they were over-wagging. This is just a bad flu, no big deal. It will all blow over.
I was wrong. So wrong.
The entire country of Italy is in lockdown. I've seen a video of a convoy of army trucks carting out the dead.... it is a scene from the dark ages, updated for the 21st century. I've heard that they simply don't have enough hospital beds and ventilators to give to all of the critically ill, so they made a unilateral decision that they are no longer treating individuals who are sick and are age 60+. Spain isn't far behind.
You see videos online that make your heart break, and give you hope.
Social Distancing is the current protocol. You're supposed to stay 6 feet away from everyone else, although they don't really know if this is entirely effective. We've been told you don't need a mask (you can't buy them - they're sold out everywhere), then you hear that the masks do help. People are hoarding food and toilet paper. The stores are sold out of EVERYTHING. You can't find disinfecting alcohol or hand sanitizer to save your life.
I took the boys with me to Wegmans on a Friday night when this was just breaking. Not to panic-buy, but because my normal day to grocery shop was Sunday and I was concerned that with all the crazy people the supplies might be limited. Bread, pasta, milk, juice, canned food (even the gross stuff!), frozen food, meat... all the shelves are empty. I've never seen anything like it except in photos of Soviet Russia. I bought what I could, assuming that everyone was overreacting and things would be back to normal in a week.
Last Monday my kids's schools were declared closed for the week because the Governor declared that all schools must be closed. Monday was a "snow" day (we hadn't used any this year as we had a really mild winter), and the rest of the week the kids would do remote learning. Some schools are holding online group meetings (Google meetings, Zoom, etc.). Our schools just have district assigned packets with work for each grade and every subject that you need to print, along with a lot of online videos the kids have to watch. Then they answer questions. Submitting assignments is rather willy nilly... Colin has been using Schoology to submit most of his work, typically by taking a photo of his packet pages/response and then submitting that as an attachment. Ryan's work is less structured. The teacher is using Class Dojo and is giving some work above what is in the district packet, so it is hard to keep track of.
Also last Monday, all gyms were required to close as of 8PM. That means many of my friends are out of work, and my only option for exercise is to shove the dining room table against the wall, shove the sofa toward the TV, try (ineffectively) to block Sydney out, and then do Combat. Trish (group fitness director at my gym) is also offering daily Facebook live video classes at 5:45AM... trying to keep a small degree of normalcy. There's a ban on any gathering of 10 or more people, and as of yesterday now all non-essential businesses are mandatorily closed. Public parks are closed, and they have signs over the playground saying "KEEP OUT".
The boys are alternately being a pain, and coping relatively well. I feel so bad for them. All sports, school plays, concerns, activities, birthday parties... everything is canceled. Their only connection to their friends right now is online gaming, primarily Fortnite, and if they mess up during the day they lose Fortnite for the evening. I have tried to make up a schedule for the boys to help them keep on track - if they'd stick to it they should be able to have all their school work done by/before 3PM, including a break to walk the dog, an hour for lunch/recess, and another 45 minutes for gym class. Instead most days they've had no recess, no gym class, and lunch was a quick bite. This isn't because the work is overwhelming, it is because they are discovering how hard it is to work from home. There's the dogs (always good for a pet/snuggle), video games (YouTube is a very tempting click away when you're supposed to be watching a science video), the frustration that mom/dad is on a conference call when they have a question, or just general ennui. We're asking 8- and 10-year old kids to do something many adults can't manage... work effectively at home.
And there's no end in sight. Schools are closed indefinitely, and there's talk that they may not reopen for the remainder of this school year. That means parents and students here in NJ are facing THREE MONTHS of everyone being cooped up together.
And in spite of everything we're doing this disease is spreading. The growth is mind boggling. The number of new cases is doubling almost daily. New York has by far the most cases, and NJ was in 3rd place for the past few days but today leaped into 2nd. There's a website I'm now addicted to (World-O-Meter) which shows an ongoing tally. Total cases, active cases, closed cases, how many active cases are mild vs. critical, how many closed cases resulted in death... the numbers are staggering and don't tell a good story. All of the isolation is designed to try and "flatten the curve" so the peak number of cases is spread out over a longer period of time. This will (hypothetically) allow healthcare to have sufficient beds/supplies and care for the sick instead of having to make awful decisions about who to save and who they can't treat.
Things are changing daily, so I'll try and update more often. Until then, WASH YOUR HANDS!
Today is a different world.
We are in the midst of a global pandemic, which is caused by a coronavirus, specifically COVID-19. It began in the Wuhan province of China, where the outbreak went from non-existant to rampant in the blink of an eye. It was like something out of a bad movie... I've heard that the first reports were in December, although I don't remember hearing anything until last month (February). By then there were thousands of cases and the Chinese were frantically building hospitals to house the sick, people were being transported in bubbled and received by medical staff wearing haz-mat suits... crazy sci-fi stuff. Then people started traveling, as humans do, and it spread.
There have been rumors of all kinds. A weaponized virus. A deliberate attack. The Chinese stole the virus from a top secret lab at Harvard. The Americans released it in China to take them down. You name it. There's a lot of flavors of crazy.
But here's the facts as best I know them. The virus made it to the US. The worst first hit was in Washington state, then California. A cruise ship landed here in NJ with a few sick, but they were contained. Landlocked states seemed pretty safe. A lot of us (me included) thought they were over-wagging. This is just a bad flu, no big deal. It will all blow over.
I was wrong. So wrong.
The entire country of Italy is in lockdown. I've seen a video of a convoy of army trucks carting out the dead.... it is a scene from the dark ages, updated for the 21st century. I've heard that they simply don't have enough hospital beds and ventilators to give to all of the critically ill, so they made a unilateral decision that they are no longer treating individuals who are sick and are age 60+. Spain isn't far behind.
You see videos online that make your heart break, and give you hope.
- An empty cobblestone street, with the voices of Italians singing together. They're all at their windows or on a balcony, reaching out to others in the only way they can.
- People on balconies playing piano, or saxophone.
- A fitness instructor on a rooftop giving classes to the building across the street.
Social Distancing is the current protocol. You're supposed to stay 6 feet away from everyone else, although they don't really know if this is entirely effective. We've been told you don't need a mask (you can't buy them - they're sold out everywhere), then you hear that the masks do help. People are hoarding food and toilet paper. The stores are sold out of EVERYTHING. You can't find disinfecting alcohol or hand sanitizer to save your life.
I took the boys with me to Wegmans on a Friday night when this was just breaking. Not to panic-buy, but because my normal day to grocery shop was Sunday and I was concerned that with all the crazy people the supplies might be limited. Bread, pasta, milk, juice, canned food (even the gross stuff!), frozen food, meat... all the shelves are empty. I've never seen anything like it except in photos of Soviet Russia. I bought what I could, assuming that everyone was overreacting and things would be back to normal in a week.
Last Monday my kids's schools were declared closed for the week because the Governor declared that all schools must be closed. Monday was a "snow" day (we hadn't used any this year as we had a really mild winter), and the rest of the week the kids would do remote learning. Some schools are holding online group meetings (Google meetings, Zoom, etc.). Our schools just have district assigned packets with work for each grade and every subject that you need to print, along with a lot of online videos the kids have to watch. Then they answer questions. Submitting assignments is rather willy nilly... Colin has been using Schoology to submit most of his work, typically by taking a photo of his packet pages/response and then submitting that as an attachment. Ryan's work is less structured. The teacher is using Class Dojo and is giving some work above what is in the district packet, so it is hard to keep track of.
Also last Monday, all gyms were required to close as of 8PM. That means many of my friends are out of work, and my only option for exercise is to shove the dining room table against the wall, shove the sofa toward the TV, try (ineffectively) to block Sydney out, and then do Combat. Trish (group fitness director at my gym) is also offering daily Facebook live video classes at 5:45AM... trying to keep a small degree of normalcy. There's a ban on any gathering of 10 or more people, and as of yesterday now all non-essential businesses are mandatorily closed. Public parks are closed, and they have signs over the playground saying "KEEP OUT".
The boys are alternately being a pain, and coping relatively well. I feel so bad for them. All sports, school plays, concerns, activities, birthday parties... everything is canceled. Their only connection to their friends right now is online gaming, primarily Fortnite, and if they mess up during the day they lose Fortnite for the evening. I have tried to make up a schedule for the boys to help them keep on track - if they'd stick to it they should be able to have all their school work done by/before 3PM, including a break to walk the dog, an hour for lunch/recess, and another 45 minutes for gym class. Instead most days they've had no recess, no gym class, and lunch was a quick bite. This isn't because the work is overwhelming, it is because they are discovering how hard it is to work from home. There's the dogs (always good for a pet/snuggle), video games (YouTube is a very tempting click away when you're supposed to be watching a science video), the frustration that mom/dad is on a conference call when they have a question, or just general ennui. We're asking 8- and 10-year old kids to do something many adults can't manage... work effectively at home.
And there's no end in sight. Schools are closed indefinitely, and there's talk that they may not reopen for the remainder of this school year. That means parents and students here in NJ are facing THREE MONTHS of everyone being cooped up together.
And in spite of everything we're doing this disease is spreading. The growth is mind boggling. The number of new cases is doubling almost daily. New York has by far the most cases, and NJ was in 3rd place for the past few days but today leaped into 2nd. There's a website I'm now addicted to (World-O-Meter) which shows an ongoing tally. Total cases, active cases, closed cases, how many active cases are mild vs. critical, how many closed cases resulted in death... the numbers are staggering and don't tell a good story. All of the isolation is designed to try and "flatten the curve" so the peak number of cases is spread out over a longer period of time. This will (hypothetically) allow healthcare to have sufficient beds/supplies and care for the sick instead of having to make awful decisions about who to save and who they can't treat.
Things are changing daily, so I'll try and update more often. Until then, WASH YOUR HANDS!
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