Pandemic thoughts - stockpiling food and master narrative

When faced with unknown events, people look for precedent or analogous situations as a ready-made source of how things will play out and where one fits into the sequence of actions and also to know what to be cautious of when seeking to minimize liability and other risk from the situation. The spread of the novel variety of the Corona Virus that causes the disease the experts have named Covid-19 began at the end of 2019 in SW China. As of middle March there are more cases each day in France, Spain, and Italy than in China's epicenter.

Saturday around 6 p.m. on March 14, 2020 in Grand Rapids, MI - bare shelves.

So far in USA the news media has focused on the locations that report confirmed cases; sort of like a weather forecast about where the (known) hot-spots seem to be. Repeated instructions to wash hands and keep them away from eyes, nose, and mouth emphasize the behaviors to break the chain of transmission by water droplets exhaled or coughed onto hard surfaces (72 hours of infection possible; 24 hours on paper or cardboard surfaces). And with the shortage of testing equipment, staff, and infrastructure the message has been that testing to know each region's tally is helpful for administrators who deploy resources efficiently, but whether one's own test is positive or not, the same advice comes into play: avoid contact with other people and treat the symptoms; otherwise just let time heal the infection. If fever is high and breathing difficult, telephone for instructions rather than to arrive and contaminate the clinical settings. But what happens after a person is (confirmed to be) infected? When does a recovered person go  back to "normal life"?

If it is true that children frequently have mild or no symptoms, young and prime-of-life people normally have tolerable symptoms (unless burdened by complicating factors from underlying health condition like high blood pressure, diabetes, asthma, and so on), then why should the entire country public and private sector close any public activity and retreat to dispersed (social distancing) configurations of work space and home life? The officially given reason is not to contain the virus, but to slow the rate of infection so that the life-threatening cases can be handled by hospitals, unburdened by surges in admissions of patients. By playing the inpatients across a slower pace and longer span of time, any surges and resulting loss of life can be minimized; the disaster can be mitigated by collective action and for collective benefit. In other words, the central organizing idea for nation-wide, indeed- cross-national coordination of effort and closures and social distancing is meant to preserve life of the vulnerable, including elders (age 60 and older).

Although the public messaging is aimed at individual self-interest, in fact most people in good health are not at risk to die from contracting the virus and letting the cycle of infection run its course. Instead, the coordinated effort and urgent tone of public news briefings and analysis is about the collective dangers to the whole of society. Without an "all hands on deck" approach, including all the public livelihoods like transportation, education, entertainment, dining, worship, hobbies, and workplace interaction, the virus could very quickly inundate all segments of the population and mortally affect the infirm, weak, vulnerable, and so on. By putting on the brakes to virus transmission, many individual lives will be preserved, and all the accumulated knowledge, social capital, and emotional weight can be protected.

The cost of ceasing most all of the normal movement of people and interactions closer than 6 feet of separation is very big since so many hover at the edge of bankruptcy, debt, and so on. Any interruption in health, working hours, and income rapidly destroys social order. In the USA as of March 19 there is rapid legislative action underway to disburse money from the central government to each tax payer and worker. Precise details are not yet confirmed, but the idea is for 1 round of checks in early April and another in early May. But perhaps there is a silver lining in the dark clouds formed by suddenly idling almost all sectors of the economy for an extended period of unknown duration: more people will acknowledge the inter-relatedness of the world economy and within the US society; and that this collective effort may not directly, personally, and materially affect one's own life, but there are indirect effects that come from preserving the weakest parts of the society and paying attention to each other's needs instead of dreaming utopian escapes of news echo-chambers online and chasing after yet another consumer purchase.