Coronavirus PITA · 9:44pm Mar 16th, 2020

Well, the pandemic virus known as coronavirus has made it to South Carolina and panic has ensued. Usually this kind rush on the stores is because of a hurricane or a winter storm that drops an inch of snow on the state. Of course, in preparing for a storm I could always count on finding hand sanitizer and toilet paper available.

The governor of our great state, along with others across the country, has cancelled school until the end of March. The kids, I'm sure are happy with this. My daughter has done her school work on-line and spends the rest of the day as she wishes. The ones who are suffering are the parents who gotta scramble to find someone to watch the kids while they work. (That is, if they can go to work.) The daycare I work for in the afternoons is still operational but I don't know how long that will last. Closing it will be a big blow to the owner and the staff.

I have been working part-time as a breakfast/kitchen staff at a local hotel. That puts me in direct contact with a lot of travelers. One of my fears is that I will contract the disease and bring it to the daycare. They say the disease is not that bad for the young but we do have some kids who are susceptible to respiratory infections. (We also got some kids we could throw them in the pit of Hell and they'd come back with the devil on a pitchfork, but that's beside the point.)

I'd like to say that it's all unnecessary panic, yet we keep getting reminded of how some American cities did not respond to the threat of Spanish Flu back in 1918 and ended up having a high mortality rate.

I doubt there was a run for toilet paper back in 1918. Of course, a lot of people probably didn't have indoor toilets so there probably wasn't much paper to hoard. Reminds me of the joke about the man who complains to his friend that he needs toilet paper. His friend says "Well, why don't you order some out of the Sears Catalog?" The man replies "If I had a Sears Catalog, I wouldn't need the toilet paper!"

Stay safe out there!