Skagit valley nightmare
A horribly sad series of events a little north of here:
With the coronavirus quickly spreading in Washington state in early March, leaders of the Skagit Valley Chorale debated whether to go ahead with weekly rehearsal.
The virus was already killing people in the Seattle area, about an hour’s drive to the south.
But Skagit County hadn’t reported any cases, schools and business remained open, and prohibitions on large gatherings had yet to be announced.
So they went ahead with it.
Sixty singers showed up. A greeter offered hand sanitizer at the door, and members refrained from the usual hugs and handshakes.
Yes but…it’s singing. It involves a lot of deep breathing and projecting. I’ve been finding myself holding my breath when people get too close when I’m out for a socially distanced walk.
They rehearsed for 2 1/2 hours.
Nearly three weeks later, 45 have been diagnosed with COVID-19 or ill with the symptoms, at least three have been hospitalized, and two are dead.
45 out of 60. This thing is scary.
Experts said the choir outbreak is consistent with a growing body of evidence that the virus can be transmitted through aerosols — particles smaller than 5 micrometers that can float in the air for minutes or longer.
I’ve been wondering about that. I’ve been wondering how long the aerosols that come out of runners hang around in the air.
[A] study published March 17 in the New England Journal of Medicine found that when the virus was suspended in a mist under laboratory conditions it remained “viable and infectious” for three hours — though researchers have said that time period would probably be no more than a half-hour in real-world conditions.
Half an hour is a long time.
All the cases in our local area have been traced to one birthday party. Quite a terrible birthday present. If we had started social distancing sooner, those people might still be well.
I find it terrifying even to go to the grocery store.
When we go out for our once a day lockdown walk around the local park we’re very careful to do the Covid dance (where we walk in a wide berth around others). Still sometime metres past the other people you suddenly walk through the smell of perfume or deodorant. At such times I wonder about just how important aerosol transmission might be.
I’ve been doing the same thing–holding my breath when people get too close. I don’t know if it helps anything, but I still do it.
Might as well, right?
I went to the local Trader Joe’s yesterday. They limit the number of customers in the store, and people are good a good about keeping their distance while waiting in line in the garage.
Inside the store it was more difficult. In the first aisle a woman was standing by her cart, talking on the phone to someone trying to figure out which cheese to buy. I stop and wait, but another woman rushes by to pick up something she’d forgotten. Then the woman on the phone notices me and tells me to pass. “Six feet,” I say. I can wait.
In the store I’m dodging carts, successfully for the most part, but as I’m leaving, there’s a man “helpfully” bagging his own groceries. I have to squeeze to get by him, and turn my head hoping not to breathe his air.
I’m getting more and more paranoid (thank you sideswiping joggers; yes, your sweat smells like roses), but such is the life of an asthmatic these days.
Maroon, that sounds a lot like my experience. For some reason, our grocery stores have opted not to limit customers, and they have not put up signs or markings on the floor or anything. It’s just everyone for himself. And every time I’ve been in there lately there have been stockers taking up half or more of nearly every aisle, making it impossible to get down the aisle. I have really had to alter my shopping habits. And outside the store, I had to choose between letting a group of people literally walk into me, or walk into cigarette smoke from a rude smoker who seemed to see me trying to avoid him and waved his cigarette in my direction. That last is the life of an asthmatic everyday, though. Nothing new there.
iknklast,
I raise my inhaler in a virtual toast. Salud!
Argh, people on phones. So many oblivious phone-havers standing stock-still in the middle of the sidewalk engrossed in their phones so that I’m forced to veer into the street to avoid them, or stop and wait if there are cars in the street. They make me feel murderous.
In this case, the conversation was along the lines of, “Where is it? Is it next to the feta?”
So that’s not so infuriating. But yeah….
Still fairly infuriating. Get the basics and get out. Don’t block an aisle fussing over a particular kind of cheese.
Yeah, my last trip to the grocery store, there were youngsters (pre-teen and teen) on their phones, looking at their phones, walking close to people, walking into people, not even noticing there were other people. And their parents said and did nothing; but then, their parents weren’t distancing, either.
Just got home from my grocery run, I basically go whenever my parents need stuff (they are both in their 80s and my mother is also diabetic so I do the shopping). TP shelves are still empty which I will never understand. I mean the initial run on it was sort of understandable if you thought the store was going to be closed, but by now I would have expected normal if not surplus because it’s not like overall TP usage would go up for any reason. I still have enough for another couple weeks but eventually I will need more. Oh and paper towels, same deal. I didn’t see too many SD issues (other than couples), mostly just not a whole 6ft/2m away kind of stuff but clearly keeping distance. And my q-clock goes back to 0 days.
Mike, I suspect a lot of the TP thing has to do with survivalist websites. That’s the only reason that makes sense to me. That’s one of the thing survivalists always say to stock up on, so if people are looking for “what things do I need to survive a lockdown”, they might be turning to those paranoia fests for their lists. Which may also be why our store had a shortage of rice (but not dry beans – I guess people around here don’t know how awesome rice and beans are from both a taste and nutritional standpoint).
Thanks iknklast, that would explain it. I can get some sleep now :^)