[Genuine Realist]

Boy, it is hard to get a handle on this. I was dragged into my physician's office today for a physical.  I am a compliant patient, but very slow on the trigger for medicines or interventions. Mostly we correspond, about the quarterly blood tests I have to take because of the methotrexate. But she finally insisted on a physical, so there I was this morning. She is ultra-cautious in the past, something of a worry wart, so I expected to be inundated with virus precautions - pamphlets, sermons, the works.

instead . . . nothing. I brought the subject up. She shrugged her shoulders, suggested washing hands a lot (which we are doing), and commented that it hadn't spread too far. Not much.

My dad, a retired ophthalmologist and a centenarian as of October (meaning he was born in the Spanish flu year, 1919) was similarly nonchalant. This is not to say that he and others do not see Covid-19 as dangerous - they do - but they also see it as flu virus not unlike many, many others, more significant than some. But at the end of the day, a flu, of the type that is a pretty constant nemesis, in one form or another, with various degrees of mortality.

I am in the age group (+70) in which the mortality rate is 8%. but even so . . .

So . . . wash hands every time I come into the house, avoid public tactile surfaces (like door handles and gas pumps - hard to remember to do that), nod and smile instead of grasping hands. But other than that, it's business as usual. I will take my normal Friday walk to the movies, eat the popcorn,  and hope for the best.

[Genuine Realist]

Boy, it is hard to get a handle on this. I was dragged into my physician's office today for a physical.  I am a compliant patient, but very slow on the trigger for medicines or interventions. Mostly we correspond, about the quarterly blood tests I have to take because of the methotrexate. But she finally insisted on a physical, so there I was this morning. She is ultra-cautious in the past, something of a worry wart, so I expected to be inundated with virus precautions - pamphlets, sermons, the works.

instead . . . nothing. I brought the subject up. She shrugged her shoulders, suggested washing hands a lot (which we are doing), and commented that it hadn't spread too far. Not much.

My dad, a retired ophthalmologist and a centenarian as of October (meaning he was born in the Spanish flu year, 1919) was similarly nonchalant. This is not to say that he and others do not see Covid-19 as dangerous - they do - but they also see it as flu virus not unlike many, many others, more significant than some. But at the end of the day, a flu, of the type that is a pretty constant nemesis, in one form or another, with various degrees of mortality.

I am in the age group (+70) in which the mortality rate is 8%. but even so . . .

So . . . wash hands every time I come into the house, avoid public tactile surfaces (like door handles and gas pumps - hard to remember to do that), nod and smile instead of grasping hands. But other than that, it's business as usual. I will take my normal Friday walk to the movies, eat the popcorn,  and hope for the best.