[DenverCard]

I realize that in my post above, I did not express what I meant to address, and that is the issue of virus containment efforts and how I fear it is a losing game.  Previously, in addition to the benefits of flattening the curve to preserve the capacity of ICUs and hospitals more generally, available ventilators, etc., there were the other goals of sheltering in place mentioned in my earlier post.  But recent developments threaten those other benefits.  If the prevalence of the virus is already quite high, staying at home to allow a more surgical contact tracing strategy is not tenable.  Isolating oneself in the hopes of effective drugs to be found and approved in the not-too-distant future may not bear fruit.  And motivation by many to do the hard work of social isolation has to be waning, even as one is constantly exposed to ever-present accounts of suffering that are hard to bear.

The impetus for my previous post and another recent one was a recent visit to my elderly parents (80+) who have the added risk created by the fact that my middle-aged brother lives with them and works out of the home.  I found it harder to make the case to my mother to avoid trips to the grocery store, and to try to modify the situation involving my brother for my parents' protection.  Instead, it seems that the tide of the virus is soon to wash over all of us despite our efforts to contain it, and that one can only hope that his or her immune system is neither under- nor over-reactive when faced with fighting it off.

This board is a fantastic source of de facto psychotherapy, and I guess I'm now looking for more.  The good news is that....

[DenverCard]

I realize that in my post above, I did not express what I meant to address, and that is the issue of virus containment efforts and how I fear it is a losing game.  Previously, in addition to the benefits of flattening the curve to preserve the capacity of ICUs and hospitals more generally, available ventilators, etc., there were the other goals of sheltering in place mentioned in my earlier post.  But recent developments threaten those other benefits.  If the prevalence of the virus is already quite high, staying at home to allow a more surgical contact tracing strategy is not tenable.  Isolating oneself in the hopes of effective drugs to be found and approved in the not-too-distant future may not bear fruit.  And motivation by many to do the hard work of social isolation has to be waning, even as one is constantly exposed to ever-present accounts of suffering that are hard to bear.

The impetus for my previous post and another recent one was a recent visit to my elderly parents (80+) who have the added risk created by the fact that my middle-aged brother lives with them and works out of the home.  I found it harder to make the case to my mother to avoid trips to the grocery store, and to try to modify the situation involving my brother for my parents' protection.  Instead, it seems that the tide of the virus is soon to wash over all of us despite our efforts to contain it, and that one can only hope that his or her immune system is neither under- nor over-reactive when faced with fighting it off.

This board is a fantastic source of de facto psychotherapy, and I guess I'm now looking for more.  The good news is that....