Nothing To Fear....

“There is nothing to fear but fear itself.”

FDR

As I write this, we are entering Week 2 of Ohio’s “Stay at Home” order. Schools in Ohio are entering their third week of a three-week closure. Given the modeling offered by Ohio officials, I expect that an extension to this closure will be announced sometime this week.

I will admit that I am a bit of a Facebook addict. Not only do I usually enjoy the posts of many of my Facebook friends, the presence of many state and local agencies make it a valuable source for the latest information.

Notice that I mentioned that I usually enjoy posts of my friends. Many of them, bless their hearts, are obsessed with political posts. Most of these posts simply trash the perceived enemies of their political hero. Some of these posts are so wildly ridiculous that a sane person would seek to verify accuracy before associating his or her name with anything so bizarre. This is not the case. As long as it fits their political allegiance, they post them anyway. It is almost supernatural how seemingly normal people have been rendered incapable of rational thought.  

The latest obsession of these folks deals with the “fear being spread by the mainstream media.” In the past few days, many of these have posted Facebook memes about the number of recoveries from COVID-19, and how the reviled mainstream media won’t report these numbers. One post even suggested that these recovery numbers are not being reported because it makes the president look ineffective in dealing with the coronavirus crisis.

Okay, we all know who you are voting for in November. Still, if you had been paying attention all along, you would already know that 80% of people who are or become infected with COVID-19 will recover by staying home while suffering from mild to moderate flu-like symptoms. Thus, recovery numbers are going to be huge and will continue to grow. Some of those hospitalized will also recover, adding to these numbers.

Then why the “fear-mongering” by health officials? It is to “frighten” enough people into staying home in order to prevent the uncontrolled spread of the virus. Hospitals in some parts of this country are already overwhelmed. The likelihood of this occurring at hospitals in more areas of our nation is very likely. State government is doing its best to build up hospital capacity in preparation for a surge in novel coronavirus patients that is expected even with the current social distancing measures currently in place. Keep in mind, modeling conservatively predicts that well over 40% of Americans will contract this coronavirus. While all of this social distancing delays the inevitable, it buys time for hospitals. This keeps them from being overrun and unable to care for the large number of COVID-19 patients.

So, what is there to fear? Italy’s COVID-19 death rate is 7.2%. That is not good. In the United States, this death rate will likely be lower. The number of fatalities in our nation will be significant. It is over 2,200 this morning. We have almost 124,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19. Tests are in short supply and take a week or more to receive results. The number of infected is obviously higher, and health officials have been telling us this for weeks.

 Are people frightened? Yes, many are. In this case, staying home and reducing the speed at which this virus spreads is a positive thing. If “fear-mongering” keeps you home, hospitals and hospital personnel are thankful!

Cha-CHING!

Call me old-fashioned, but I’m not a fan of businesses taking advantage of a crisis to increase profit. I know that it seems un-American to stand in the way of unbridled capitalism and greed, but it is morally objectionable to me nonetheless.

The wife and I ventured out in search of groceries yesterday. Going out in public puts me in mind of making a supply run on The Walking Dead. Setting aside our apprehension, we set out. Our first stop was to a local chain supermarket. 

We generally like this store because we like the employees. Some we have gotten to know pretty well over the years. This particular grocery store was purchased by the aforementioned local chain during a bankruptcy of the store’s former management company. Notice I didn’t say grocery chain. It was owned by a group of investors who really knew nothing about grocery stores.  The current owner bought a few stores during the bankruptcy, including this one. Maybe this is why I have always felt that the supermarket chain now running this store treats this particular grocery like the proverbial red-headed stepchild.

The first thing I noticed was that many price tags had been turned around on the shelves, so that no price was showing.  We discovered that this was deliberate, since all of those items rang up with a higher price than on the hidden tags. We picked up one of the three packages of English muffins left on the shelf. This was an item with a turned-around tag bearing the original price of $2.59. At the register, it rang up $2.99. Okay, so 40 cents isn’t going to break us.

This trend continued with other items. In all, we paid nearly $5.00 more for our items than we would have two weeks ago. Some items we simply did not purchase. This chain often runs one-day meat sales. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, this week’s sale was canceled. We were interested in purchasing a frozen turkey breast, hoping the current cost was at least close to the canceled sale price. Nope! The prices marked on the turkey breasts were 172% higher than the sale price, and 37% higher than their regular price. We left without a turkey breast.

Milk is usually in the $1.49 range at this store, but was $2.49 yesterday. I could go through our entire shopping list, but you get the idea.

It can’t be argued it is simply supply and demand, because for the most part it wasn’t. They had a case full of turkey breasts and a cooler full of milk. This was because they wanted too much for those items, thus reducing demand. I’m guessing folks went to the other local grocers or Walmart for the same items, priced lower. Perhaps this grocery chain felt everyone would go to one store, buy what they wanted, and hurry back to isolation. I’m sure a lot of people are doing exactly that.

While we like the people, our loyalty to this grocery store has flagged. We still don’t like venturing out during the stay at home order, even if it is for necessities. This experience made it just a little more unpleasant.  

All Week Long

Last week seem to go on for a month. I am not quite sure why. Maybe it is because I am unaccustomed to being home so much. Hey, I’m retired so you think this would be old hat. Still, this year I have been doing a fair amount of substitute teaching. I also direct a high school musical. Suddenly, I am idle.

Like many Americans, the current situation with coronavirus has cost us some money. The little bit of stock I own has lost 40% of its value. Since our state’s teacher retirement system is funded by investments, I am sure that they are experiencing some significant losses. These losses will be passed along to the retirees in some way or another. As is the case with most public and private entities, the people at the top fare the best in trying times like these, while everyone else bears the actual cost. I am losing the income from five days of substitute teaching as well.

Ohio’s governor yesterday announced a stay at home directive, ordered by Dr. Amy Acton, the state’s head of the Department of Health. We have been watching the daily addresses from Columbus. Dr. Acton seems to be honest, forthcoming and compassionate about the effect that COVID-19 has on all of us and the eventuality that more Ohioans will die from the virus. Yesterday, she threw out the statistic that I had heard kicked around – 40-60% of people will contract this virus. Hearing this from a public official is both alarming and refreshing. No sugar-coating it, no cheerleading, no beating around the bush. It is just the way it is. Dr. Acton has been very positive about the fact that following the recommendations mentioned daily will reduce the spread of the virus and the likelihood that we will contract it.

Some people are not taking this very seriously. Last Thursday, I had my oil changed and tires rotated. The waiting room at the car dealership was pretty full. Usually it is not like this. Maybe people are panic-maintaining their vehicles? My car has over 105K miles and I want to keep it running, so I felt it was a necessary risk. A risk I didn’t want to take was sitting in that waiting room with all of those people, so I sat at a table in the showroom just around the corner.

The disbelief that this was a serious situation that we are facing was evident in the conversations in the next room. The lone woman in the group was obviously incredulous as to the severity of the problem. When the one person started a conversation about the dangers of the situation, her answer was always a cynical, “may-BE.” After her third reply with this grating response, I started cursing under my breath. If she has said, “This is all a bunch of crap,” I don’t think I would have been bothered by it. It was that dismissive “I am the expert of all things” response that stuck in my craw.

After the oil change, I ventured to a nearby grocery store for a couple of things. I found the items I needed (all of them, surprisingly), and headed for the checkout. The young lady running the cash register seemed to be on death’s doorstep. Between customers, she held her head in her hands, sighing heavily. The gentleman ahead of me asked her if she was alright. She replied, “I just hurt.” When I got home, we cleaned every surface on each item with disinfectant and put the grocery sack directly into the garbage can.

Things will eventually improve. I am confident in this. When that will occur is anyone’s guess.