COVID-19 FYI#2

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Okay…I promised yesterday that my posts would not be all doom and gloom. But this morning I woke with a great sense of responsibility to share the truth of how serious the crisis is. I’m writing this post for myself as much as all those around me I care about, like you! I need a reminder this morning of why I’m not visiting my kids and grandkids and not receiving those oh-so-important hugs from my dear littlest ones, or why I can’t jump in the car and go spend time with my parents, who are locked down in their senior retirement center. It’s awful, and there is still a part of me that wants to deny the whole mess and get back to life—to say: “Heck with this—I’m breaking out of isolation.”

The light in this darkness is that many of us will contract the SARS-CoV-2 virus, may have mild-to-moderate symptoms of COVID-19, but will FULLY RECOVER. The unfortunate reality is, there will be people we know, possibly even family and friends, who may not survive. This literally gives me pain in my heart to write these words.

The bottom line is this: YOU DO NOT WANT TO CONTRACT THIS VIRUS. I give this warning to help remind us ALL that the sacrifices and inconveniences that we endure will prove to be essential. It is important to understand how deadly and highly contagious the virus truly is. It’s vital that we continue our vigilance and safety measures. 

By all this social distancing, you very well could save the life of a family member, a neighbor and even the heroes on the front line that are in the “hot zone” of this pandemic. THIS IS OUR CALL TO DUTY.

I want to share with you a fantastic website where you can see the projections for the US and each one of our states. The website will give you a view (and yes, it’s frightening) of what is in store for us in the coming weeks. I believe it helps us prepare our hearts and minds, and how we can plan. The information also helps predict the answer to the question that we are all asking…when does all this end? I will write more about this in detail in upcoming posts.

https://covid19.healthdata.org/projections

This website is from The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) and is an independent global health research center at the University of Washington, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. If you click on top where you see The United States of America, you will enable a pulldown menu for your state. For example, in Montana, we are not projected to reach our peak until May 1st.

Please, please, please, don’t let this information strictly fuel your fear. I’m sure you will agree with me that not much help is needed in that department! But use it to strengthen your resolve. Let’s do everything we can to keep ourselves and each other safe.

In the next few days, I want to share among other things: What research is being done to prevent and treat COVID-19. What this particular virus does to our bodies that makes it so dangerous.

I love hearing from each one of you as well. Keep the excellent questions coming!

With Love and Health…Timothy

Takeaways:

1) Stay Home. Stay Safe. Stay Connected.

2) Check your state in the website provided to help you understand what is happening locally.

3) Our call to duty is to do our part in social distancing.

Practical Tip of the Day:

I hesitate to post this, but the importance of it cannot be denied. We are terrible about talking about our own mortality, even though death is part of all of our lives. We will lose people we know in the pandemic. For me, it’s an important time to mediate and pray over our lives. It makes me want to be a kinder person, (I got to put that into practice last night when our Spectrum internet went down) and to reach out to those that perhaps I haven’t talked to in a while and tell them what they mean to me, even asking for forgiveness where needed and reconciling any broken relationships. There is no doubt that this virus has changed our lives and our world. Let’s choose this day, to pledge to come out on the other side better and stronger because of it.