Plague journal
Leaving the house
Today I had a phone appointment with my doctor to get some updated prescriptions; I figured it was a good time to make sure I had all my asthma inhalers up to date rather than making do with old expired ones that still basically worked. As we hung up I wished her good luck. (It was supposed to be a video chat, but the video system wasn’t working at their end.)
The CDC announced that traces of SARS-CoV-2 were found on the Princess Cruises ship 17 days after the passengers disembarked. Yes, that’s not active viruses, just RNA; but, you can get infected from enough pure enough RNA from a SARS-type virus. So it seems that like anthrax, part of what makes this coronavirus so deadly is the way it sticks around.
Later I left the house for the first time in days, to go to the pharmacy. There were cars and people around, but it was still very, very quiet. Austin is now under shelter-in-place order until at least April 13th.
Seeing the eerily quiet city was worse than staying indoors. I can stay indoors and just pretend I’m being me, but if I go out and see empty streets and emptied shelves and makeshift barriers it drives home just how bad the situation is.