This should be the goal of every city, county, state, and nation.
UPDATE:
“Stay at Home” order issued by Gov Inslee for two weeks (minimum), effective immediately for individuals and 5:30 pm Wednesday, March 25th for businesses. This is essentially the same as most “shelter in place” orders, and excludes “essential activities”. This includes health care, child care facilities, food production, transportation, media, courts, law enforcement, grocery stores, banks, gas stations, take-out restaurant services, pharmacies, and essential government activities. Taking a walk outside, while keeping 6’ distance, is ok, as is going to the grocery store, pharmacy, or to receive health care services.
“We expect people to follow this order voluntarily, but.. make no mistake.. this order is enforceable by law”.
Out are beachparties, pickup games in the park, sleepovers, and weddings and funerals. I didn’t hear anything about mariujuana shops, but there actually has been discussion about medical marijuana dispenseries possibly included as health care providers. Blogging is still ok :p.
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Original diary.
Even those communities who are working the hardest at flattening the curve are going to have some setbacks amidst the hope, and vice versa. This entry for WA-State will address one key truth as we all confront this world-changing event: Every community in Earth needs to think of this not as a personal problem, but a shared one. This involves two important steps:
1. Do everything you can to slow the infection, because your neighbors’ lives literally depend on it. This means changing routines and remembering that social distancing applies you, too. Those communities with a critical mass of people who abide by this will emerge from this crisis sooner, and with more neighbors around to pick up the pieces.
2. Start thinking about ways to help those in your circle (or outside it if you can) impacted by Covid-19.
As for #1, I am happy to report that Snohomish County, WA, where I live, is continuing to flatten the curve. As of today, there are 519 reported cases, trailing only King County (Seattle) in WA State, which had over 1000 cases as of yesterday. Because of large inconsistencies in testing between communities, the numbers are less important than the trends. For example, WA State has tested over 28,000 people, and according to the COVID-19 Tracking project, New York and Washington Account for 86,000 of the 279,000 tests conducted so far in the US. But the trends tell the story, and that graph above, showing a decrease in cases each day, is spectacular news. As I’ve said before, we are one of the canaries in the Covid-19 mine, and if we can start singing a happier song, it means that there is a path for other US communities to get through this.
We’re not out of the woods yet, and as of this writing I am expecting a 5:30 pm PDT announcement from Jay Inslee giving a statewide “Shelter in Place” order to ensure we can stay out of the woods. Those “woods” are the dark and deadly outcomes of epidemiological math that will cut through any lies, denial, or rhetoric some leaders think they can use against it. Covid-19 doesn’t care about politics, lies, or rhetoric. It is a systematic, effective, and dangerous buzzsaw of truth that will cut any community, state, or nation down who ignores it. I’m looking at you, Gov DeSantis of Florida. I don’t look at that other guy anymore, as much as I can help it.
Back to the numbers and trends. We’re starting to see some very big differences emerge by state. And, according to trends, we should all start worrying a lot about places like Louisiana, the next canary in the gold mine. As of March 21st, they were showing the world’s largest growth rate of COVID-19. It is places like this that this will hit the hardest (I know.. Louisiana again?!?). Today, Louisiana is lurking around 6th or 7th on the US list, but expect that to change rapidly.
As for #2, helping each other, I’ll share a story from the iconic Pike Place Market in Seattle, where the Pike Place Market Foundation is expanding it’s “Market Community Safety Net” program to respond to local needs for food and shelter. Local venders have faced severe issues with sales, obviously, and are having to move to much reduced volumed curbside or remote deliveries. My hero of the day is Mike Osborn of Sosio’s produce. From the Seattle Times:
On Sunday, a day that the market is usually choked with tourists, vendor Mike Osborn’s throaty voice could be heard booming across Sosio’s produce, a space packed with fruit and vegetable stands and lit by a row of hanging lamps.
(snip)
The produce stand has been around for more than 60 years — and, like the meat vendors, seafood joints and bakeries in the market, it’s considered an essential business and remains open during the COVID-19 public-health emergency. So far, despite Sosio’s devoted patrons and employees, business was about 25% to 30% down, Osborn estimated.
The flower farmers who are Osborn’s neighbors and colleagues in the market haven’t been so lucky, so Osborn is buying their bouquets and selling them at his shop. He’s added a $15 charge on the bouquets. That surcharge will go to the Pike Place Market Foundation’s Community Safety Net fund and, he said, “everybody is happy to pay.”
This crisis will teach all of us, sooner or later, that there is something deeper than politics, or economics. A judgement is coming, where each and every one of us will need to take stock of our humanity. Hopefully, that version of humanity will stay in our collective memory long enough to get us through the next crisis.
The price of democracy is the ongoing pursuit of the common good by all of the people. — Saul Alinsky
