Journey of individuals through the virus crisis: Pontius the Businessman in the USA

  He‘s an investor these days, a kind of ‘dragon’, in other people’s businesses. His own was a tough business to make. He doesn’t want the economic brakes to come on, fears it may ruin him.

   At the start he listens to the news from China, but it’s a long way from his door. The world will soon have sorted this distant outbreak out. He’s never heard of Wuhan before, although the city looks well developed and modern. China is big these days, so much is made there. The Chinese communists seem to have got it in hand, they’re obviously well organized, their people disciplined and hardworking, used to following orders. By February they’re building a massive new hospital very quickly, we can see the foundations going in, and the people walking around with facemasks on. But most people are at home in their apartments, in draconian lockdown.

    He thinks it’s all very distant. It is business as usual for him. He doesn’t think for a million years it will affect him in his businesses in America. America is the greatest nation on Earth. Our private hospitals are well run and up to date, even though the uninsured moan about it and their political apologists. Health professionals are saying the flu virus is a normal occurrence every year. It’s always coming and going, carries off a regular amount of old folks every year, and some unfortunates with underlying health problems.

24/4/20

   He carried on as usual. Everything he touched turned to gold. He had important connections with the new administration and found they were supporting all the right policies which could enrich him, cutting his taxes and freeing him from responsibilities and stringent red tape and environmental policy regulations. He was looking forward to improving profits and rewarding connections. He attended meetings with shareholders and directors, made and destroyed companies at the whim of his profitability predictions. In the process he shook many hands, and even had the leisure to play a few rounds of golf with his buddies. His wife was still beautiful and his sons and daughters were all doing well in the companies he controlled.

    Quite suddenly black clouds began to cut out the sun. The news from the far east was becoming more frightening. Despite the President stopping all flights from China there were reports of the virus getting into parts of Europe, probably carried from European citizens who had visited the far east, or perhaps Chinese tourists. Italy was experiencing a sudden surge of cases and a shocking rise in the number of deaths from this flu. The President had assured everyone that it was under control and that the virus was not coming here. Only older people over 70 were at risk of serious illness or those who were not very fit in other ways. That thought did make him uncomfortable because he was in his late fifties by now and 70 did not seem so far off these days. But the news from Italy kept coming and then Spain saw big increases in cases, and there were suddenly many reports of the virus being found in the West Coast States. He had been to California and to Seattle a few times recently, drinking and dining with old friends and colleagues in bars and restaurants. The reports from Italy were saying that many doctors and nurses, caring for the sick patients in the emergency wards were contracting the virus despite their relative youth and fitness. They were going through difficulties in breathing and a larger proportion than anticipated were having to go not just onto oxygen, but onto ventilators and full intensive care. He was jolted by this news. It meant rationally that even fit people of working ages were at risk from this virus. Many of those doctors and nurses in Italy actually died. Initial misinformation from political leaders and even health professionals who had assumed it would just be like another flu virus had led to complacency. They had not really prepared as much as they should. Suddenly California decided to lock down, after cases on the West Coast expanded and patients started to die in the hospitals, and even the normally optimistic and upbeat President had to admit that more extreme actions were going to be needed.

   The news quickly just got worse and worse. New York turned out to be the worst epicenter of the virus in the United States, far worse than California, who reacted to close down ‘unnecessary’ occupations to prevent the spread of the virus. And he was here right in the heart of the City where suddenly the hospitals were filling with cases. His fellow citizens had been sharing the virus around for how long without realizing it? He hoped he hadn’t contracted it inadvertently from someone.

   Now he was socially distancing like everyone else. He avoided handshakes and avoided attending meetings. He had prized himself on being a friendly gregarious person. He liked talking business, but a lot of it was social too. Now he stayed in his apartment, with his wife. He even avoided Central Park now. When colleagues and business employees and associates wanted to see him he suggested they talk to him on the phone. He quickly got his people to set up video link conversations and conferencing for meetings, and he used his phone even to talk to his sons and daughter.

(28/3/20, 17/4/20, 26/4/20)

   He tried to leave the City of New York because the figures of virus deaths were going up. It did not seem to be a good place to be, even though he was born and raised here in this dog eat dog City. He got in the car with his wife Gail and headed to the bridge towards New Jersey, but before they could get on the bridge the traffic was stopped. There wasn’t much traffic in the city anyway, but here it was completely stopped.

   “What’s this?” he shouted towards the policeman who approached.

   “You can’t go into New Jersey now,” said the cop. “The governors and mayors just shut the roads this morning.”

  “I am not trying to get to New Jersey! We’re trying to pass through to go to our house in Virginia. We’re intending to stay in the country and stay away from the city.”

  “You’re too late sir. Haven’t you been watching the news,” said the Police Officer. “The virus is all over New York. It’s in New Jersey too, and Connecticut, but the governors have shut the borders. We would have let you past yesterday, but we were discouraging people from taking unnecessary journeys, but now the orders have come down. It’s a full lockdown, except for ‘necessary journeys’. We’re not letting anyone over the state borders. You can turn around here and go back, but you can’t go over to New Jersey. No one can, no arguments, unless it’s ‘essential business’. Stay at home and don’t leave, except to get your food from the shops. We are now in quarantine, all three states, and New York City is also in quarantine from upstate New York.”

   They would not let him or his wife get out. The order had come down from above finally. The city was under quarantine. They were now trapped in the city with the worst coronavirus statistics! They would not even let them onto the New Jersey shore. No one, not even a top businessman, one of the wealthiest of America, would be allowed out. They did not want to spread the virus to the other relatively virus free states. The lockdown had become more complete with every day, and it was now fully complete. No one would get out of here. Quarantine included Connecticut and New Jersey, but they were not allowing travel even between the three states now. He wanted to run to the hills, to his house in the hills of Virginia, but they would not allow anyone out of New York State to go there. Trapped in New York he was forced to wait, like everyone else to see who the symptoms developed in.

  Unfortunately less than a couple of weeks later he began to experience a high temperature, a cough and a fever. Soon it was becoming heavy, he had a headache, was lethargic and began to struggle to breathe well, as it descended onto his chest. This unfortunately was not a problem where he could sell a company or a property to collect some cash and solve it. He wanted his wife at his side, but they told him she must remain in isolation at home. They put him on oxygen, and all his plans for the future had to be altered. Still struggling a couple of days later he was deemed to need a ventilator, but unfortunately there was a delay putting him on one, because there were not enough of them, and they were struggling to find enough critical bed places. He had shares in this private hospital company, but it did not give him the privilege sufficient to jump the queue. Some younger health workers needed the ventilators. In tending the sick they too had caught the virus, and their relative youth had not been sufficient to keep them safe. Even they were not immune from the effects of this virus!

   Finally he was put on a ventilator, but it did not save him. He ended up on his deathbed, dying alone, his body put into a cold storage truck.