Living in the time of Corona Virus

These are the opening paragraphs, in a 28,000 word piece, that I am continuing to write about the subject. Anyone volunteering to review and offer suggestions for improvement, with what I have so far, will be appreciated. Just send me an e-mail address to Jxmartin1@mac.com.   

 Thank you.

JXM

                                    Living in the time of the Corona Virus

       It is Friday, the 20^th of March, in the year of our Lord, 2020. We are in the second week of a massive assault by the Corona Virus. In the United States there are already 15,000 cases of infection. Medical personnel advise that it is probably many times that amount due to lack of testing materials and facilities. (later medical estimates place the infection level at over 10,000, in NYC, before we even knew of its existence) Countries like Italy have already had their health systems overwhelmed. I thought it best to set down some of the experiences we are having for those who come after. This isn’t the first plague to afflict our world population, nor will it be the last.

      We were in San Diego, visiting family in late February, when we first heard the term “Corona Virus.” On the National news one night, there was a story about the City of San Francisco refusing dockage for the Princess Line Cruise ship “Emerald Princess.” The reason given was that there was a new kind of virus on the ship, afflicting many of its passengers, some fatally. After a few days, officials relented. The ship was allowed to dock. All of its unaffected passengers were quarantined on military bases for two weeks. The sick and the stricken were carried off to hospitals and morgues. It didn’t seem that unusual at the time. We had seen the Sarrs virus attack Toronto, Canada. And of course, the Norovirus, shipboard, was almost becoming common. We had been aboard one of the Princess ships in Australia, when a number of passengers were taken ill with Norovirus. They were quarantined in their rooms for three days, until they showed signs of recovery. The entire passenger complement had been removed in Melbourne, until the crew scoured the ship with cleansers. All in all, we figured that this was just another one of the scourges that periodically surface on the planet, like Ebola in Africa, small pox and other deadly vectors. As the days passed, we became aware that this was a monster, of gigantic proportions, that would attack everyone on the planet. Each new day, from then on, brought more serious results. New York City was to become the new epicenter of the pandemic. The fight to control the beast would become an epic struggle in which many citizens, particularly among the elderly, would die.