So, back in January, I started suggesting we all needed to be prepared to self-quarantine for a few weeks. I had never suggested this before except for telling my History of Med students over the years that my MD spouse and I keep emergency "epidemic boxes."
Someone asked me how I "knew" this might be "the one" back in Jan. I didn't know - I just had a feeling based on having taught SARS and knowing experts in that case said "We got lucky. We won't get lucky with the next really bad coronavirus." The signs this time were like SARS.
This virus is weird - skewing hard to kill the elderly. This may cause atypical epidemic behavior, as most epidemics cause more panic by killing younger people. Looks like we will see high infection rates but not deaths in younger folks. The young will be vectors of death.
As an historian, I think this will be a very interesting epidemic. As a human being, I think this will be a very depressing epidemic as we may lose many of our elders very rapidly. And I fear it will make vivid how we de-value the old and infirm in America. That scares me.
