I get so upset with people framing COVID-19 as saving lives vs. saving the economy. Clearly, we have to try to do both. We have to figure out a way to do both and it’s going to be hard. I really pray that I’m overreacting, but we stand to lose everything: our jobs, our houses, and our lives.
I never thought I’d turn to Joe Rogan in a pandemic. But his interview with epidemiologist Michael Osterholm is what made me feel like I halfway understood what’s happening with this disease. Joe actually gave him the space to talk and to raise questions that don’t have a pat answer. Now every morning I google “Michael Osterholm” and read whatever i can find. It’s bleak, but he’s straightforward and I very much appreciate that.
Today I found an interview that’s even better, because it’s Osterholm talking to a doctor, instead of Joe constantly asking him about whether saunas can help prevent coronavirus.
A quote is just rolling around in my mind all the time. “We have to continue to consider what it means to die from this virus. It's a very, very difficult and tragic situation. We also have a conversation of how we're going to live with it. We have to figure that out,” Osterholm told CNBC.
Completely setting aside the mindbogglingly tragic scenes in ERs…what are our cities going to look like after this, if it does go on for months? I think i’m in the sad and angry stage of grief. I love D.C. so much, all the arts and culture here. I don’t want it to change.
I can’t stop thinking about restaurateurs and every single person in the food and events industry. It’s been the most wonderful thing to write about them and I’m in awe of what they’ve achieved in Washington. I just wrote a story about how to get into super popular, buzzy restaurants a couple weeks ago and in the space of a few days, it went from packed dining rooms to peering over the edge of the cliff. It’s so heartbreaking, and there was nothing anyone could do to stop it. Tim Carman’s story on how different folks in the D.C. restaurant scene are handling the pandemic really captures their loss. I so wish we could freeze everything and unthaw it later. My prayer is that we can figure out how to steer this ship to shore with the least amount of damage.
I feel like in America, we have this idea that your work ethic is paramount and the harder you work, the more successful you’ll be — and maybe this stings so much because everyone here was doing everything right, and yet they are forced out of business. I don’t want people to lose what they’ve worked on for their whole lives. I want to order takeout and help them, but I feel conflicted because I’m scared too about finances. Is takeout even the answer? Could there be a restaurant bailout? Or could the government pay restaurant owners to pay their employees to help serve food to people who are hungry?
I don’t have even a fraction of the answers, and I should probably stop staying up all night trying to figure it out.
My psychology professor friend Autumn wrote a wonderful essay for the Tennessean about social distancing coping strategies and she said flashing back to the good times is a totally healthy thing to do to get by. She writes:
