2020 was supposed to be the best year ever, it was the start of a new decade and everything was lining up to make it such an awesome year. I was so excited for all the plans I had made, I didn't do much the first couple months of the year, besides work as much as possible, because I was saving all my money and time off for a month long family vacation to Europe. However, I never could have imagined what this year would actually turn out to be....
In December 2019, a new corona virus was identified in Wuhan, China that was causing an outbreak there. It was designated a "Public Health Emergency of International Concern" by the WHO on January 30, 2020. The virus causes a respiratory infection, with the most common symptoms being a fever and cough. The severity of illness varies a lot, with some people being asymptomatic or having mild symptoms, some getting extremely sick but being able to recover at home, to approximately 10% having severe and critical cases that require hospital care. The biggest risk that is trying to be avoided is the overwhelming of hospitals with too many patients needing care, and not enough medical workers, beds, and equipment to properly care for them. The people most at risk for having severe cases and fatalities from the virus are those who are older, and those with pre-existing health conditions, including the immunocompromised, although people from all age groups have required hospitalizations, and have had fatalities. With how interconnected our world is today, and how much travel goes on, it spread to many other countries over the first few months of the year, with Italy and Spain being the hardest hit in Europe.
Up through the first week of March, there were a lot of people downplaying the risk of the virus, especially here in the US, including the president. On March 11, the WHO declares COVID-19 a world wide pandemic, and finally the US started to take things seriously. In a matter of three days, March 11-13, the US along with the rest of the world, essentially shut down. The NBA cancels their entire season, all 5 Disney parks around the world close, TV shows suspend taping new shows, LDS churches suspend all public gatherings including Sunday worship, the temples close, universities move all classes to online and shut down their campuses, schools around the country are shut down and teachers have to scramble to figure out how to continue teaching online for two weeks (which will later extend to the end of the school year)
There were a lot of changes to everyday life after the shut down, people were asked to work from home whenever possible, non-essential businesses were closed, restaurants were only being allowed to do take-out or delivery, and everyone asked to practice "social distancing" - staying at least 6 feet away from others. You are only supposed to hang out with the people in your immediate household, It is ok to go outside to exercise, but you are not supposed to meet up with others, and need to maintain social distancing. Eventually all 50 states would issue some sort of Shelter at Home order, to help flatten the curve of infection and not overwhelm the hospitals. As a result of all of this, many people have lost their jobs, many businesses are in jeopardy, and the economy is suffering. Not doing all this, however, would result in a lot more illness and deaths.
Grocery shopping has been really interesting. People have been asked to limit shopping trips as much as possible, have only one person from the family go whenever possible, and many stores have been having a special hour at the beginning of each day where only seniors and those at higher risk are allowed to shop to lower the risk to them. Many stores are limiting the number of customers allowed inside at a time, and have areas on the floor marked off for waiting in line for check out to keep people at least 6 feet apart. People started panic buying certain items, including toilet paper, paper towels, disinfecting wipes, bottled water, basic baking staples, etc. so now those things are generally much harder to find in stores, and when they do come into stock there is a limit of how much one customer can buy. At the entrance of Costco, they have a whiteboard with the popular items they don't have in stock listed on one side, and the ones they do on the other side. Another thing that is affecting the availability of products is, usually there is a much larger need of the commercial version of items for people to use at work, schools, and public areas. Now things have skewed to where there is much less demand for the commercial version of these things, and much greater demand for the individual consumer version. It is hard to change the way things are made, packaged, delivered, etc. so this is also affecting many products like TP, milk, etc. Some businesses have changed what they are producing during this time - like some distilleries are now making hand sanitizer, General Motors is now making ventilators, and some clothing factories are now making face masks and medical gowns.
The Healthcare industry is being hit hard with this. There is a big shortage of PPE (personal protection equipment) for doctors, nurses, and other medical workers which puts them in more danger. This includes things like N95 masks, gloves, and plastic protective gowns. They have asked the public to not buy N95 masks or surgical masks, so that more can be available to the health care workers who are working with and around COVID-19 patients. They have asked medical, dental, orthodontic, and veterinary procedures to be limited to essential or emergency only to help conserve PPE and limit the spread of the virus. Utah so far has not been one of the hardest hit areas (as of April 10Th), and I'm hoping people comply with what has been asked of us so we can stay that way. (it will not stay this way, Utah, especially Utah County did not comply with the CDC recommendations and it became a mini hotspot along with Arizona and Texas. Things got better when the governor issued a mask mandate for Salt Lake and Summit Counties, and large stores like Harmons, Target, Walmart, Smiths, Starbucks etc. started enforcing masks in their establishments) It has been very sobering to read about overworked healthcare workers, many of whom are getting ill themselves, trying to cope with overwhelmed hospitals, lack of ventilators, and patients not being able to be with their loved ones when they die, and needing emergency refrigerated trucks and temporary spaces set up as morgues to handle the dead.
The virus is spread through close contact with people, through respiratory droplets from sneezes and coughs. These droplets can also land on surfaces which can touched by another person, and if that person touches their eyes, nose or mouth, the virus can enter the body. There is more research going on about exactly how it spreads, but it seems to spread quite easily. For prevention, people are supposed to wash their hands very often for 20 seconds, avoid touching their face, social distance, stay away from people who are sick, and self-isolate if they become sick. Something that has made prevention hard is that asymptomatic people can still be infected with the virus, and spread it without knowing. Later, they will add the recommendation to wear a face covering if going to an area where you will be around others, like the grocery store. This doesn't protect the wearer as much as it protects those around them by limiting droplets from their mouth or nose from getting into the air. To keep the professional face masks for the healthcare workers, there have been instructions of how to sew your own mask, or make one from a bandana, t-shirt or scarf. Many people are volunteering and making masks for police departments, care homes, grocery workers, etc. Many people are also wiping down their groceries, take out containers, and other items brought into the home with disinfectant to try and limit exposure to the virus.
This is a very difficult experience for the whole world and has completely changed everyday life in many places. There is still a lot of uncertainty about how long these virus-limiting behaviors will need to go on, and when we will be able to return to a more normal way of life.
Here is a timeline that outlines some of the major events of the pandemic outbreak:
11/17/19 - First case of Coronavirus
1/7/2020 - Outbreak of pneumonia cases in Wuhan China Identified as a new Coronavirus
1/7/2020 - Outbreak of pneumonia cases in Wuhan China Identified as a new Coronavirus
1/11 - First known death from new Coronavirus
1/20 - First cases identified outside of China in Thailand, Japan, and South Korea
1/21 - First confirmed case in United States - 30 year old man in Washington, he had just come home from visiting Wuhan, China.
1/26- Disney closes parks in Shanghai and Hong Kong
2/1 - Diamond Princess passenger tested positive for COVID-19 after disembarking in Hong Kong on January 25
2/4 Diamond Princess Cruise ship quarantined in Yokohama with about 37,000 passengers and crew onboard
2/9 - Death toll in China rose to 811, surpassing the number of fatalities from the SARS outbreak in 2003
2/14 - First death outside of China, a Chinese tourist died in France
2/24 - Italy becomes the worst hit country in Europe
2/28 - Tokyo Disney closes
2/29 - First death in the US, 50 year old man in Washington State
3/7 - Utah gets first confirmed case. A 60 year old Davis county man who was on the Diamond Princess Cruise
3/10 - Italy issued a lockdown of the entire country as confirmed cases surpass 5,800
3/11 - WHO declares COVID-19 a world wide pandemic
NBA cancels entire season as Utah Jazz player tested positive
Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson test positive and are quarantined in Australia
President Trump announces travel ban from Europe for 30 days
LDS church announces no audience for General Conference, it will all be virtual
3/12 - Universities move all classes online and close down campuses
NCAA cancels all of mens and women’s March Madness tournaments
LDS church announces suspension of all public gatherings, including Sunday worship
Broadway shuts down
CDC recommends practicing social distancing, hand washing, no touching of faces
Public starts panic buying, shelves in stores become completely empty
3/13 - All Utah Public Schools dismissed for two weeks
President Trump declares the COVID-19 outbreak a National Emergency
Italy’s confirmed cases swell to more than 15,000
Europe becomes new epicenter of the virus
Disney closes parks in CA, FL and Paris. Now all parks worldwide are closed
Disney closes it’s cruise line
TV shows suspend taping new shows, they had been filming without audiences
3/14 - Spain becomes next country at risk of overloading healthcare system, with 3,800 cases
3/15 - Number of cases in the US surpasses 3,000 with 61 deaths
CDC recommends no gatherings of 50 or more people for 8 weeks
All musical artists suspend/cancel/ postpone all their concerts and tours
3/16 - There are now 29 confirmed cases in Utah
Official start of country wide 2 week quarantine, many restaurants, stores, gyms close
3/18 - 5.7 Earthquake hits SLC county at 7:09 am, biggest earthquake in UT for 28 years
53 confirmed cases in Utah
7,300 confirmed cases in US
3/20 - 19,285 confirmed cases in US, 249 deaths
3/22 - First death in Utah, a man in his 60s who tested positive the day before
New York becomes an epicenter of the pandemic, it accounts for ~5% of the world’s conformed cases
3/26 - Total number of confirmed cases in the US surpasses China with over 85,000 making it the country with the highest number of COVID-19 patients, in the world
4/13 - Death toll in Utah 18
4/30- 1.04 million conformed cases in US
60,966 deaths in US
May - States begin phased reopenings of their communities even though the virus still isn't anywhere near contained. We see spikes in cases, masks mandates are put into place in some areas, angry anti-maskers emerge and firmly believe masks are an infringement on their freedoms, some people go about life as usual and believe COVID-19 isn't real or a threat, while others continue to quarantine as much as possible. It's an extremely divided time that will continue all summer and into the fall (which will then lead us to the great "re-open schools" debate, which will be a mess.)
May - States begin phased reopenings of their communities even though the virus still isn't anywhere near contained. We see spikes in cases, masks mandates are put into place in some areas, angry anti-maskers emerge and firmly believe masks are an infringement on their freedoms, some people go about life as usual and believe COVID-19 isn't real or a threat, while others continue to quarantine as much as possible. It's an extremely divided time that will continue all summer and into the fall (which will then lead us to the great "re-open schools" debate, which will be a mess.)
5/28 - US COIVD-19 deaths surpass 100,000
6/10- US COVID-19 cases reach 2 million
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