What can be more disheartening and anger-provoking than foreseeing the impending tragedy unfolding in front of your eyes while not much you can do about it?
On the 26th of
January 2020, Mary tried to select a proper word for her facebook posts about
the fast-spreading, yet so novel, too invisible “Wuhan-viruses.” “Outbreak, epidemic, or pandemic, which one?” An
ominous inkling flowing through her subconsciousness, she picked “pandemic.”
(See attached, a screen capture from facebook).
Since late January 2020, she religiously followed important news and several famous youtube channels of Taiwan, Japan, and S. Korea, regarding the development of the viruses. Though Mary was in the US, she vividly remembered how horrific the 2003 SARS was, originating from China and spreading over the neighboring countries. Taiwan, Mary’s native country, was the closest one to the viral epicenter, suffering 346 infected cases, the unprecedentedly dreadful 73 deaths, and an economic setback. Similar situations happened to the neighboring countries too.
A painful lesson learned, like most of the countries in Asia, today, amid the covid19 pandemic, Taiwan has been doing the best she can with 900 infected cases and 7 deaths as of the end of January 2021.
Last month, shocking news put the residents and the health care officials on high alert in Taiwan. It was because on December 22, 2020, a new infection ending a 255-day run without Local Transmission, underlining the challenges in controlling the virus even in areas where it has been largely stamped out.
Through daily absorbing information about the coronavirus, one event caught Mary’s attention. There were some youtube video clips smuggled out of China regarding the Mayor of Wuhan, on Jan 23, 2020, who declared a lockdown of the whole city which has 11 million residents. However, on Jan 22, the news had been spread over the whole Hu Bei province. Several relevant videos showed thousands, thousands of crowded people panickily swamped into bus-train stations, airports, and any transportation hubs. From the hindsight understanding, one of the situations was associated with the date of Jan 25, which was the Lunar New Year, the most important holiday, equivalent to the Thanksgiving or Christmas Day in the US.
Unofficial information was released that about five million of the Wuhan people, whether infected or not, escaping the lockdown, moving to more than 30 provinces and other countries.
The gigantic exodus initiated the politburo’s powerful iron-fist in controlling every aspect of the daily lives of the mass in China. Among the exoduses, one video stood out. Mary hesitated to share on social media for fear of being labeled as “endorsing undemocratic, tyrannical, or uncivilized” treatments - the
It was
about among the five million Exodusters that 600,000 got out of Wuhan to
several countries, particularly, Italy, France, Spain, England, and the US.
Some of those European countries are members of China’ grandiose “Belt and
Road Initiative (一帶一路).” A part of the international
business liaisons and associates (about 10,000 Chinese) reside in Milan and its
proximities. They were back and forth between Wuhan-n-other-provinces, and
Italy's major cities for business’ sake, before, and during the outbreak.
Here is a video for reference (click and watch, if xenophile... https://www.youtube.com/embed/uY6cf4VAz3E?feature=oembed) regarding those 600,000 Exodusters.
(Note: Viewers' description is needed - further information, more research, and critical analysis are helpful for a better understanding.)
But where did the information come from?
Big data mining companies tracked down the traveling itineraries (based on flight tickets and cellphone messages) of the above 60,000 escapers from Wuhan right before the city lockdown. The following picture captured from my blog on the above video, shows each red line referring to a trip of an individual from the epicenter, then to the hotspots, finally reaching all over the world. (For authenticity and further information, more research is needed.)
These
types of surveillances are unbelievable and unacceptable in most part of the democratic
countries.
Furthermore,
a dilemma challenged Mary’s thoughts. To avoid reinforcing some negative
stereotypes of certain groups of people, even though, China constantly imposing
military threats on Taiwan, Mary decided not to post on facebook. Only a part
of the information was briefly mentioned on her blogs. Moreover, some not well-acquainted
facebook friends treated Mary as Chinese by her name and appearance. Her status sandwiched among Taiwan, the US.,
and China makes her public expressions and presentations complicated. Many
social media friends find that Mary tends to use unclear words or ambiguous
expressions.
Coming to the point, Mary was in panics. The above information vividly recurred
in her mind. What happened on the map
would be replicated in the US. – sooner, not later. Viewers might be skeptical or curious if the information was
authentic, though, these panelists were highly respected
professionals in Taiwan. The worst part of the story was that there were no
whatsoever actions from the local, state to the federal government planned,
organized, and enacted to deal with the fast-growing and spreading viruses!
Mary recalled the first infected case identified at a nursing facility in
Kirkland, Washington, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus in February 2020.
There, had about 27 of the 108 residents and 25 of the 180 staff with some
symptoms. It was horrendously shocking and uneasy news to Mary, based on her
understanding of this type of virus.
Meanwhile, Mary also read a small report about a Taiwanese-American health care worker who began wearing a facial mask to her work setting in Seattle after
knowing the first confirmed case of the virus in the US traced back to January
21, 2020. Upon arriving at her office,
the co-worker showed friendly concerns, “Jenny, are you O.K.?”; “Jenny,
caught the flu? “ Jenny suddenly found
herself being a focal point in her office. Quickly pulling off her mask, she
responded, “I am fine, thanks.” Then, her supervisor, being aware of what was going on, sympathetically talked to her,
“Well, Jenny, if you do not feel well, it is O.K. to take a sick leave. I can arrange a sub.”
Jenny, at
this juncture was awkward. A premonition lingering in her mind, she felt the
severity of this virus at the current stage of development. It was common sense to wear masks, keep
rigorous contact-tracking, tracing, quarantine (euphemized: social distancing),
and follow the treatment protocols in most parts of Far-Eastern Asia. Due to the
difficulties of wearing the mask and keeping social distancing… et cetera “odd”
self-mandates, Jenny reluctantly decided to quit her job in February
of 2020.
After
having read this news, Mary empathized with the whole dynamics that Jenny and her
co-workers encountered. During February 2020, the roaring impeachment overshadowed
everything except a narcissist’s wielding the apocalyptic power. Mary could see the fermenting, sprawling, and
spreading viruses everywhere, yet no significant measures to stop this pending
massacre could be found.
Then, the expected looming omen of Mary finally happened. On February 5,
Wisconsin identified the first infected case (the 7th of the whole
nation). According to the news, the UW hospital checked the patient and then
asked this person to self-quarantine at home. At that moment Mary could not
believe what she read. Shocked by the flaws, a series of questions popped into
her mind, “Did the doctors and nurses have the standard anti-virus masks,
multiple-layered gloves, lab coats and the rest of personal protective
equipment (PPE), protective scrubs on, and the testing procedures following the
required anti-virus protocols?”.
Thinking of these issues, another bunch of practices appeared in her mind. The
videos Mary watched from Taiwan these days, such as constructing the individual
case history of the infected, contact-tracing and tracking, regular checking
and follow-ups through the health care personnel, and the necessary medical
treatments. The whole set of anti-viral protocols needed to be done gingerly. Inevitably,
Mary was skeptical, “Did the patient comply with the rule without spreading
into a community contagious scenario?” “What about the aircraft, cars, or
public transportation systems, friends, and folks this person contacted?”
Now, many
people know how severe penalty or punishment is to the people who violate the
anti-viral protocols in several Asian countries. Being called – “tyrannical”,
“undemocratic”, or even “uncivilized” turns into an ambivalent, oxymoronic sentiment of
being effective and repressive simultaneously in terms of saving lives. Who could have imagined, in the mid-summer and later, the theatrical turbulence coming into scenes in the whole US. one tragedy after another besieged by the intersectional complexities of race, class, politicians' gaming, and playing the constitution, particularly, the 1st and the 2nd Amendments under an incoordinate political Federal-State dual system without the leadership and accountabilities. One of the potentially ominous scenarios was that each complex social disorder might repeat approximately "50" times! Mary wished that things would not have had to happen that way.
During the
mid-February 2020, Mary also read some timing reports released from Lancet, a well-reviewed
medical journal. One of them indicated that the virus could mutate quickly, and
the incubation period could last more than 24 days. 14 days’ quarantine is a minimum requirement, and some supercarriers show no symptoms!! These were not
“confirmation biases!”
The other important information was about R0, pronounced “R naught.” It is a mathematical term, indicating how contagious an infectious disease is. It’s also referred to as the reproduction number. As infection is transmitted to new people, it reproduces itself.[1]
Such as in 1918, the worldwide outbreak of the swine flu killed 50 million people. According to a review article published in BMC Medicine,[2] the R0 value of the 1918 pandemic was estimated to be between 1.4 and 2.8. The swine flu, or H1N1 virus, came back in 2009, its R0 value was between 1.4 and 1.6.
What about the R0 of the novel coronavirus (later, COVID19)?
It was shocking! The R0 for COVID-19 is a median of 5.7, according to a study published online in Emerging Infectious Diseases. That’s about double an earlier R0 estimate of 2.2 to 2.7. The 5.7 means that one person with COVID-19 can potentially transmit the coronavirus to 5 to 6 people, rather than the 2 to 3 researchers originally thought.[3]
Furthermore, believe it or not, in the early spring of 2020, several mathematical models predicted that 1/4 to 1/2 of the world population would get infected and death tolls could reach several million. Surely, these “crazy guessing games” would make most people “laugh it off” at that time.
With the information in mind, Mary had even more questions regarding the WI case.
Nevertheless, she was not sure of herself, “When teaching, how important to
follow FERPA to protect students’ identifiable information. Not to mention the personal medical confidentiality, like HIPAA.” Having thought so, Mary still,
unconsciously, had a desire if she could have known the locale of this person,
particularly, the community and activities this individual involved.
“What can I do? Sitting there to see what happened in China, Japan, S. Korea, Singapore,
Taiwan and the rest to, recur, here?!” Mary decided to do one thing she was
good at: starting her short
whistle-blowing career on social media platforms. She could feel the “carefree”,
“Don’t worry. Be happy” sentiments of the general population. However, Mary, as a non-Caucasian in this homogenous
region, had to be careful not to be quickly labeled as a “fearmonger.”
“Is the lesson-learned-experience
transferrable to reduce, if not avoid, the foreseeable catastrophes in the US.?”
Mary asked herself constantly since the first case of infection was identified.
Surely, today, from the hindsight conditions, things were not so simple as they
emerged during the first quarter of 2020.
Anyway, Mary also started documenting major events in late January 2020
on her blog https://ci8395.blogspot.com/p/coronavirus.html as a witness of
what happened during the pandemic.
Then, the
aforenoted Jenny in Washington State, whom Mary sympathized with, a month
later, she faced a similar situation in Wisconsin.
Since the first infected case happened in Madison on February 5, Mary started worrying
about the paradise-like Wisconsin.
One
day in early March, Mary had to visit a local hospital. Luckily "owning" a box of standard N95 facemasks mailed from her
sister in Taiwan, Mary dared not to wear one, though. In this region, seemingly wearing/having one was a mysterious "taboo,” - at that time.
Regarding the mini-PPEs items mailed to me from my sister, here is a short story. To live, or not to live, that is the question!! With the nice civil liberties not infringed, things still could be done to contain and medical intervene against the pandemics. Upon knowing the Wuhan virus In late January 2020, Taiwan revised the anti-viral protocols, rules-n-regulations; organizes the medical personnel, and stockpiles PPEs, facial masks, ventilators, as well as the rest of the anti-viral materials and resources.
To prevent the facial mask from panics, hoarding, and price gauging, the Taiwanese government created a ration-distributing system, free for all residents based on the ID of each household.
Back to the hospital visit event.
Mary prepared the mask in her pocket. During the check-in, a lady (Caucasian, yes, 98% of the population) in the
neighboring lane was severely coughing while the registration personnel faced
these coughing droplets as calmly as usual. That scene shocked Mary
tremendously. She pulled out her mask and wore it immediately yet reluctantly.
Meanwhile, the whole atmosphere of the Hall was changed: here, the only daredevil
with a mask.
Mary sat down at a corner near two visitors. Suddenly, these two stood up and
left quickly. Other passers-by just stared at Mary who innocently told one of
the starers: "I am fine, just for self-protection." But who believed whom for what?
Later, Mary (still with the mask on), before leaving the hospital, courageously
chatted with a brave RN:
"Ms. xxx, I am healthy. Do not be panic. Please do not feel offended that
I dare to talk to you. I just want to suggest: Can the hospital offer those front-line
Registration Associates with facial Masks, in addition to other preventative
measures of your hospital?" The surprised RN, with a little bit of
confusion, replied to Mary, “I will talk to my supervisors. Thanks."
Mary wore
the mask when shopping. The whole grocery store, she was the only one doing so
- in early March. The cashiers mainly were students from the local
university. Mary taught there as an
adjunct before. The idea of self-protection and projecting-others seemed too
novel to be feasible at that time for the students, too.
Mary told herself, “I wish I had boxes, boxes of facial masks to donate, like,
now the Taiwanese government's doing to aid the countries in need of them. But
what else can I do? “
Then an urge popped up, “I needed to write to the manager.”
Upon arriving home, Mary found the store’s service website. Then she sent the
following message to whom it may concern:
"
Dear Manager,
I am a long-term customer of your store. I appreciate your associates' high-quality
service.
Today I
stopped by to purchase some food items and found none of your service staff
having a facial mask on while doing busy work.
They are the frontline soldiers running the risk with the high probability to contract the Novel Coronavirus for serving our residents.
Now our state has more than 2000 positive cases and 57 death tolls.
Our neighboring states, Michigan and Illinois are the new hotspots.
This type of new virus can incubate for a long time, even some people
contracted the viruses and don’t show the symptoms. That’s one of the
main reasons for many people who become severely ill and die after tested with
positive, because the viruses being discovered too late is a major factor!
I salute all of you!
But I am
wondering if there is any way that your company can purchase N95 masks for the
working associates?
Be safe.
Sincerely, Xena Crystal "
Attached below was the
store’s service website where Mary submitted her suggestion:
It was understandable. Masks, were “too novel” in March 2020. Later, they turned into “too political” which was beyond Mary’s imagination.
, "Now the masks' status has been changed. They turn into hot commercial products of many designers and speculators.)
[2] Modeling influenza epidemics and pandemics: insights into the future of swine flu (H1N1) | BMC Medicine | Full Text (biomedcentral.com)
[3] High Contagiousness
and Rapid Spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 - Volume
26, Number 7—July 2020 - Emerging Infectious Diseases journal - CDC
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