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Well, it's official. Mitigation rules in Maryland are
starting to be eased slowly, step by step, inch by inch.
Just remember, it will continue to be a long and winding
road
Organizations are struggling with new rules for opening. The
service industry is particularly hard hit and it will be a
while until restaurants are reopened; once they open, it
will be different. Your server will be masked, the seating
capacity will be reduced; all of this will profoundly change
the social experience. And on the production side of food,
the meat packaging plants are struggling, including poultry
farming on the Eastern Shore of Maryland; a CDC team is
actively investigating this hot spot. And this is only a
small fraction of struggling industries.
We will learn in the near future the delicate balance
between being routinely exposed to benign microorganisms
while trying to eradicate the COVID-19 virus. And this will
likely have some effect on our own internal ecosystem - the
microbiome. Our systems are finely tuned for us to be able
to live with bacteria and viruses which are normally
abundant. Now, we will be killing bad guys, COVID-19, yet
there will be collateral damage since we will have less
exposure to normal flora. It is unclear what effects this
will ultimately have. Physicians and scientists have to ask
ourselves how will this affect our immune defenses in the
future. Segregating ourselves from others decreases our
exposure to many things that often we would eventually
develop immunity to. All interesting questions, presently
without an answer.
Let me leave you with this quote: (thank you LF) “I
understand the fear, and the anxiety. I am not going to tell
you the road ahead will be easy, but I will tell you that
you have the power to keep walking one step at a time toward
a better future. And I insist that you stand tall. You are
strong, you are wise, you are capable. This is a setback,
wrapped inside a global disaster, that has nothing to do
with your skills, your character, or who you are. It
happened to you. Don't let it define you.” - Suze Orman.
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