Post No. 1,620 - the pandemic

I've just been talking - by telephone - with a friend of mine who is recovering from COVID-19. His comments back up what I've read quite a few times in various media reports - and seen on various forms of social media: this virus is extremely nasty, painful, and unpleasant, quite apart from its lethality. My friend has a high pain tolerance (based on things like an accident involving near loss of a thumb and other events), but by day 7 or 8 he wanted to die because of the pain.

The measures that we've been asked to use are not onerous - especially not compared to the lethality and ongoing incapacitation. In fact, for those who like medical dramas, it may help to imagine you're living in one if it helps you use the recommended infection control.

We had a chat about the things we do beyond the recommendations, and a few for you to consider are:

• wipe down anything brought into the house (shopping bags/packets and mail - the evidence is that fresh fruit and veggies will be OK with a normal thorough rinse/scrub); 
• regularly wipe down surfaces that people touch in your car - outside handles, tops of doors, bottoms of hatches, and inside surfaces (I keep a bag of disinfectant wipes in my car for exactly that purpose).

I do more because my household includes someone being treated for cancer, and we have all been practicing infection control for quite some time including before the pandemic.

Whoever, wherever you are, stay safe as much as you can.