Today is day 26 of our self-isolation.

In Massachusetts, the number of coronavirus cases as of this afternoon at 4 pm is 26,867, up from 20,974 on Friday—an increase of almost 6,000 cases just over the weekend. In the same time period, total deaths went from 599 on Friday, to 844 today.  Governor Baker tells us that the peak is coming in the next ten days, but probably around April 20^th. The numbers will get worse.

Following these developments over the weekend made me seek context. In some quarters, the fuss continues that this is just another kind of flu, and for awhile, I was harboring similar thoughts. So I went looking for some facts. It turns out that the CDC does not track actual flu cases. When you look into this, you find only estimates—no hard data. (I’m not a researcher, so the numbers may be out there; please share if you find them). 

But stats for deaths generally are available.  On any given day in New York City—normally—about 145 people, plus or minus a few, will die of various causes—heart attack, cancer, accident, violence. On the day I was looking at this, I found that 518 New York City people had died of Covid-19 alone! And a friend quickly pointed out after I posted this on Facebook that the one-day Covid-19 death toll had soon after hit 779.

This is not the flu. These are not usual flu season numbers.

It has now been almost 2 weeks since we went to the grocery store, and as perishables and essentials dwindle, we’ve begun to think about our next excursion. We also think we’ll cover our faces. 

To that end, I dug out my collection of bandannas. (I’ve been holding onto these things for fifty years, waiting for them to come in handy.) I indulged in a little nostalgia as I laid them out and folded them, inhaling their dusty homeliness.  My mom and I collected them for family camping trips; she used to pull one around her head for the morning trek to the ladies’ room, lest anyone see her unkempt hair. (I also remembered her wearing them while she was in chemotherapy, but that wasn’t a thought I wanted to dwell on just then.)

Will I wear one of my old, mint-condition bandannas to the grocery store this week? Next month? Or will we all turn to grocery delivery services? And give up the pleasure of perusing the potatoes and zucchini in real time? Will we forego that special kind of family quality time—the shopping trip? Or will we have to provide certification of virus-freedom at the entrance to the mall?

Or, for me, worse yet—I’ve only just begun going to rock concerts, reveling in standing shoulder-to-shoulder with 500 strangers while screaming my lungs out. (My May line-up of Asking Alexandria, Five Finger Death Punch & I Prevail are all postponed until September, along with the Within Temptation & Evanescence show we were supposed to attend at London’s O2 last week.) Will we have to present shot records to get in?

CNN showed the Chinese approach to the new Covid-19 normal this weekend—an app that tracks a person’s movements and gives you a QR code indicating whether you’ve stood next to anyone with Covid-19. You show the code to be admitted to an event. So just like we hold out our phones displaying our tickets to concerts, you would show your code to be admitted. Would anyone dare get in line with anything other than a green-for-go code? A recent Supreme Court case came to mind, the 2018 Carpenter cell phone case, where the Court decided that the use of cell-site location information records was a Fourth Amendment search, requiring a warrant and probable cause. Making an app like the Chinese Covid-19 tracking app unlikely here, at least for now.

What do you think the future holds?