A Very Intimate, Very Human Perspective

I'm beginning with an email I got from one of my many scientist friends. He is a brilliant and exceedingly lovely human being. I'm keeping it anonymous, just out of respect, but I thought his heartfelt and well thought out letter was very worth sharing. A few of my thoughts come after.

"This link is to one of the best articles about the relative risk in different home, work and public situations. I wish this sort of detail was more widely shared by the media.

https://www.erinbromage.com/post/the-risks-know-them-avoid-them [I agree, this article is very clear, very cogent, and aligns with everything credible I've been seeing. - JKB]

This, together with the anxiety of loosening the lockdown, prompted me and my wife to have one of the most difficult conversations I’ve had with my kids. They are 13 and 15, so are at an age where one can be pretty straight.

The challenge was to strike a balance between what could happen with how unlikely it may be, particularly when we all work together to protect ourselves.

I explained how easy it was for the virus to be passed on from one cough, one sneeze or a single contact with a contaminated item that ends up on the face. We as a family all need to behave in a way that minimizes the risk of getting infected. This will be a challenge when others don’t understand the risk or choose to ignore the risk. Going back to school will be particularly difficult in this regard.

The trouble with one of us getting sick, is that all of us will get sick. I’m male and at an age where, despite not having any serious underlying health conditions, I have an up to 1 in 10 chance of being hospitalized and at least a 1 in 100 chance of dying. If I were to die, almost all of the family income would stop. My wife would be unable to find a well paid job in the current financial crisis to make up for the loss of income. They would have to sell our home to pay for basic bills. Their lives would be unrecognizable.

If my wife died, we’d have the house and be able to pay the bills, but life would not be the same again for me and the kids.

There are so many stories about patients deteriorating so quickly that there is no chance for family members to say goodbye. This means that if my wife or I get symptoms, we’ll need to spend the next week hoping of the best but being prepared as a family for death and the consequences thereof.

The key thing we had to emphasize was that there is a constant chance of death (stroke, heart attack, accident, etc.). This is about 1% for me. The virus makes the chance of me or my wife dying increase about two-fold at the moment. So the risk is small, from the perspective of a population, but the cost to the family if we were unlucky is immeasurable.

We can only take control of so much, but what little we can do as a family can make a big difference. If every family did the same, we’d all be better off.

Take care.

All the best, "

And, it made me realize that people will not come back in any meaningful way until they feel safe. And, the way life and demographics works out, the customers with the most money are typically older and therefore more at risk, so this becomes even more important from an economic viewpoint...

Everyone doing their part, being respectful of social distance, wearing a mask when in public, doing everything we can do to avoid infection, will HELP us bring the economy back FASTER.

Something else that is now clear is that wearing a mask, I believe, can be viewed as a caring, civic duty. Wearing a mask is NOT about being scared for yourself, it's all about protecting those at greatest risk from the potential that you are an asymptomatic carrier.

It is not brave to go without a mask and not practice social distancing. It is endangering those around you and even more, it's holding back the return of the economy.

I want the economy back. I'm scared and tired of this and frustrated and everything else, too. And, I also believe that respecting the science is the fastest way to bring our economy back.

Please hear this whole thing in the way that I intend it. I want to support you, your job, your life, your family, your world, our world and all that is good. This is my best attempt right now. I want to make our shared world the best it can be. I'm on your team. I'm sending you my best wishes. Be well.