Coping with COVID

I never imaged something like this happening. Though I remember as a kid going to the Oakland Main Library and seeing a picture of the Oakland Auditorium full of hospital beds during the 1918 Flu Epidemic, that was something in a history book.

Now that its been two weeks of "shelter-in-place", closed stores, libraries, schools theaters, empty supermarket shelves, and COVID-19 dominating the news, coping has gotten harder. Here's a few things that have helped:

Ramp up outreach out to people I know: text, email, call. Facet Time has been a blessing, especially with the grand kids

Be selective of my sources for news. I focus on a few outlets: AP, BBC, KQED and the SF Chronicle. The most interesting to me are these websites:

U.S. Centers for Disease Control

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/summary.html

European Union Centre for Disease Control

https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/geographical-distribution-2019-ncov-cases

World Health Organization Situation Reports

https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019

Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases by the Center for Systems 

Science and Engineering (CSSE)

https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

I try to take some down time from the news and do something mindless. Not sure how much it helps, but seems better than being obsessed.

Last thought of this post, people who I see rising to the challenge:

Andrew Cuomo, Governor of New York

Yamiche Alcindor, PBS Reporter covering the White House