Coronavirus impacts us all

Remember not long ago when we first started hearing about coronavirus and joked about sales of Corona beer plummeting?

It’s not so funny now, is it?

The disease is pandemic worldwide and all of our lives have changed. When Austin canceled SXSW, all of us in the Houston area thought they were overreacting. Then we canceled the rest of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Sports leagues began canceling and postponing seasons. Schools shut down. The government began limiting public gatherings, churches moved online, bars closed, and restaurants went to carry-out and drive-thru only.

People now stand in long lines just to get into grocery stores. And for some totally bizarre reason people in the United States are still hoarding toilet paper. My daughter works as a teacher in Taiwan and she said people there are making fun of us for doing that. At my house we were well supplied with 2-ply long before this crisis hit. Only now we’re getting to the point we need to buy more and it’s difficult to find. Seriously, you hoarders need to stop – now!

It has been very interesting at home this past week. Both of my boys living at home have had their schools closed. My wife and I have been told by our respective employers to work from home as much as possible. As a journalist, I didn’t think that would be possible for me. I needed to be out in the community covering this crisis. I wasn’t. That’s because I was potentially exposed to the virus.

It turns out that one of the players on the XFL’s Seattle Dragons team tested positive. He would have likely been contagious during the game I photographed in Houston on March 7. He reported it to the league on March 10 and I found out about it on March 17. After consulting with my boss, I felt it was in everyone’s best interest to self-quarantine at home through the end of the two-week period, which ended Saturday. That’s why you haven’t seen me around the community and why our sports editor Cole McNanna has been doing our Facebook videos alone. (He was in the press box at the game and not in contact with players.)

The biggest impact the coronavirus has had on my family affected my oldest son, Wesley. He lives in Florida and was to be married on March 29. My in-laws, his grandparents, had a cruise scheduled two weeks before the wedding. The plan was they would go and be back in time for the big event. They got to Florida only to have the cruise canceled. Since they are in several high-risk categories for the virus, they decided they would drive back to Texas and most likely miss the wedding.

That’s when Wesley and his bride-to-be Dena decided to move the wedding up to March 17 so they could at least be there for it. That morning my in-laws got the idea to have Sandy, my wife and Wesley’s mother, fly out for the wedding and then she could help them drive home. So, as she was boarding a plane for Orlando, I was discovering my exposure and going into exile.

I’m happy to say that Sandy made it on time and the wedding went off nicely. My other children and I watched via Facebook Live. It’s safe to say that St. Patrick’s Day 2020 will be forever memorable in our lives as one of the most bizarre, weird, and joyful days ever.

I’m happy to say that everyone got home safely and healthy and that the newlywed couple is enjoying their new life together. At this time they are planning to re-do their vows and have a full-blown wedding ceremony at a later date. We’re all looking forward to that.

In the meantime, there is a lot of work to be done. I have a ton of stories to write and many other things that require my attention. With my wife at home, the honey-do list is growing and apparently becoming more urgent. And speaking of urgent, one of our higher priorities is finding toilet paper. If anyone has a good lead on some, please let me know.

Stop acting stupid over coronavirus

So now what?

Thanks to the coronavirus (COVID-19) the world seems to have come to a complete stop, except at the supermarkets where everyone is crowding together to do exactly what the experts tell us not to do.

Think about it. Every sporting event, the Houston Rodeo, and numerous public gatherings have been cancelled or postponed. Schools have extended spring break another week out of an abundance of precaution. Many churches are holding services online only. The only solid advice we’ve been given from health experts is to wash our hands and stay away from crowds.

So, everyone rushes to the store and buys up all the toilet paper. Rather than avoiding crowds, everyone is crowded into the store together, handling food, cleaning supplies and the precious TP.

In addition to this freakish obsession with toilet paper, there is one thing I don’t understand about the prevention tips provided by health professionals. They say not to touch your face, but in their next breath they say to cover your cough. That’s kind of hard to do without touching your face.

I’m not trying to make light of the whole coronavirus pandemic (OK, maybe I am just a little), but at some point you’ve got to find the humor amid the tragedy.

With everyone calling for common sense to prevail, we Americans have been behaving uncommonly senseless. Our grocery stores are wiped out of toilet paper. What on earth does that have to do with coronavirus? Once that frenzy started, people began rushing into grocery stores and stocking up on cleaning supplies. That I can understand, but what happened next is nothing short of mass hysteria. Shelves are being emptied of foods and other goods though as if a hurricane were coming.

All of this is despite the fact that every major grocery store chain has assured us there is no shortage of anything and their shelves will be well stocked for weeks or months. Last Friday my wife placed her grocery order online at Kroger like she normally does on a payday. Typically she picks it up on her way home from work. They told her the earliest available pick-up time was Saturday at 7 p.m. I can appreciate the fact that people are using that service to make sure they avoid the crowds in the store, but this is insane.

We’re looking at the complete shutdown of sporting events for weeks or months. Everything from high schools to the pros are looking at shortened or cancelled seasons. Many other events are getting shut down. I can understand and appreciate these precautions, but like most people I find them frustrating. For one thing, it’s going to be hard to fill our sports pages for the next few weeks, but we’ll do our best. We are also doing what we can to keep our readers informed with the latest information about this pandemic.

Now, before you jump on the bandwagon and accuse us of being part of any media conspiracy to spread fear and panic, let me address this very subject. First of all, we are trying to be responsible and informative with trustworthy and accurate information. Never once have we ever advised anyone to rush to the store in a panic. In no way have we ever exploited the crisis. Our efforts are entirely focused on providing our readers with fair, accurate and up-to-date information. If that equates to a mass hysteria conspiracy in your book, then we’re guilty as charged.

But let me tell you from more than 30 years of professional experience in this field, “the media” or “mainstream media” are far too competitive to be in cahoots with one another. And if you believe that “the media” and any faction of government can conspire together, you probably deserve to be standing in a crowded grocery store rummaging through empty shelves and cussing ESPN for cancelling your favorite sports programs. Government and “the media” simply do not trust each other, especially at the federal level.

It’s just speculation on my part, but I think one of the reasons people feel that the media is fostering mass panic over the coronavirus crisis is because they see so much of the same thing repeated over and over in their social media feeds, and then again in their newspapers and on television. I submit that anyone who has shared any story or meme related to coronavirus is just as guilty of being in a conspiracy to incite panic. Once you’ve shared something, you’ve become a disseminator of information and have acted essentially in the same role as any professional journalist. So watch where you point your fingers.

In the meantime, as we wait for this crisis to subside, let’s look at how we can help one another and get along. Let’s stop buying toilet paper and start sharing soap and hand sanitizer. Let’s get outside more in the fresh air and sunlight where viruses have a hard time thriving. On Saturday my son Colton and I went for a 10-mile hike at Brazos Bend State Park. It was pleasant and not crowded on the trails.

Of all the information out there about the virus, the best thing you can do to protect yourself is to wash your hands frequently, cover coughs and sneezes, avoid physical contact with others, and stay away from large groups. If you feel sick or fear you might have been exposed to someone with coronavirus, please stay home and self-quarantine. Your employer, co-workers, friends and acquaintances will understand and thank you.

This too shall pass, and we can get through it with a healthy dose of common sense and preventive measures. Trust me, rushing to the store to buy toilet paper will not help you. If it does, then you’ve probably got a problem much greater than coronavirus.