Update From Daegu Re: Coronavirus

Minutemen, "Corona"

"The people will survive. . . ."

1)  Masks are scratchy and, at least in Korea, too small for my big foreigner gorilla head.  I had to stop in to about five different convenience stores before I could find one still stocking them.  I purchased three brands, knowing at least one of them would be too small.  (I was right!)

2)  People in Daegu are, unsurprisingly to me, cool and calm.  Koreans can be notoriously paranoid about sickness and disease, but at the same time a sense of shared sacrifice (no big public events, staying home instead of eating out, not freaking out every time North Korea does something dangerous and /or stupid) pretty much defines the nation.

3)  Speaking of which, I feel much better here than I would in my home country of America (where they still have measles outbreaks for fuck's sake).  The national health care system here is excellent and comprehensive.  Koreans actually go to the hospital when they're sick, as opposed to first figuring out if they can afford an E.R. visit.  (I'm reminded of the time a friend of mine in college tried to convince us all that a roll of duct-tape was all he needed to take care of two crushed fingers on a rugby field.  Good times.)

4)  Staying with the  positive, the disease vector in Daegu has so far roughly stuck to 75% of cases related to the same biazrro Christian cult known as "Shin-chun-ji."  Yes, bizarro Christian cults are also a thing here and there are reports that this church had a training / recruiting center in Wuhan, China, the center of the outbreak.  So to go against point number three a bit, there are concerns that people in the church are hiding or under-reporting their illnesses due to Messianic delusions because Jesus.

5)  In a time when ultra-nationalism seems triumphant in America, England, India, Hungary, Russia, etc., it sure seems short-sighted to think that your patriotism trumps (ahem) the fact that millions of folks travel daily between nations, and that any solution to future outbreaks won't require, by definition, coordination between doctors and scientists in different countries.  This requires a base level of goodwill and transparency between nations, something in sadly short supply these days.  And let's face it, viruses are smarter than humans are.  This will happen again.

6)  Restaurants and cafes are getting hit really hard.  "Marts" (neighborhood grocery stores) and "Shu-pas" (supermarkets) are doing really well, especially after five p.m. when people head home with no plans to dine out.  Lots of masks at first, and lots of instant noodles and comfort snacks being sold now.  (Portable, long-lived, not the worst survival foods you can think of.)

7)  March is when Korean schools open for the year, as opposed to September.  So this is all a bit of a bigger inconvenience that you might expect.  Public schools are opening a week late (March 9) while colleges and universities like mine are opening two weeks late (March 16) three weeks late.  Nobody's complaining, however.

Is it a coincidence that a month ago I started Kim Stanley Robinson's The Years of Rice and Salt?  (An alternative history of The Great Plague, basically.)