***sigh***

Fear mongering is rampant in this day and age. Good night nurse…you can’t turn on the TV without seeing horrifying stories about everything. Every. Darned. Thing. It’s really beginning to get to me. My blood pressure is high enough from the stress of Mr. FixIt’s episode last week. I don’t need to see the horrors…real and imagined…being played out on every channel with a signal.

I remember the first time I had an inkling we as a society were being manipulated by the media. I remember the first time I realized the internet was a double-edged sword. I’m not pointing fingers because I know there are bad actors on both sides of the aisle. We are responsible for researching and verifying as best we can and make our own decisions based on what we learn.

The coronavirus is the current topic of interest for this news cycle. In time, it will be something else. A story is “ridden” till people are bored with it then a new story is the “it” thing. It astounds me how quickly things spiral out of hand. 

I’ve survived polio till the vaccine finally came out.

I’ve had measles, mumps, chickenpox, and scarletina and survived. 

Do any of you remember being quarantined as a child? I was in 1st Grade when I got scarletina. Our home was quarantined…with the note on the door and everything. The doctor came to my house to check on me a couple of times. I remember i was very sick and he gave me a shot. I didn’t go to school for a couple of weeks.

I’ve survived Hong Kong flu, Asian Flu, SARS, H1N1, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Y2K, Haley’s Comet, the end of the Mayan Calendar, AIDS, and the various predicted dates of the Apocalypse that have come and gone.

The nonsense that is going around astonishes me. Some people aren’t eating Chinese food for fear of contracting coronavirus. Some people are boycotting Corona beer because they think that’s where the virus is coming from. OY.

I texted Hubby #2 the other day. He’s an internist with 34 years of practice under his belt. I asked him what his take was on the coronavirus. He said usual precautions. And stop watching the news.

The usual precautions are: 

Wash your hands…well and often.

Avoid crowds in closed in areas for a while.

Don’t touch your face, nose, mouth or eyes.

Don’t share food utensils or drinks with others. 

If you have symptoms, don’t go to work or school. Wear a mask. (Research is finding walking around town with a trendy little face mask isn’t really adding much protection to keep you from getting the flu but if you HAVE it, it can keep from spreading it to others.)

Wipe down counters and common areas with sanitizing wipes or use a water/bleach solution.

Use hand sanitizer if you don’t have access to soap and water.

And…wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands!

This isn’t a political issue, but it’s being made into one. EVERYTHING is being made into a political issue this time around. I’m not going to jump on anyone’s bandwagon. I just want the truth. And it’s getting harder and harder to find. It drives me batso!

Anyway…try not to get overwhelmed by all the hype and use your common sense about any viral outbreak.

Oh, and did I say to wash your hands???

❤️

“A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.”

Proverbs 17:22 NIV