Hi everybody! Shelter in place day 1. How’re we doin? I am feelin the panic from everyone. I even felt a little creeped out last night when I went for my walk and suddenly my phone was overtaken by a reminder of the executive order…complete with a notice about unnecessary travel being prohibited. It literally gave me the chills for a second, like I was in one of those weird future dystopia movies or something. Then, I shook it off. You know why? Because it is not really any different than what we were supposed to be doing anyway! I know what you’re going to say. Hey! Before we could still get take out and go to the mall, etc. Hey! This is even a bigger crush on small business. Yes. Yes. All that is true. My business is being severely affected too. I can’t do any surgery, unless it’s an absolute emergency. I can’t see any people that are sick who actually need me. They have to go through the ER or stay at home. I can basically only see well patients or OB patients, if I can even get them to come in. I am not immune to this process. The scary flipside is, that I also have to risk exposure to COVID everyday. If a COVID positive OB patient comes in, we still have to figure out how to deliver them safely with the least exposure to the least amount of people and keep their newborns safe as well.
However, if you think about it, we were already supposed to be restricting unnecessary trips and travel. We really should have been following our social distancing, not going to restaurants, not going to the movies, not going to the mall anyway. There was no dire need to get our nails done or go to the tanning salon. These are not basic life needs. Before you get all ruffly, let me explain what I mean about basic life needs. They are things that are life or death dependent. Your life or death does not depend on how brown you are or how good your nails look or if you got that extra candle or how gray your hair is ( Trust me, I am battling that one as we speak). It just doesn’t, if we are being honest. I am of the opinion that if we were truly following instructions in the first place, there would have been no need to issue an executive order. (Having said that, I also get that a politician’s need to appear like they are actively doing something in a crisis may, in fact, supersede the actual need for action.) If we hadn’t panicked and hoarded all paper products, in reaction to a virus whose main symptoms are NOT GI symptoms, except for a small percentage, those of us that have been working like crazy might have had an option to wipe our asses besides the wipe with the left, eat and shake hands with the right method. C’mon people! I am looking at all the fear-mongering, crazy Facebook posts. They are unnecessary. They are not helpful. They are not helping anyone get through this thing.
I took it upon myself to break down the governor’s executive order announcement into a less than five minute summary. I will do the same right now for you. Here are the main bullet points. Stay at home whenever possible. If you have an essential job (defined on the Michigan.gov website), you can go to and from work. Essential businesses are still open. You can go to get gas for your car. You can go to the pharmacy or grocery store. You can still get money. You can still go to the doctor or to the hospital if you need to. You can still go outside. You can still go for a walk. Maintain your social distance of 6 feet at all times. No crowds. Have meetings remotely. All your basic needs can still be met. Amazon is not shutting down like rumors have said.(JK, she didn’t really address that…lol..but it is true.) Don’t panic. Don’t hoard. That is it in nutshell…in two minutes or less. Let’s just all screw our heads back on properly and dig into our common sense reserves and we will get through this together! Have a fantastic day everyone!
Dr. Katz
