The Sentinel News, Pandemic! 200303

The Sentinel All the news that's fit to print and some that's not.
Pandemic! What we have here is a failure to communicate. I love that quote from the movie "Cool Hand Luke." The quote fits today's situation. China failed to communicate this news and now it has spread around the world. That meets the criteria of pandemic. We here in America have failed on several fronts. The news about this Corona virus was dismissed. Our health agencies have been gutted and now we have incompetent people in charge of running our defense for this widespread disease. Hospitals are not equipped to handle the massive influx of patients that will soon be flowing into our healthcare facilities and at this moment there are nowhere near enough testing supplies to satisfy the need for them. Those doctors who are allowed to speak out are telling us to be prepared for huge numbers of our population to be infected in a short time frame. Surgical masks will not make us safe, they will only lessen the effect of those spreading the virus, should those same folks be wearing a mask.	Pandemonium. Today seems to be a day for "P" words, pandemic, pandemonium, proliferation, panic, preparedness, propaganda, politics, premonition, be they nouns or verbs they are all valid today. The only thing we can do is soldier on, rely on faith, keep our hands off our faces, wash hands thoroughly for at least 20 seconds (this may seem silly, but a good way to gauge time while washing hands is to recite the ABCs like children are taught at home or at school) and finally relax after work, have a glass of wine, decompress, get a good night's sleep. As all things in life, keep it simple. Simple things work, complicated things don't work if you can't follow them.	Last thing. Believe you will get through this horror show. Treat this like a scary movie plot. Ladies when you hear someone downstairs in your home, don't go down there in your bra and panties to investigate. Guys when you hear cranking in the barn, don't go out without a crowbar in hand because the cranking sound is coming from a chainsaw that will rip apart anything but a crow bar.