CoronaVirus and Earthquake

A virus that originated in China started spreading world wide. The hospitals are overwhelmed and it appears that 10% of the victims die. Everybody has been told to stay home. Church was cancelled. Many things have been shut down: schools, sports events, temples, movie theaters, restaurants, gyms, businesses: anything that results in a gathering of more than 10 people.

The economy and the stock market is tanking because people don’t have jobs. John M. lost 80,000 of his retirement funds in the stock market crash. A vaccine won’t be available for a year, but they are trying to develop a treatment for the virus so people don’t die. People over 65 are especially vulnerable. Fortunately grocery stories and “essential business” are still open, but it isn’t safe because you can’t keep a social distance of 6 feet there and people are coughing in the store, which is one of the symptoms.

People have also cleared out the shelves in panic, especially toilet paper. There are a lot of jokes about that. It was weird going to the store and seeing a bunch of empty shelves. I went to get my mom some food and I couldn’t find most of the stuff on her list like cream, eggs, and butter. The bread was all gone too, but I found a hidden loaf for her.

The next thing that happened was an earthquake of 5.7 in Magna, which is just a few miles away. Fortunately, nobody was hurt during the earthquake. We only had a few things fall off shelves, but the local grocery store aisles were littered with the stuff that fell off the shelves. Older buildings had a lot of masonry fall off, and there was some damage to gas lines.

It is another wakeup call, and once again there was a run on the stores. There were lines to get into Costco. I think it is a blessing to have all these preparatory events for future, more serious events. People are realizing how quickly stores can be emptied and that the supply chain could come to a halt.