As a few of you might have noticed, I took a break from posting. I suppose you could say I have been socially distant in this particular medium.
Social distancing is really nothing new for me; I am perfectly happy where there are few people and far horizons. I've even been told that I am sometimes socially distant in a crowded room. Oh, well.
This SARS-CoV-19 global pandemic is something new, but also something old. Viruses periodically mutate and sometimes move between species (zoonosis). That is the most likely explanation for what has happened. It is something we will see more frequently as this old planet fills up with people. Densely packed populations facilitate the spread of disease. The answer is social distancing -- spreading apart.
Dense populations -- whether they be temporary or, somewhat permanent -- are also sources of panic behavior. It's that old "crowd" mentality that causes people to bolt for the door when someone yells "fire!" In this case, it caused a run on the grocery stores which has temporarily created holes in our amazing system of supply chains which rarely miss a beat. The massive nature of the shift of consumer demand from "restaurant dining" to eat at home caught the entire system somewhat by surprise. There is plenty of food -- at least in the developed countries -- it is just in the wrong place, but that is rapidly being corrected.
I'm thankful to live in a small town rather than a city. Even in our rural setting there are signs of disruption. We have also had our first case of the disease confirmed. It will eventually pass through the population of the planet. It won't infect everyone, but it will touch most of the people in some form or fashion -- from a disease perspective, not just as a disruption to life as we know it.
The biggest fear that I have out of this entire episode of disruption is the amount of power that is being displayed by governmental entities all over the world. That is a genie that will not be put back in the bottle.
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