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Helping Others Struggling During the Quarantine
I’ve been part of several conversations, now, that touch upon (or pound upon, depending) the deleterious economic effects of measures being taken and/or recommended to limit the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus. Whether or not these measures are too much, too little, or just right — and whether or not we’ll ever know how close we came to hitting the sweet spot — I am both persuaded that Wuhan is a serious threat and very aware of the risk to the economy that the attempt to slow rates of infection is causing. Friends, neighbors, and even my own children are already feeling the effects, and the damage to their financial well-being may take a very long time to repair, if it can be repaired at all.
I’d point out that, for those of us who are relatively less affected, because we’ve got gummint jobs, gobs of money in the bank, or a relatively impervious retirement fund, Wuhan provides an opportunity for charity in the best sense of the word. Here are a few of my ideas — I’d welcome yours as well!
- Increase the amount of non-perishable food you give to the food pantry (and maybe throw in a roll or two of the World’s Most Precious Commodity while you’re at it!)
- If there are funds set up to relieve the plight of the local unemployed, contribute.
- If you’re still going to restaurants, tip very, very generously. That goes for pizza guy, taxi guy, the porter at the hotel you’re risking a visit to, and the person who cuts your hair, paints your toenails, takes care of your kids or otherwise occupies him/herself with the up-close-and-personal services that are so quickly abandoned at times like these.
- Use the telephone — remember that instrument? — to chat with shut-ins, who are more “shut-in” than ever these days. A human voice is a better substitute for in-person contact than a text message.
- Offer to pick up groceries for older or frailer neighbors, and deliver items in single-use kitchen trash bags, not those germy reusable ones!
What else can we do, friends?
Published in Religion & Philosophy
All great ideas.
I’ve never felt so frustrated with seeing so much need around me and not knowing what to do.
Thank you for this wonderful post. It would be great to pin it to the top of the member feed as we gather ideas in it.
Yep. Go on. Deliver them in way less germy plastic bags. You know you want to.
And make it a no-contact delivery–as illustrated by Mel Brooks and his son.
EDIT: One more. And bring one another cheer–as these Italians all over the country have done for their neighbors.
Give the germy reusable ones to environmentalists.
We’ve never reacted to a health threat as we have this. Of those that occurred in my lifetime and that of my parents and grand parents, this appears as one of the less threatening, even if it grows exponentially for several more months which is worst case, it will remain relatively small and, at least so far, relatively less threatening. While deaths of people my age are very high, over 9%, we’re also the easiest to protect as most of us don’t have to go to work or school, ride buses etc. Young people are not threatened, students are much less threatened than workers who are less threatened than old retired folk, yet students and workers are the ones being most displaced and disrupted, except government workers who just go home and get paid. One has to wonder if the politics of the thing aren’t driving it. It just doesn’t make sense.
Maybe so, @I Walton. I honestly don’t know.
Still, whether those hard-hit (isolated, impoverished) by this Event are victims of an illness or of a needless and destructive panic, I still want to find ways to help. When the Event is over—again, whether this means the microbe has been vanquished or the public has calmed down—-I’d like my community to be at least as strong as it was before the crisis began.
I think this is because of the assumption (perhaps there’s even evidence) that people, including the young and students, can carry and transmit the Kung Flu virus without showing any symptoms. Thus, there’s no way to know who is actually carrying the virus.
I’m thinking of sending handwritten notes to people who might be affected. Wouldn’t that be an unexpected treat?
Yes!
I just pre-paid for a haircut since my haircutting place is shutting down for two weeks. They were pathetically grateful!
One way to help is to purchase gift certificates from your local small businesses, and, as @GrannyDude noted, tip like a crazy person. A woman on Twitter had a great idea (as GrannyDude notes in the comments): She’s paying a couple of months ahead for her hairstylist and manicurist appointments just to help them during this lean time. This doesn’t work for me as my last haircut cost nine bucks and I’ve never gotten a mani/pedi, but if people could pay ahead on a few monthly services, I’m sure it would be appreciated.
I’m a freelancer, and while my industry is basically shut down for the next few months, there’s supposed to be some work along the way. But I’ve got enough money in the bank, so I’m not taking any jobs until July or August unless it’s really necessary.
I’m also planning on tipping as much as possible for those takeout and delivery orders, if I get any.
I do some artist support on Patreon, so I plan on keeping my payments up, and possibly adding more for the ones who are hurting.
It also might be an unexpected source of contagion. Wash your hands and don’t lick the envelopes or stamps.
Yes and it’s near the end of the school year, but there is no balance. It strikes me that if it occurred during Obama this wouldn’t happen. A worse one did and nothing panicky was done. What, besides so far being less prevalent, makes this one a case for wide spread panic and disruption. Some of the things make it worse. Like crowding passengers for screening when they arrive at airports, not before they depart or not at all. I face this in a week arriving in NY from a country with low levels who have shut off all arriving international visitors. Everybody I know here is in a panic but so far in the city I’m in, over 3.5 million, there were three cases yesterday arriving from Spain and Italy and everyone is in a major panic, masks in short supply, restaurants and clubs closed. Government here likes power as well.
I don’t disagree with you overall. I think there’s a bit of reasonable action and a power grab going on. As I noted in a comment about a month ago, not even the ChiComs would quarantine 100 million people (including such measures as welding shut the doors to apartment buildings) for the flu. That does give one pause.
I think it would be reasonable for schools to extend spring break (most schools have one week, so make it two so the supposed incubation period is covered) and maintain vigilance. But what we’re seeing now…either the authorities know something they’re not telling us (to avoid mass panic, though that bird has flown), or it’s a power grab. I don’t know which.
Oh, no. I just remembered the nice, old Iranian lady who gives me a haircut and her husband the barber.
Hopefully the Iranian lady hasn’t traveled recently.
I just spoke to my hairdresser and she’s coming to my house to do my hair, my daughter’s, son #2 and husband.
I’m not going to meet my maker with my natural color …
If funds permit, maybe pooling with a group of people to hire someone as a delivery person for stuff from local stores.
Maybe it’s totally unnecessary, given Amazon’s recent opening of 100K jobs, but it might be a nice thing to do for a younger person who has lost income.
I belong to a United Way program that delivers groceries for the home bound, but they decided to go on vacation. I won’t get another delivery for 2 more weeks, if then because the volunteers left before all this mess became a must do. The volunteers may decide it isn’t worth the risk.
Masks help curb respiratory infection. And people in America are finally realizing it.
Given the shortage of N95 respirators and surgical procedure masks, how about we non-medical folk do our bit to stymie the spread of infection by making homemade ones for ourselves, families, and neighbors and also conserve those resources needed by health care professionals facing a higher risk for the infection than we do? Instructions here.
Addendum: If you have the skill to produce masks en masse, care home workers and other health care pros in places with depleted supplies may benefit from them.