Closing in

For the past couple of days, I've had the distinct feeling that the coronavirus is closing in on us.

I saw a version of this map the other day, showing where Iowa's cases are, and how many.

This is from April 7--there's an updating map here.

The color scheme is particularly alarming, with the red-for-danger indicating highest number of cases. Linn County, our county, has the highest number of cases, surpassing Johnson County, where Covid-19 was first diagnosed. The number of cases in Linn County even surpasses Polk County, which has double the population of Linn County.

I've noticed a slight change in the news and feature stories about coronavirus, too. Maybe this piece has always been in the NYTimes Coronavirus Coverage section, but I just recently noticed it. It's called "What YOU can do about Coronavirus Right now." It has a segment called "You Can Recover From Illness" that begins with this line:

Many of us may get sick.

The article then goes on to describe how we should care for ourselves and others who get the disease (separate the person from the rest of the family, bring meals to the room but don't stay ("Most of the time, a sick person will feel a bit miserable, but he or she can pick up food trays left six feet away," keep pets away), etc.)

Another paragraph is subtitled "Make sure your end-of-life documents are up to date."

With the number of reported cases of Covid-19 on the rise (Linn County has 186 as I write this), we're also more likely to know people who have been infected.

One of my students wrote me to ask for an extension on the due date for his paper (I'm handing out extensions liberally; students just need to ask. Of course, I then ask them to tell me when they'll turn the paper in. "Deadlines are our friends" is one of my mottos). The student told me that his uncle is very sick with Covid-19, and was in the hospital. His mom is very distraught about her brother.

My friend whose grandmothers are residents in the nursing home where there was an outbreak wrote that one of her grandmothers has tested positive for the disease.

An email came from campus this week, notifying us that someone who worked on campus has tested positive for Covid-19.

John Prine, one of Bruce's favorite singer-songwriters, passed away yesterday evening from complications of the coronavirus. He'd been in the hospital for a while.

As I got into bed, Bruce played a John Prine song that I liked on his phone. We lay there in bed, reflecting on the fact that a person who survived cancer and could come up with lyrics that rhymed "dusty pew," "vestibule," and "pocket pool" had just been taken from us by Covid-19.