Reflections on Our COVID Scare: Stores

Two days before we were told by our medical professionals to quarantine for 14 days and that we should go to the drive-through site for COVID tests, my husband and I separately went to the same store, him to pick out and pay for a household appliance and me to collect it. The people in that store were not social distancing and were not masked. I had to handle the door to open it. The whole time I was there, I was regretting the entire transaction. For a couple days afterwards I regretted the transaction and worried what it might do to us. I was angry with my husband for going there in the first place and not turning around and walking out when he saw it wasn't safe. And when we turned up sick, I felt like we should never patronize that business again.

Are we sure that those interactions made us sick? No, of course we don't know for sure. But what I learned from this episode (again) is to listen to my gut. We were lucky to end up with colds and not COVID, and most of the cost we paid was in our anxiety in the week between the purchase and when the negative test results came in. I don't want to live again with the worry about what will happen to my children if my husband and I are hospitalized, with the possibility of infecting the people I love, with fear of the short-term and unknown long-term ravages of COVID on my body. Other than food, there is nothing I need so badly that I should put us at risk.

So, I drew up this list of rules for a personal gut check before entering a store or other public place:

1. Have your staff wear masks properly
2. Limit the number of people inside
3. Let me open the door without touching a handle
4. Invite all visitors to wear masks
5. Post your policy at the entrance and on the web

If the store doesn't meet these criteria, I'm not going in. If I'm in the store and I realize it's not safe, I'll leave without the stuff I came for. Wisconsin reopened prematurely. I am not.

Reflections on Our COVID Scare: Infection

I learned just how easily infection passes.

Our household has been really careful since lockdown. The children have left the house pretty much only to walk in the neighborhood, with one or two in-car only outings (like to a friend's birthday parade). My husband has gone out only once or twice himself. I've done all the other necessary outings and practiced as much social distancing and covering up as I am able (masks, gloves for shopping, turning my face away from people who pass too close in the grocery store, etc.).

But last Tuesday, we needed a large piece of household equipment. My husband went out to select and pay for it, and I went back later to the same store to bring it home (because trunk space). The store we went to was not practicing any care measures. Within 48 hours, both of us were showing the symptoms that had us calling in to the doctor asking whether we should quarantine.

Normally, we think of getting colds as unavoidable, a natural consequence of being out in the world in regular contact with other people. I've never before had an experience where I felt like I could isolate having "picked up a cold" to one particular encounter. And I'm shocked at how easy it was to pick it up, since I didn't touch anything except the door handle at the store, and my husband; we don't know which of us was the vector for the other. We're lucky that what we got was minor and not COVID, a threat which raised a host of questions for us--including what would happen to our children if we both were hospitalized at the same time. This is why I'm developing a list of safe practices that a public place needs to put in place before I enter.

It's shockingly easy to pick up a virus.

Reflections on Our COVID Scare: Masks

As soon as the nurse scheduled us for COVID tests, I looked at CDC guidance. It seemed completely impossible for the two adults in the house to isolate from the teenagers who needed food and parenting (not to mention keeping up to the recommended sanitation procedures, which involves cleaning surfaces all the time). But thanks to a timely gift from a friend, we did have masks that we could wear to keep ourselves from coughing our viruses (or whatever) onto our kids. So, my husband and I have been wearing masks almost continuously in the house since Thursday.

Our masks are cute, and mostly I was entertained by wearing them instead of annoyed. I noticed that the mask hides my double-chin, which I appreciated. At one point over the weekend, though, I'd had enough, so I betook myself to an isolated spot in the house and did some reading or chores by myself, without a mask on. And every once in a while it seemed too warm under the mask. Overall not too onerous to wear.

But in the grand scheme of thing, given the choice between wearing a moderately annoying mask and possibly protecting my children, or having a comfortably naked face and possibly infecting my children, it seemed pretty obvious that I shouldn't complain. So I wore the mask. I'm sure you would do the same for your own children, as almost anyone would.

And I thought to myself over and over again, if someone would wear a mask to protect their children at home, why wouldn't they do so in public to protect strangers?