Yesterday and today marked a huge turning point in the coronavirus outbreak, and not for the better here in the US. The amount of cases in the US increased along with the amount of deaths, more and more states declared a state of emergency (along with large cities like New York City), and even prominent public figures like NBA star Rudy Gobert and actor-actress couple Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson announced that they had contracted the virus (albeit in Australia). Many leading politicians started to self-quarantine themselves (although I wonder if that's just to avoid working), and there's even some rumblings that President Trump may have contracted the coronavirus from a meeting with a Brazilian official he met with. Crazy times. Oh and the Dow lost almost 4000 points combined, including 2300+ today (an almost exact 10% loss!), so yes many portfolios are hurting. But I'm honestly pretty lucky; I still have a job I report to, while many in the service industry don't, and I haven't tested positive for coronavirus, a new and novel risk to our society that people don't have a cure for. That's scary.
The "no-touch" and cancel culture had already started weeks ago (many events like concerts, sports games, conferences, schools etc. have been cancelled), but they've just been reinforced these last few days. Purell everywhere, wash hands carefully, but the Manji-ji Ma! (the Korean phrase for "Don't touch" is really catchy and I like to say it even if it doesn't apply in context) philosophy is the best: just don't touch anything if you don't have to. People open up the door to the work office using shirt or other clothing as a shield to avoid touching with bare hand. I think twice about pressing the elevator buttons. And I'm not touching the "pedestrian beg light" button in the streets of DTLA as who knows how many people touch that. The virus can apparently stay in the air and on surfaces for hours. But most importantly, we've been told not to touch our face! The most memorable example was the Santa Clara health official who licked her finger while warning people not to touch their faces. I guess she got her point across and with max visibility, as the video went viral around the world. But it's actually pretty amazing how often I feel the urge to touch my face. Everything from scratching an itch, wiping my nose, putting my hand under my chin, wiping my eyes to wake up, all those things involve touching of the face, I even do it subconsciously! Just a natural movement. Especially for people who have nervous habits like me who bite their nails, it's really uncontrollable. I would need something like electronic shock therapy to rid myself of the habit. I finally did stop biting my nails, though, so that's one thing to be thankful for this virus. It's also a good reminder to reassess our habits of touching things and be aware of everywhere that our hands have been.
Shaking hands has become a no-no! Touching elbows is the new norm, or touching feet even. It'd probably be for the better if shaking hands was just abolished permanently; it's an outdated tradition of meeting someone and forces unnecessary contact with other people, as I'm sure conditions other than coronavirus also can spread this way, like giving someone a cold or the flu through a handshake. I've also never been a big hugger, but I guess that shows more affection and intimacy, so that might be allowed to stay under a theoretical world with Czar Robert Yan. But for now, everyone should touch as few things as possible! Manjiji Ma!
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
No comments:
Post a Comment