Contemporary History #11 – COVID-19
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| What SARS-CoV-2 is imagined by the CDC to look like. For an actual picture of it, click HERE. |
The world was going grey right before my eyes! It grew
worse with each breath I took. It was not long before the world had disappeared
completely before me. It wasn’t my eyes, however, that were having the problem.
It was my glasses. Everything cleared just as soon as I removed my face mask. I
had learned that face masks can make your glasses fog up. Later I learned it
was not just happening to mine. As the little ditty that we used to chant in
the playground said, “Everybody’s doing it, doing it, doing it.”
Everybody with glasses, that is.
Sometime in February, just a few short months ago, this
country, catching up to the rest of the world, was hit by a new virus not seen
before (thus why it is “new” or sometimes called “novel”). According to the World
Health Organization, this new virus is a type of Coronavirus which got
that name because someone thought those little knobs that stick out from these
viruses resemble little crowns or coronas. Coronaviruses include our old
friend, the Common Cold. This one, however, does not give us just a little
cold. If this one gets inside you, it can cause among other things, the onset
of a severe acute respiratory illness. This is the second one of these little
fellows to hit us this way so this one was called “Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
Coronavirus 2”, or SARS-CoV-2 for short. The disease this Coronavirus causes
was first seen in late 2019 (in Asia) so it was dubbed COVID-19, short for
Coronavirus Disease - 2019.
Mr. SARS-CoV-2, since you are new here I’d like to say,
“Welcome”, but you are not.
Now, because this little fellow is so new here, our
medical community is just now learning about it themselves; learning something
new about it every day. Because of that lack of knowledge, February and early
March were filled with lots of conflicting information about it and what we
should do. Eventually, however, the picture has, much like my glasses, become somewhat
clearer.
One key to keeping this virus in check is to keep people
away from each other so the virus can’t jump from person to person. Therefore,
we were told to stay at home. If we did have to go out, we should stay at least
six feet away from other people and we should wear masks. There were questions
of how the virus is transferred from one person to the next, or even if it
could be “picked-up” from things like door knobs or packages or even pets. If
you got it once, could you get it again? How did you know if you even got it?
Was it like getting the flu or better or worse?
First, we were given suggestions for what to do. Stay
home, wash your hands, don’t touch your face, wear a mask. Then the suggestions
about staying home and wearing a mask changed into orders. Do these things so
you will be protected. Except for the masks. We were wearing the masks so, if
we had the virus and didn’t know it, which apparently is possible, we would be
protecting everyone else, plus ourselves. Turns out some of us had it and never
got sick. Turns out the masks could work both ways, protect ourselves, but more
likely, protect everyone else.
Which brings me back to the day the world turned grey on
me. A guy I was standing near (six feet apart, mind you) at the time my glasses
fogged suggested, “Lick the lenses. That’s what we used to do out at the
shooting range (when he was in the Army). They don’t fog if you do that” LICK
my lenses!? I’m not going to LICK MY LENSES! I said to myself. To him I said,
“Thanks.” Apparently applying dishwashing soap to the lenses, rinsing them off,
and then letting them dry without wiping also helps[1],
but that has to be repeated often, often enough to make a person try to live
with foggy glasses. Another suggestion I heard was to stick a piece of tissue
between the bridge of your nose and the mask. I can’t keep the darn thing in
place now let alone with a tissue stuck in there! By the way, the key to
diminished fogging seems to be a tight fit around the nose (part of the tissue
idea). I even heard of folks gluing pipe cleaners inside the nose bridge part
of their masks. They say the pipe cleaners help diminish the fogging and offers
bend-ability to form a better fit around the nose. Perhaps.
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| Typical face mask, front and back. These are two of 100 masks Walter James, lifelong resident of Drums, gave to the Luzerne County Area Agency on Aging Butler Township Active Adult Center where I work as an Alternate Center Operator. I had the honor to be working on the days when these masks were being made available to our Center Members. On May 21, 2020, the following "Letter to the Editor", written by Walter, was published in the Hazleton Standard-Speaker. It gives a few more details concerning how he acquired the masks and all who received them. |
And that brings us to ANOTHER issue of the “wearin’ o’
the mask” – keeping it in place. Movement of the lower jaw, such as occurs when
speaking, causes the mask to slide down. Soon the nose is exposed and one finds
themselves grabbing the mask and pushing it back up in place. I should be counting
how many TV reporters I see doing this exact thing while trying to give their
reports through their face masks. The number would be high. Doctors everywhere
must be cringing.
Of course, the mask is trying to do two things – mostly keep
your germs in but also to help keep those of other’s out. The “out” part means
the germs of others land on the outside of your mask and not in your mouth or
nose. So, if your nose is exposed, the mask ain’t helping that part of the
scenario. Now if you grab the mask from the outside and push it back up in
place, those germs that were unhappily sitting on the outside of the mask, are now
happily sitting on your fingers. Got a little itch on your nose? Without
thought, you push that finger behind your mask and scratch the itch, suddenly
the germs are happily sitting on your nose or wherever you scratched. Same
thing happens, but worse, if you remove or adjust the mask by grabbing it from
the front and then touch your face.[2]
Wearing a mask has been part of our lives for at least the
last six weeks, for some even longer. By now, we should all know how to wear a
mask! Still, the confusion continues. Just recently, May 14 to be exact, I was
watching MSNBC’s MTPDaily and the guest was Dr. Vivek Murthy. Among other
things, Dr. Murthy served as the 19th Surgeon General of the United
States from December 16, 2014 to April 21, 2017. During his remarks he
commented on how often he has witnessed people wearing masks with their noses
exposed, people grasping the front of the mask to adjust it or remove it, and
other such issues. “A lot of confusion still exists around mask wearing.” he
said – on MAY 14!
This pandemic of 2020 is not the first to hit the United
States. There have been others and perhaps the worst was the flu pandemic of
1918. It is estimated that 675,000 Americans lost their lives during that
pandemic. The 1918 flu was first seen in the United States in the spring of 1918 in
military personnel.[3]
Like this virus, that one spread quickly. Like this time
around, folks back then were told to stay away from each other and to wear
masks. The folks in San Francisco were some of the first of that pandemic’s
victims to wear masks. They even had a law that made citizens pay up to $10 (about
$150 in today’s dollars[4])
if they were caught outside their homes without a mask! Still, the San
Francisco area experienced one of the highest death rates of anywhere in the
country.[5]
This causes one to at least wonder how they put on, and took off, their masks!
As for Pennsylvania, the Commonwealth was hit pretty hard
by the 1918 flu pandemic, one of the hardest-hit states in the country.[6]
Just like today, back then Luzerne County was right in the mix of things. A
total of 50,000 children in Pennsylvania were made orphans by the 1918 flu and
that included 1,134 children in Luzerne County[7].
Of course, when the 1918 pandemic hit, Nathan Drum, Mary Drum
and their daughter Christie were living in Fritzingertown and son Elmer was in
France fighting WWII. They are the Drums most relevant to this blog who were
living at that time. Nathan’s father, John, had died in 1881 but Nathan, Mary,
Elmer and Christie each lived long after 1918. It does not appear as though the
1918 pandemic made much impact on them, or the rest of “us”, at all. Thank
Goodness, or I might not be here writing this!
Truth be told, I'm not exactly sure where Elmer was, specifically. He was inducted into the Army in Shickshinny, PA on April 30, 1918. Shortly thereafter, he was sent to Fort Lee, VA for training. His division left Fort Lee on June 11 to go to Hoboken, NJ in preparation for transport across the Atlantic; which occurred June 15. He served as a member of the AEF (American Expeditionary Forces) June 15, 1918 to March 30, 1919. For more on his service during this time, see the post The War to End All Wars.
Truth be told, I'm not exactly sure where Elmer was, specifically. He was inducted into the Army in Shickshinny, PA on April 30, 1918. Shortly thereafter, he was sent to Fort Lee, VA for training. His division left Fort Lee on June 11 to go to Hoboken, NJ in preparation for transport across the Atlantic; which occurred June 15. He served as a member of the AEF (American Expeditionary Forces) June 15, 1918 to March 30, 1919. For more on his service during this time, see the post The War to End All Wars.
A check of years of death of those listed in Helman’s Drum
Family genealogy[8] resulted
in only one Drum death found in 1918. Some death years are not listed and it is
possible I missed one or two during my quick review. I saw that two of “us”
passed in 1917 and I found one who died in 1920. I did not see a death
indicated for 1919 and the only one listed for 1918 that I found was John’s
daughter, Nathan’s sister, Louisa.
What we know of Louisa is that she was born January 4,
1862 and died March 3, 1918. Louisa married Levi Dreisbach and they had seven
children, two of whom are listed as deceased by Helman in her 1927 book; the
rest still living in 1927 when the book was published. Further research reveals
that neither of those children died in 1918 (William [Willie] died June 25,
1897 and Beatrice died August 30, 1902). It is possible that Louisa was one of
the first U.S. citizens to die of that flu but more research would need to be
done to know if so. She probably did not die from the flu, however. History
tells us, as stated above, that the flu was seen first in Military personnel in
the “spring of 1918”. I guess March could be considered “spring” but, Louisa
was certainly not in the military. if this was Louisa’s fate, it was not noted
as such, at least not by Helman.
Nor do I recall any 1918 flu pandemic stories being told
when I was little. Yet according to Martin Novak, author of the book Spanish
Influenza in the Wyoming Valley: The Human Cost of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic
as quoted by Matt Bufano in the Hazleton Standard-Speaker; “I believe it
was devastating for the Wyoming Valley.”[9]
Wyoming Valley is in the Wilkes-Barre Area, in northern Luzerne County. Perhaps
the Drums Valley, in southern Luzerne County, fared better.
Or maybe the Drums and their neighbors washed their hands
a lot and wore masks. This time around, in 2020, I was one of those who was NOT
going to be seen wearing a mask, for gosh sakes. As we learned more, however,
my tune changed. I started looking for a mask. As of this writing (in May,
2020) obtaining a mask is getting fairly easy. Here is just a part of one page
from one web site selling masks[10]
right now and there are quite a number more websites!
For a while there, however, for most of March and all of April
and most of May, masks were very hard to come by even though they were being
mandated by government officials. I heard a number of people say, “They want us
to wear a mask but where do you get them!? I can’t find them anywhere!!” Pat
Derr of Conyngham Builders Hardware store appeared on the local TV news VERY
early into this thing saying, even then, that they had been sold out of masks
for a few weeks and were having trouble getting more. I assume he was talking
about dust masks similar to the kind I was wearing.
One of the early ways, if not THE only way, to get a mask
was to make one. “No-Sew” instructions were put out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also known as the CDC, and other
sources. Sewing instructions and patterns began to appear in various sources as
well. This page appeared in the April 6,
2020 edition of the U.S.A. Today newspaper, page 4D.
It includes what you will need to make the mask (what tools
and supplies), step by step instructions for constructing the mask (including a
recommendation to “get creative” by putting a design on the mask like a bird or
dinosaur or flower design), and a pattern to follow when cutting the fabric.
Philip(Ronald, Harry, Elmer, Nathan, John, Philip,
George, Jacob, Philip) decided he would make a mask for himself. I don’t
know if he followed a pattern, or, if so, where he got it. But, using a needle
and thread, and I assume scissors, he sat down on April 11 and began to sew
one.
Here is his mask:
And here he is, wearing his creation. I told him that if
the mask had been black, he could easily be mistaken for Darth Vader.
Purchased or handmade, it became very clear very quickly,
one needed to have a face mask to survive in this new COVID Culture that was emerging.
As a Luzerne County employee, I received the following
message sent to all county employees on April 4, 2020 by County Manager, David
Pedri:
Friends and Colleagues,
I hope everyone is holding up
during this unprecedented time here in the County. I wanted to pass along
this information I just received from the Department of Health regarding
wearing masks. The County has ordered more masks, however as you are well
aware, these are at a premium across the United States. Until we receive
them, I would like every County employee who is mandated to come into the
office to utilize a mask if you have one. If you do not have a mask,
please see attached “how to make a mask” diagram or utilize a scarf or
bandanna. I personally donated the mask I was assigned to our prison
workers, so you will see me in the courthouse doing my best “cowboy bandit”
impression!
I want to thank each of you for
what you have done these past few weeks! Time and time again during this
pandemic a County employee has been called upon to assist our citizens and
every time you have answered the call. Feel free to share the
attached information to your contacts or on your social media.
Will be in touch with more
information as it becomes available. Stay safe out there,
Dave
On March 22 he wrote:
CDC asked all routine eye care
to be postponed, so we postponed routine (appointments) but kept those with
medical Dxes on schedule… Most of New
England closed all restaurants except drive thru or take out, including
alcoholic beverages and even mixed drinks. Schools are all closed, trying
to set up remote learning. Colleges all closed with remote learning for
rest of the year and probably also summer, but students are banned from
clearing out stuff from dorm rooms. Banks all drive thru only. ATMs
have withdrawal limits placed. Supermarkets are open with nothing to
sell. Walmart open with limited supplies. State liquor stores are
still OPEN!!! Much of the blue-collar world is still working (plumbers,
auto repair, furnace repair, FEDEX, UPS, etc.) Vermont had seven new cases last
weekend… Littleton has one confirmed case. Coos county where I
practice none, (but due to a lack of testing it is hard to know for sure.).
He followed that up with this message sent April 11:
We are staying home. We
order everything we can online delivered. We open cartons outside and
leave as much packaging outside overnight prior to processing into recycling
bins in garage. All grocery packages are opened and contents dumped into
other containers when possible. The rest are wiped with Clorox… If
going into a store I wear a mask. If no masks available (in Drums), and
there probably are not, you can make masks. Sewn are better, but there
are no-sew mask instructions available online. Suz[12]
is making some here for me, using instructions posted by the local
hospital. Basically, they are made from a rectangle of cotton cloth, she
is using floursack material but T shirts also work, folded over to make two
layers, left open at the top to receive a sheet of coffee filter, vacuum
filter, or paper towel. The paper is replaced daily, and the mask can
then be laundered. My staff used elastic rings meant for pony tails to go
over ears. Suz is using string that can be tied, like they did on
MASH. If nothing else, tie a bandana over your nose and mouth, like they
did in all the westerns, and wash it frequently.
If this virus thing continues through the rest of this
year, I’m thinking Coffee (Cough-y?) Filters are the gift of choice for Nathan
for Christmas! Shhh, don’t tell him. It’ll be a surprise.
Speaking of gifts, April 26 was my wife, Phyllis’s,
birthday. So, what did I get her for her birthday? Not one, but TWO masks in
her favorite color: polka-dots! I ordered them on-line. Well, I guess
“polka-dots” isn’t a “color”, really, but I think it should be.
In one of John Wayne’s earlier movies, the 1934 “hit” Blue Steel,
he chases a thief who disguises himself by wearing a polka dot bandanna. They
called him the “Polky Dot
Bandit”. Here is Phyllis in her new face mask doing her best Polky Dot
Bandit impression. After all, she DID steal my heart!
Yup, here she is, the latest Polky Dot Bandit. Just try
robbing a bank in THAT get-up!
Early on, not able to get a mask anywhere, I did make
“no-sew” masks for Phyllis and myself from tea towels that were still in a
drawer from when Mom was here. We had to go out and buy some of those “elastic
rings meant for pony tails” things Nathan mentioned in his message above to
slip over our ears to keep the masks in place, but most of them just broke! I
need to shop in higher class places, I guess.
Then I found a Halloween themed bandanna and was going to
use that. I even washed it! I could have been the Halloween Bandit! “Witch
way did he go?" Before I got to wear it outside my house, however, I remembered
some dust masks I’d bought to be used while cleaning the house some time back.
They were still hanging in the closet, sigh, unused. Those are the first ones I
wore outside the house. Those are the ones that fogged my glasses.
I did finally find a mask that minimizes the fogging
problem for me. Hanging above my dad’s workbench in our basement was an opened
package of 3M Dust Masks from the 1960’s or ‘70’s. Three masks were still in
the package. I believe the package originally held five (It was hard to tell. The
package literally fell apart in my hands). I did have to replace the elastic bands. The
original ones had become brittle instead of stretchy. They broke faster than
the pony-tail rings! I stapled old shoelaces dad had saved in a drawer onto
them to tie behind my head. My dad is now someplace saying, “See? There IS a reason
to keep everything!”
People did finally see the marketing possibilities for
selling masks. The first advertisement I saw for masks being sold in this area
was by Zanolini Nursery and Country Shop of Drums in late April.
Unfortunately,
I did not record the exact date when I first saw the ad. I called them on April
29 and learned they were taking orders but I had cut the ad from the Hazleton
Standard-Speaker some days prior. The washable masks they were selling came
in whatever designs whoever was making them decided to use at the time they were making them.
I wanted grey. I figured a grey mask would match my beard
and be less obvious. The ones they were selling at that time were blue with
white stars. I wasn’t sure I wanted blue with white stars covering my mouth but
the price was right: $5.00 each. The woman I spoke to told me the masks were
EXTREMELY popular. “This was the most successful advertisement we’ve ever had!”
she told me. She quoted orders in the hundreds! But, since they didn’t have
grey, I begged off and stuck with my 3M Dust Mask with shoelace ties.
But there are more problems with wearing a mask than these! For example, I
find myself repeating stuff more during discussions while wearing a mask. First
off, being so far apart, six feet, doesn’t help them hear me. I feel like I’m yelling at
them! Then there is a certain amount of muffling that occurs as the sound tries
to escape the enclosure. “Hello Fred” gets the response, “Did you say you want a
loaf of bread?”
Actually, a loaf of bread would be nice. That was one of
the first things to disappear from the store shelves after we were all told to
just stay home. However, we were not too dismayed. We have skills after all, that
could help us survive - like being able to bake our own bread! So back to the
store we went for yeast – the next of the early items to disappear from store
shelves! Apparently so many people were staying at home, and all trying to use
the same survival skill of baking their own bread, that everyone bought up all
the yeast. Commercially baked bread has reappeared on the shelves as of late;
in fact, just today (5/16) I got two for the price of one!!! The yeast, not so
much. I hope we (they, because I didn’t get any) didn’t cause it to go extinct!
And forget about brand, or even variety, preference. I
like buttermilk bread. All of April and early May, I was eating “whole wheat
and oatnut bread”. It’s all I could find. It was a little like eating handfuls
of grain right out of the grain sack. I took a bite of the bread and suddenly
felt like neighing. Still, bread is bread. I guess.
Last week I was looking for
Peach Jelly. I got Orange Marmalade. Very a-peel-ing.
Then one day I saw
a sign that said “Toilet Paper – Aisle 3. One per customer.” I thought they
meant one package, like I used to get. You know, four, six or eight rolls in a
package. Oh no, this is a photo of what I got. I don’t usually purchase
Cottonelle but, as they say, beggars can’t be choosy, especially when there
were only five rolls on the whole shelf and you can buy only one of them.
I sort of understand how the bread and yeast shortages
could have occurred. I’m a tad more confused about the TP shortage. Afterall,
one might buy bread maybe every two weeks, or buy yeast maybe once a month, if
that. Probably less! So, when everyone decided they wanted those things all at
the same time, well, the stores just weren’t expecting that level of demand.
However, TP is an item we DO buy regularly. The stores should not have run out
of that unless folks started buying it in quantities of unusual size; which is,
of course, what was happening. I am hoping that those folks who are apparently
storing it all in their attics (where else could it be?) experience a heating fuel use reduction due to the added insulation in their homes. More insulation would
mean less need for heat using less heating oil. Less demand for oil would force
the price down. Maybe, because of them, we can all experience fuel price
reductions! Sort of a way they can have their rolls and share the wealth at the
same time.
Toilet paper too has made its way back from near
extinction. My most recent grocery store visit found so much TP for sale, the
aisle was reduced to a single lane, so much TP was stacked in there. They had
it stacked along the back wall, too!
And we ARE experiencing home heating fuel price
reductions. I filled my fuel tank on May 1 and found the price was half what I
paid when I filled the tank in early February. That lower price was not due to
my insulation theory from above, however. That lower price is due to crude oil
prices being so low due to lack of demand for gasoline. We are all staying in
our homes so much, we are filling our car gas tanks less often. Low demand
forces prices down, prices for all types of oil are down. I haven’t seen gas
prices like these since, perhaps, the year I graduated from Hazleton High
School (1975). Not that I am complaining about prices being lower, but I am
complaining about not having anywhere to go! No place to go means I’m not using
the gas I got so I can’t take advantage of the lower gas prices! It’s a vicious
cycle.
We read above how life was being lived in New Hampshire
with COVID-19, but how is life here in Drums? Things here aren’t too much
different from the description Nathan gives above. Just about all businesses
closed and remained so. I was surprised I could still go into a Post Office to
buy stamps and mail letters and packages. The bank across the street from the
Post Office only provides service through the drive-thru. The bank I bank at,
closed the branch I bank at in Conyngham, so I drive to West Hazleton to bank
at the branch there now, via the drive-thru. Oh, and by the way, unlike New
Hampshire, our liquor stores are closed. I read recently that some are now
offering curb-side pick-up. Our restaurants too, are closed for inside dining.
Most provide home delivery or curb-side pick-up of called in orders.
Some counties in Pennsylvania are being allowed some
lee-way in being open. Luzerne holds the eighth place in highest number of
COVID-19 cases as of May 15: 2,491 cases and 127 deaths. We won’t be opening just
yet.
So, things in general, as far as lifestyle goes, are
beginning to get better. The virus is just as bad as it always was but, perhaps
we are beginning to learn how to live with it; well, at least incorporate it
into our daily lives.
I don’t think things will ever go back to “normal”. I
think this thing has changed us, perhaps even in ways we may never fully realize. What we do
realize, at least what I think I’ve recognized in many, including myself, is a
resilience and strength I’d been missing. Perhaps that is what these type
things do for us, move us all forward; make us all better; clarify our priorities;
renew our strength.
As hard as finding a mask had been until recently, I
knew, once masks became more available, it would only be a matter of time until
I would see this:
This photo was taken about 8:00 AM in Drums, PA on May 15,
2020. If you can’t make out what that is, let me give you a closer look.
That’s right. A discarded face mask, the vanguard of the
next pandemic: Face Mask Litter! That pandemic will hit when the fog clears and
the announcement is made that face masks are no longer required. I know that day will come. Doctors will announce, “We have a vaccine!” and we will all be able to toss this virus aside like yesterday’s used face mask.
That will be some day!
[2]
The proper method for removing your mask is to grasp the elastic bands behind your
ears, or to untie the laces if that is the type of mask you are wearing, and
let the mask fall away from you. The mask should then be either disposed of or
washed before further use. For even BETTER instructions on proper mask wearing
see: https://www.sfcdcp.org/communicable-disease/healthy-habits/how-to-put-on-and-remove-a-face-mask/
accessed 4/26/2020
[6]
Bufano, Matt, “Virus has renewed interest in 1918 pandemic”, Hazleton
Standard-Speaker April 13, 2020, page A10.
[8] Helman,
Laura M., History and Genealogy of the Drum Family (Allentown, PA:
Berkemeyer, Keck & Co., 1927)
[9] Bufano,
Matt
[12]
Nathan’s wife.
A good account of life in May 2020 in Drums. It will be helpful to historians. (This is from Elliot Grossman. I don't know why it bears my wife's name.)
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