How many of you remember The Andromeda Strain?

It’s not great, but it is entertaining.  I couldn’t get through reading it, but I did listen to an audiobook version when I was driving back and forth over the pass a lot.  It was fun, very much in the vein of popcorn and beer “thriller” that Crichton tended to write.

Anyway, we in Washington state have the first reported US deaths from the COVID-19 Coronavirus, which I keep misreading as CORVID-19, and wondering what crows have to do with it.

So, just so you know, the only things that have changed around here is Costco looked like the End Times were happening at noon on a Monday.  I was out with a migraine and needed to pick up a prescription, so the Geek Husband What Rules dragged my sorry ass to Costco around noon, figuring that it would be less busy.

Ha!

We learned two things:

1. I should not go to Costco hungry.  Actually I already knew this, but now I have a ton of kettlecorn to drive that home.

2. People in Seattle will panic-shop at the drop of a hat.

All right we also knew that, given the state of Costco or any grocery store the second a weather forecast mentions the S-word.  You know, Snow.

This was worse, though.  In the middle of the freaking day, not a bowl game or food-related holiday in sight, people were rolling around with carts filled with broth, cases of butter… They were out of ground turkey and chicken, the OTC drug aisles were getting pretty picked over.  The bread aisle was almost completely empty.

That was weird.

And I’m bopping around groggy and dumb because migraine, all, “Oh, hey, what’s going on?”

We talked to the cashier in the pharmacy and she said it had been like that all weekend.  The kid who rang us out told us that he was taking as many overtime shifts as he could.  We saw a few air-filter masks.  Lots of people buying nitrile gloves.

I’m about to rain on everyone’s apocalyptic fears here.

The flu kills more people on a regular basis than COVID-19 has infected in the US. Far more.

Just wash your hands, don’t touch your face, don’t lick doorknobs, and you’ll likely be all right.  If you’re going to be in a situation where you are going to be breathing the same air as a lot of people, wear a mask.  I will likely be wearing my air filter mask, because I have really bad asthma and anything respiratory turns right into bronchitis.  So, yeah…

Take care of yourselves, but stop panicking.  Honestly, the mask thing should just be a thing we do during cold and flu season, especially if we’re the ones sick.

This has been a public service announcement, brought to you by the bitter disappointment that yet again, the movies have LIED to us.

Be well, guys.  And be careful.

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