Quarantine

The State of Illinois now has a “Stay At Home” order in place that prohibits any non-essential travel or gathering unless, of course, you have things to do. The order was issued by Governor Pritzker and while it tells everyone to stay home, he also gave numerous excuses and exceptions that allowed people to continue going outside like grocery shopping, walking the dog, or going to the park so long as you maintain a six-foot distance from everyone else to prevent further spreading of COVID-19. The order is essentially useless because it’s not a curfew or Martial Law, so it’s more so a request.

With that being said, I’m still going to work. For me, it’s pretty much life as usual. The only thing that really put a snag in my daily routine is the gym is closed and I am stuck doing home workouts. Resistance bands and bodyweight stuff is good, don’t get me wrong. It’s just hard doing pull-ups and curls without a bar and no dumbbells. The bands do an okay job but it’s just not the same.

I joined a baseball team for the summer that was practicing before the quarantine but has since been postponed because of all this. Just as I was getting back into the swing of things, literally, the nation goes on lock-down. Just my luck.

This whole thing wouldn’t be so bad if the public had something to distract themselves with which usually, for many Americans, is sports. Baseball season is postponed, hockey is suspended, and only a few leagues have allowed the sports to continue just without fans present like the UFC. It’s really tragic because the only thing to watch on TV aside from show reruns is updates on the virus which essentially are on a loop: more people got infected, a small percentage of them died, and many are really home sick with the flu.

While I believe this whole “Stay at Home” order is to ensure that the healthcare system doesn’t get overwhelmed by people being affected by the virus, I don’t think to cause global panic and “dooms-day-prepper-like” behavior is a good thing. I’ve seen videos of people stabbing others over toilet paper, fucking toilet paper! This virus is serious, but there’s no need to blow things out of proportion and put more people’s lives at risk. As we’ve seen so far with this pandemic, some parts of the population go the extra mile to help others in times of need while others lose their composure and stoop to animalistic behavior. I’m not even afraid of the virus; I’m afraid of people who can’t think rationally and panic causing everyone else to suffer.

I can’t imagine this nation-wide shutdown and “quarantine” will last months like they say it will. With the economy slowing (or crashing) and the numerous people out of work and rent money during this time, keeping this in place would put more lives at risk than the virus. Eventually, the only option would be to allow everyone to return to everyday life for their own safety and security. It’d be the only way to prevent worse events from occurring.

Also, out of this whole episode of mass-hysteria and worldwide panic over a new virus, there had better be some awesome zombie game that comes out reference COVID-19 because out of all the influenzas I’ve heard about, that one has the only zombie-like medical designation that has hit headlines so someone has to capitalize on that.

The bottom line is, I need baseball back and my gym open. Stay safe, get vaccinated, and wash your damn hands ya filthy animals.