The Unplanned Shutdown of Jan 2022 Continues to Spread

[canyonwalker]

Two weeks ago I wrote Shutdowns Are Here, Planned Or Not. Contrary to public officials and talking heads assuring us "This is not like March 2020" and thus no shutdown measures are necessary, unplanned shutdowns have continued to spread. The huge number of recent Covid cases means a lot of people are sick and unable to work. In addition there's a knock-on effect of people who've been exposed needing to quarantine and thus being unable to work in-person jobs.

There's an old saying, "A failure to plan is a plan to fail." The impact of the failure here is a cascade of unplanned last-minute cancellations upending people's schedules and causing chaos. We've seen the impact in everything from the flight-cancellation mess around the holidays, to the 1000s of motorists stranded on I-95 in Virginia (too many snow plow operators were out sick to keep even this #1 most important artery in the region cleared), to the chaos in school systems across the country as they try to resume after winter break.

I've minimized my personal level of chaos the past few weeks by taking a "We're in a shutdown" stance myself. That's also minimized my risk of exposure to disease. Practicing voluntary shutdown is frustrating, though. It feels like April 2020 all over again— except it shouldn't have to be like this.

Trouble Seeing My Doctor

Recently, though, I have gotten hit by one of the unplanned emergency shutdowns: my doctor's office! I've been trying to schedule an ordinary followup appointment. (I have a prescription drug that's not producing the desired result, and I want to discuss a better treatment plan.) Last week my appointment got rescheduled three times due to doctors suddenly becoming unavailable for the whole day. Early this morning I got a note that my appointment today was canceled because the whole office is closed. And apparently will be closed for a few days now. Can you say, "Covid-19 cases?" Nobody there admits to that, but it's pretty obvious from what's happening.

At the moment I've rescheduled to a telemedicine appointment Wednesday. The doctor is only taking telemedicine appointments for the next 2 weeks. That sure sounds like she's having to quarantine! Again, though, nobody's admitting that. I'll see on Wednesday if she's able to help me adequately or if she's way less than 100% because of "Covid Brain". 😨

Comments

[some_other_dave]

Speaking as someone who is flying back tomorrow for several medical appointments, that is more than a little terrifying!

[canyonwalker]

Call ahead to confirm!

And let us know when you're in town. Maybe we can meet up for an appropriately safe lunch or dinner.

[sorcyress]

As a schoolteacher YEP. On average, I have had >10 students absent in every class, every day since we got back. The school hasn't closed and has no intentions to...but obviously I'm not actually able to teach like normal, when I know half to two-thirds of my students are going to need catching up when they get back (or we're just going to spin our wheels with review)

~Sor

[canyonwalker]

In many districts the chaos is raised the second power because it's not just 1/4 of the kids who are out at any point but also 1/5 of the teachers. That level of staff absence creates chaos with classes having to be merged together and already-overworked teachers having to keep them busy with busy-work.