The nature of this pandemic/virus means that many of the things we can do to reduce/slow its spread are things we do for the benefit of other people, and we have to hope that other people will also do those things for us. Mask-wearing is the clearest example of this: we wear masks to reduce the harm we might do to others, and we have to hope others will return the favor by wearing masks to reduce the harm they might do to us. If we are all willing to do something that benefits others, we all end up benefiting our own selves—a beautiful, almost fairy-tale example of the theoretical natural consequence of following the golden rule.
Other choices are less obvious than masks, but similarly expose people other than ourselves to more/less risk. It’s not possible to increase or decrease only our own risk: we are deciding for ourselves and also for everyone else we come into contact with: servers, clerks, stylists, caregivers, other customers/participants, friends, family, co-workers, healthcare workers, fellow patients, people we live with or visit or take care of—and also all the people THOSE people come into contact with. And all of those people are making decisions for themselves that in turn affect us.
This is why, if you’re not already writing down where you go, and when (day and approximate time), and who you have contact with (servers, friends, family, etc.), I strongly recommend starting. It’s another thing we can do that benefits others and also ends up benefiting ourselves. If we ourselves get sick, we have a nice clear record for the contact tracer, so they can see who they need to get in touch with to let them know they’ve been exposed, which can be crucial and time-/life-saving information. If someone we know gets sick, or a place we visited is traced as the center of an outbreak, we have at least the start of the information we need to help us determine if we’re likely to have been exposed. If contract tracers turn out to be part of the sensible plans made by scientists and health professionals, but not by the U.S. government, then we are doing what we can to handle it ourselves. And we save ourselves the stressy and inaccurate scramble of trying to recreate our schedule after the fact, possibly while feeling sick.
Great idea. I started a list on my phone, and already I’m realizing I need to scale it back. Especially the visits with my very needy next door neighbor who keeps wanting more and more.
I already keep a fairly detailed planner, but after your previous post about your “contact calendar,” I realized that my planner didn’t include grocery trips or other errands that weren’t scheduled ahead of time. I have now ordered a wall calendar that will just be for tracking when I leave my apartment and the general time frame of my excursions. If I ever do have need to share my calendar with contact tracers, this will be much easier for them to work with since my personal planner is chock full of virtual events that I attend from my couch and would be irrelevant to a tracer. Thank you not only for the initial idea, but also for this reminder! (It was also a great excuse for a pretty new calendar!)
Time frame! Thanks for that additional reminder. Not that I am out and about much. Last time I were to town for groceries was over 6 weeks ago, it’s definitely time again. I have only seen 2 people in the last two weeks. (A dad/son team who came to mow my place because my mower is in the shop.)
Are you folks tracking deliveries too?
That’s a really good idea – especially now since things are opening up and there are more people out and about. I’m still trying to stay in as much as possible but others aren’t. The Husband informed me this morning that some of the stores are insisting that their customers wear a mask and will not let them in if they aren’t wearing one.
Are you including drive throughs? Like if I do a curbside pick up from my library? Or just going into public spaces?
I’m including all of those.
Yes! The golden rule really does good work! :-) And I think most peoples’ “enlightened self-interest” is really inadequately enlightened/long-range (as well as, honestly, still just being self-interest – it’s better to also value other people, etc. – but really, even if it *is* just self-interest, it’s long-range better to live in a healthy, stable society rather than a broken-down, grabby society, so live like it!).
And that is smart to write down all person-contacts so that it doesn’t have to be reconstructed later (and possibly reconstructed *while sick* which is not the best time for the memory, generally…). We don’t actually have breathing contact outside the household at this time (drop-off delivery only), but if we did, a wall calendar sounds like it’d really be the way to go – time, location, and done! :-)
I hope that you and your family are doing okay during this time, Swistle. I appreciate all your posts and that you’re updating frequently at the moment.
On your iPhone, go to settings-> privacy-> health. There’s a covid tracker in there. It notifies you if you’ve come into contact with someone with it, or others if they were in contact with you.
I’m not sure about where you are, but here that tracker embedded in Health is only there in wait for the downloading of an app. It doesn’t actually do any tracking in the absence of an app that’s deliberately downloaded and turned on.
Yes, it has to be turned on. But still a good option for those wanting to track.
I’m looping back to this post to say thank you for suggesting this and I’ve shared your suggestion with everyone I know. It could be so helpful someday as demonstrated by the fact that just today H was informed that someone in his office has COVID. Thankfully H has not had any contact with him in weeks but they are now attempting to track everyone in the office the employee had contact with and even though there are only about 5 people maximum in H’s entire office at any one time there is already some confusion about who this person was in contact with a week ago when he was last in. It’s so easy to forget who you’ve been in contact with a week earlier!