Yoel's Coronavirus Journal

I rarely eat up bandwidth with things like this (others do a much better job) but as I await the result from the Ministry of Health to see if I am Covid-19 Positive - I could help but get a smile from this meme!

I'm in that surrealistic state where, having done the Corona-virus test due to having symptoms of a flu-like virus, but not being as of yet confirmed, I'm in obligatory isolation * . Free to roam my own home, but not to touch or breathe on items others might come in contact with.  I'm afraid to make my own cup of coffee or to scramble an egg lest I inadvertently infect my loved ones. From my wife of 45 years, I maintain a respectful 2 to 3 meters distance - to touch her, to hold her hand, would be the ultimate violation of my circumstance. No one, other than her, can enter our home. I should in good conscience meet no one at the door. I'm in a state of ultimate isolation - at one and the same time, I'm separated from everyone who populates my world while at the same time I dwell within their midst in my private little burble of infection. N.B.  *  My esteemed friend Eliyahu Schiffman brought to my attention the fact that "self-imposed isolation" (the origi

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t feeling that great most of last week (I’m writing this on Wednesday morning 8th of July.) But it wasn’t anything specific. Toward the end of the week, I did start having “discomfort” in my stomach. A discomfort that escalated over Shabbat and that has only slowly abated in the last twenty-four hours. Head Ache I also suffered from pain in the Occipatel or Parietal lobe area - the top rear section of my head. Nothing to complain about, I have frequent headaches for long periods of time, sometimes weeks. But definitely yet another contributing factor. Diarrhea  Then, Friday night my Shabbat meal entered and left within the hour. Diarrhea had plagued me off and on for over a week, treated with occasional Imodium and daily doses of fiber. But yet another contributing factor. Muscle Pain The real clincher that made me pay attention was the muscle pains. You know that fluish feeling when every muscle in your back and shoulders hurts.  Fever Add to the above a low-gra

It has been my personal assessment that:  from the moment this COVID-19 was declared a pandemic;  it was clear that it was unusual - not just another flu; there were few treatment options except to treat the symptoms (as there are all viral diseases); the likelihood of an effective immunization campaign was 24 to 36 months away - if at all! Life as we knew it would never return.  The new " normal " was something that could only be envisioned in a SciFi movie.  The question that preoccupied me, beyond the obvious challenges of surviving without a secure source of income and staying healthy, was how long it would take the rest of the world to absorb this truth and start embracing it and acting accordingly. Kubler Ross model Like all tragic events in the life of humanity, singularly and collectively, the Kubler Ross model or "The Five Stages of Grief" could possibly be a good model to evaluate what is happening around us. Denial I remember attending my granddaughter&#