Balancing Act

Now that the corona virus outbreak has been classified as a pandemic, I am trying to do a balancing act.  I am trying to neither overreact to the situation nor minimize its seriousness.  

Just a couple days ago the first confirmed cases were reported here in Ohio.  There are at this moment four cases, and I know that at least three of them are in Cuyahoga County where I live.  Three people among a population of 1.24 million people is a very tiny amount.  The question is will the virus be successfully contained, or will it explode.  

As a senior citizen I am told that I am at risk.  However, I have (knock on wood) no serious health problems, and, when I am at home and not traveling, I go to the gym five days a week and work out for an hour and a half.  I certainly do not consider myself frail and elderly.  Furthermore I have read that the mortality rate for the virus among people in their sixties is around 3%.  So if I were to catch the virus, there would be a 97% chance that I would recover.  Putting that in perspective, If, heaven forbid, I were diagnosed with cancer, and the doctor told me that my chances of survival were 97% I would be very happy indeed.

If I should come down with something, even if it's just the sniffles, I will stay at home.  I have enough food in the pantry that I will not need to go to the store.  And I bought a thermometer so that I will know if I have a fever.

My biggest worry at this point is how the pandemic is going to affect my travel plans.  Last December when I found a very reasonable, round-trip, first class airfare to Mexico City, I jumped on it and made my reservation for my April trip to Mexico.  In less than a month I am supposed to leave.  

As of today there have been eight confirmed cases of corona virus in the entire country of Mexico.  Of those eight, four have already recovered, and there have been no fatalities.  It seems as if I am safer in Mexico than here in the U.S.  (0.1 cases per million people as opposed to 3.2 in the U.S.)

Supposedly the airlines are doing a more thorough job of sanitizing the planes during this crisis.  However I will still do my own sanitizing job.  I have a small spray bottle of Lysol spray and a packet of Clorox disinfectant wipes that are within the limits for the "liquids bag" that I am allowed in my carry-on.  Hand sanitizer is not to be found in any of the stores, but fortunately I had several partially used bottles from previous trips.  I consolidated them into two full travel-size bottles of sanitizer. 

I am worried about whether or not the first leg of my flight from Cleveland will be cancelled.  It is a large 737 jet and, right now there are only eleven passengers on the entire plane.  Every day I go to the United website and look at the seating chart for that flight.

I am the only person in first class.  That would be really nice.  I would have my own flight attendant, and I wouldn't be next to someone who was sick.  However I really don't think that the flight will run with so few people.  The second leg of my journey, the flight to Mexico City is about half full... IF there are not a bunch of cancellations in the upcoming weeks.  Whatever happens, I hope that I am not stuck with a horrendous itinerary. 

My final worry is what if I come down with the virus while I am in Mexico.  I am not so worried for myself, but I don't want to give the bug to Alejandro's family, especially his 80 year old father.  

I am just going to have to wait and see how things progress in the coming weeks.