Now It's Fucking Personal .

[queenbookwench]

A friend of mine--who crossed the invisible barrier awhile back from work-friend to friend-friend--just tested positive for COVID.

Yes, she's young and healthy, but we all know that's no guarantee; and I'm extra concerned because she lives alone and doesn't have a car, though her sister and brother-in-law also live in the area.

I'm honestly shocked because I know her to be very safety-conscious.

The only remotely high risk things she's done have been go to work (at the library, which recently started letting people back in the buildings on a limited basis), take the Metro to and from work (and she specifically asked to switch branches so her commute would be shorter), and go to the grocery store or occasionally Home Depot, and she always wore her mask.

Comments

[ambyr]

Socially distant hugs. I'm sorry :-(. It's scary right now.

[queenbookwench]

Yeah, if she can get it literally anyone in the same work role or with a similar commute could, and it could easily be someone with fewer advantages and resources.

And as her union rep as well as her friend, I feel like we've failed her because our safety advocacy hasn't been effective enough to prevent admin from moving forward with letting _even more_ people into buildings.

[queenbookwench]

I do _not_ think it's a coincidence that we started letting people in buildings on June 29th, which is, huh, just a little over 14 days ago.

[sobriquet9]

Scary. What kind of mask?

[queenbookwench]

I have no idea what she had, but I know she had some. It's required in all stores and businesses in MD anyway, as well as at work and on the Metro.

[melannen]

The library system where I work just had its first post-reopening staff member test positive today. (I'd wonder if it's the same one but we're not on the metro. And have no union.) It's increasingly clear that we reopened too early and I have no faith that we'll shut back down if it keeps trending up. :( I hope your friend does well

[queenbookwench]

Thanks! Is it giving away too much to ask if you're on the MD side or the VA side?

[southerncontinentskies]

Oh no! I'm in the DMV as well, and though I'm lucky enough to still be working from home, I'm dreading the day when we have to go back in. I don't have a car, so I'd be taking the Metro as well, and that just seems like a nightmare of a petri dish if there are any significant numbers in the car - which there likely would be, since the service is so slimmed-down at the moment.

I just don't see how any cities reliant on mass transit can go back to "normal" until there's a vaccine. Riding in a crowded bus or train car for 30-90 mins (or more!) just does not sound safe, even with masks. I'm crossing my fingers that the federal govmt is reasonable (on an agency level...) about sending people physically back to work, since that's such a huge portion of the 9-5ish Metro crowd, but who knows.

[queenbookwench]

I know what you mean; as incandescently furious as I am about a lot of aspects of how our agency admin & the Mayor have handled this process, they have done a couple of things right--shifting our hours toward off-peak for transit and being pretty reasonable about accomodating people's transfer requests so that they can work closer to home. And yet, this still happened.

I've actually ridden Metro a couple of times, always in off-peak hours and it didn't _seem_ bad--I never had more than 4 other people in my train car at a time. You can bet I'm more nervous about it now, though!

I actually bought an electric bike about a month ago and have been commuting on that mostly, it feels good for my mental and physical health, as well as keeping me off the train, but I know that's not an option for a lot of folks. And I don't think I could have got from zero to bike commuter without the electric boost--not with the hills in our area!