“An’ the dawn comes up like thunder outer China ‘crost the Bay!”
Mandalay, Rudyard Kipling
As quoted under the title of Chapter 13, “Coronavirus”, in Dr. Michael Osterholm’s Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs (Little Brown & Company, 2017)
![items.[0].image.alt](https://ewscripps.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/5dbc97c/2147483647/strip/true/crop/900x506+0+0/resize/1280x720!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fewscripps.brightspotcdn.com%2F3a%2F71%2Fd9c9f3524b7bad46b2e754c5e575%2Fcoronavirus-2.png)
A shot of a simulation of a compound (in gray) which can bind to the SARS-CoV-2 corona virus (in light blue/cyan) to prevent it docking with our ACE2 receptors (in purple) as modeled by a super computer at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Markers of time
B.C.
A.D.
Ancien Regime
Antebellum
Pre-Covid
I’m calling it The Great Disruption
Dr. Osterholm used Kipling’s poem as metaphor
Thundering new days out of China
Last week, it was kind of funny
This week, it’s serious
It was serious last week, too
Will be serious for months
Everything disrupted
Economic impact
Emotional impact
Listening to the experts
Long
Hard
Slog
A drive through for testing by the local medical university
Like out of a movie
Way to go MUSC
Six confirmed cases in the state so far
Just a matter of time before twelve
Then twenty four
Then forty eight
You get it
No more normal
No more subway rides
No more masks
No more shift breaks at the hospital
No more Volvo Car Classic Tennis Tournament
No more ACC Tournament
No more St. Patrick’s Day Parades
No more NCAA Tournament
No more school
No more Broadway shows
No more NBA
No more MLB
No more NHL
No more Capitol tours
No more haircuts
No more manicures
No more pedicures
No more Bull Market
No more face to face meetings
No more eating out
No more room for pasta, rice, grits in the pantry
No more oyster roasts
No more classes at the University
No more classes at the College
No more Spring Breaks
No more flights from Europe (unless you’re the UK or Ireland)
No more Disney World
No more lines at airports
No more economic growth
No more Universal Studios tours
No more taped in front of a live studio audience
🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠
No more ventilators
🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠
No more tests
🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠🦠
Cancel culture
Flatten the curve
Alternative instruction
Chapped hands from all that washing
Yet the cruise ships keep coming and going from the port
Adjustments as necessary
For months to come
If all this works, everyone will say we over-reacted
If none of this works, everyone will say we did not do enough
Is this what January 1942 felt like?
Must have been
And, keep washing your hands, kids
Godspeed
Dad, what's for supper? 
Thank you!
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