Mar 31, 2020
“What’s the buzz, tell me what’s happening?” It feels as if these lines from the musical, Jesus Christ Superstar, apply to the deadly corona virus.
We don’t know the origin of this virus. Some have suggested a zoonic process, where the virus may have jumped from an animal to human. Did it come from bats that one person decided to cook in a vegetable soup? Did it come from eating bushmeat, slightly cooked food from animals killed in the wild? Unlike bacteria, a virus needs to survive and reproduce within a warm blooded, living animal and being.
People tend to channel their anxieties through what they’re seeing on the newscasts. But sometimes art imitates life. In Stephen King’s 1978 novel The Stand, people were being infected and killed in much the same way as the Coronavirus does now: no warning, no defined origin of the virus, no cure. Relief came only when the virus ran its course, dissipated, and vanished.
The interesting thing about an infectious disease is that it’s also a hunter, looking for new people to afflict. It goes to our very visceral fears of being eaten by predators like the infectious diseases and viruses, all looking to devour more victims.
As we’re now seeing, there may be many other organisms out there that may afflict us. Globalization makes us much more vulnerable and susceptible to infectious disease either from nature or bioterrorism.
The Coronavirus outbreak is a good present-day example. The fear factor is all-embracing, and people become overly cautious with good reason, especially when the end result could be death. Nevertheless, we must become aware of a disease and deal with it. Today that awareness is on full display all over the United States.
One Medfield family had to abruptly postpone Sunday afternoon fun because the father of their 11-year-old son’s best friend tested positive. And the son’s mother’s work supervisor was exposed to COVID-19.
Another local family was finally reunited with their 28-year-old son who just returned from China, where he’d worked three years as an English teacher. He was originally told that he couldn’t get a flight back to Massachusetts until the end of March, a daunting scenario. But fortunately, he got out March 21st, and he kissed the tarmac at Logan Airport upon arrival. He is now back at home, but in medical quarantine for 14 days.
(The word “quarantine” was first used in 1617. It is derived from Latin and Italian words meaning “forty,” which was the number of days incoming ships were forced to wait offshore before unloading if they were suspected of carrying a plague.)
If Medfield residents want to see how shoppers are reacting to the Coronavirus, all they need do is simply go to Shaw’s. The staff at Shaw’s are reminding the customers, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” But much to the chagrin of the shoppers, normally well-stocked shelves were nearly empty a few hours after the first news and onset of the virus.
The scene is eerily similar of what third-world countries have been through. In Venezuela, for example, cupboards are practically bare, and food sold on the black market is costly. Imagine going down to a market and being unable to buy a few chicken wings or a half chicken and only able to afford to buy the chicken skins, a byproduct normally sold as pet food!
The Experience at Shaw’s
At Shaw’s during the week of March 8th, shoppers picked clean many of the aisles that held frozen vegetables, bread, milk, ice cream, paper towels and toilet paper. Somehow, the scene took on the care-free magic of Christmas time when shoppers were ready to buy a favorite gift for their children, reminiscent with people waiting outside the store to open and then running the 50-yard dash down the aisles. One woman at another Medfield store had a gallon of Poland Springs water rudely snatched from her hands, causing her to practically fall onto the floor. But at Shaw’s, shoppers seem less frenzied, more polite.
The prevailing mindset is to buy as much “comfort food” as possible. It almost seems as though we’re witnessing a tale of two stores at Shaw’s. The very large left side of the store has been nearly emptied. Practically all the frozen pizza, ice cream, and vegetables are gone, as are most of the paper products. Temp sticks, thermometers are all sold out, a crucial item that was sold out in the first 24 hours.
On the large, right side of the supermarket – an area nearly the size of a basketball court – things are different. Logically, one would think that the healthy, nutritious foods would have been sold quickly. But fresh fruit and vegetables just haven’t been high on the shoppers’ lists.
Helpful People at Shaw’s Osco Pharmacy
With the Coronavirus, the very energetic, confident, and personable pharmacists, Moji and Christen, have provided some very valuable peace of mind. Two other pharmacists work alternate hours in harmony.
The Osco pharmacists each put in a 12-hour day on their alternate shifts. Some of them are the hardest working people the shoppers will ever see. Like all the other employees at Shaw’s, there’s no Five O’clock World, for those who are the essential workers who are, “Up every morning just to keep a job, working through the hustling mob with sounds of the town pounding in their brain.” Here’s a link, if you don’t know the song.
The pharmacists’ mantra is “People come first.” One of the pharmacists, Moji, who has been with Osco for over two decades is an astute critic of world affairs. His family has maintained, “Before politics there was humanity, and only politics divides people.” All people should respect the rights of others regardless of political affiliation.
Moji believes being a pharmacist is one of the most ethical and honest professions. The Osco Pharmacy maintains that it’s only the prescription that gets treated like a number, not the customer. Even when the pharmacists are besieged with many questions, the answers are given in a comprehensive manner.
Much the same attitude exists at Shaw’s from the front of the building to the back. Remarkably, with a near psychic connection just six months ago, the fairly new self check-out terminals started allowing customers and associates a time to avoid unnecessary physical contact. Disinfecting wipes at the entrances and exits also help. The checkout terminals are a great example of AI, artificial intelligence working with simplicity. Once the shoppers get the hang of how it all works, they’re good to go. Furthermore, there’s always a Shaw’s associate nearby ready to help when needed. All the Shaw’s associates on the front line should be proud of their tireless effort. Their dedication is exemplary.
Elsewhere in Medfield, people have been picking up and placing an order for home delivery so often that people may soon eventually give up fine dining altogether at the local restaurants.
But during these unusual and toxic times, how does one deal with 24/7 news? When do we say enough? But we’re not at a loss for the want of anything to do while practicing social distancing and staying inside our homes during these uncertain times. After all, we’ve got plenty of means for getting on the social network with Facebook, Twitter, Google, tons of smart phones, all the tremendous gadgetry, a kind of connective branch from an olive tree that makes so many people happy to be alive and well. Graciously, even in these difficult and challenging times, we are now enjoying the wizardry of modern technology.