I think you are doing the right thing. It's hard to predict what to do in a situation that we've never experienced.
Some might find this of interest - on the Agonist there are several SARS blogs - one started by a woman whose husband is coming back from a trip to China - they have children - she and he think he should probably go into quarantine when he gets back - what to do.
I just read a response by a man in that same situation (no kids apparently) who is describing what he's doing. In a nutshell, he's staying home for ten days and his wife is staying with him. The logistics details are interesting.
agonist.got.net
Last night we went to another Greek Fest. Festival style seating, anybody can sit at the table next to you, and then leave. At one point a Chinese woman sat next to me - I looked at her and wondered where she'd been recently, and felt bad that I wondered that, and then wondered whether she gets that reaction a lot these days.
Similar situation earlier in the week - we went to our favorite Chinese restaurant. I once represented a woman who owned a Chinese restaurant. Everybody who worked there was always going back and forth to China. The kitchen workers were all illegals. She provided an apartment for them as part of their pay. That's standard operating procedure for local Chinese restaurants, I am told. If you work in a Chinese restaurant even as an underpaid, mistreated illegal, you get paid cash and eventually you can save up enough money to start your own restaurant.
I looked at the staff through the window and wondered whether one of them was carrying my death. Never wondered that in a restaurant before, made me feel creepy, and chastise myself for being hysterical.
I know I worry too easily but I am certainly not the only one. But I also know I am a fairly rational person even in the grip of paranoia and fear. If this thing doesn't die down (and I hope it does) then I fear for the very fibers that hold us together as a nation, and as part of the global village.
Finally, last night my husband read on some website that some in China are already claiming we in the US created the SARS virus to kill them because we don't seem to be getting it. I was afraid it would come to that. |
