It’s not court-ordered home confinement. There is no GPS ankle bracelet to track your every move, and a probation officer is nowhere to be found. A judge is not involved.
But self-isolation inside one’s domicile as a device to combat a feared new virus does have some similarities.
It’s not out of the question to describe shelter-in-place as a sort of self-induced medical prison, albeit with cable-TV, Wi-Fi and the possibility of home-delivered meals on occasion.
The danger, depending on how long this voluntary (well, shall we say, very strongly recommended) precautionary condition lasts, is mental/emotional in addition to financial.
There is an unfortunate tendency to pay way too much attention to the hour-by-hour changes in the fight against the virus, including the disturbing gyrations in the stock market.
Grim statistics from hard-hit spots throughout the world can be magnified by isolation. Personal health (perceived symptoms in particular) could become an obsession.
If you live alone, that only worsens the problem. So communicate electronically if you have to. At least wave to a neighbor if you happen to spot one from a comfortable distance.
Stay in touch with family and friends. Don’t slip into a depressing cocoon even though every day has become Saturday, a sort of endless Groundhog Day if you will. Using the established social limitations, shop if you are able.
Careful human contact, even from afar, is a good thing, provided the rules of the moment are followed.
For some of us of the male persuasion, a notable issue could become a tendency toward a lack of attention to normal personal habits, like regular shaving and haircuts.
But it would not be advisable to wind up looking like a suburban son of Sasquatch after several weeks of voluntary isolation.
Why frighten dogs and small children when you finally re-appear from your home or apartment or lair when the all-clear signal is announced?
So try to maintain your in-house routine. Don’t backslide. All of this will pass. Eventually. You need to be natty and spruce when it’s over.
Just a thought.
A fiscal note
In light of the present health care/financial crisis, you can bet that a number of local public school districts are especially pleased about the timing of their successful bond measures early last month.
It may not seem all that obvious but, in some cases, money generated by the bonds is not ticketed only for construction of new roofs, renovated athletic fields and the like. There is also the matter of equipment — computers, heating/cooling systems, security cameras, etc.
By utilizing the fresh bond funds for what, in past generations, was considered annual maintenance needs or normal equipment purchases from the capital improvement budget, cash is quietly freed up for other, pressing fiscal needs, such as employee pension requirements.
And make no mistake about it, those pension mandates are getting increasingly onerous as the years go by. It’s a matter of priorities, so every dollar is helpful.
Too many zeroes
An item in this space earlier this month indicated that a University of Washington study’s projected likelihood of dying from the new virus as a California resident by Aug. 4 was 0.000152 percent.
The accurate figure, still extremely low by any standard, is 0.0152 percent. A number of alert readers pointed out the two-zero mistake.
By the way, the revised projections from UW were even more optimistic.
John Horgan’s column appears weekly in the Mercury News. You can contact him by email at johnhorganmedia@gmail.com or by regular mail at P.O. Box 117083, Burlingame, CA 94011.