Day 336: A close call

Wear the mask!!

I was up bright and early today, 4:30am to be exact. We had two experiments planned for the day, one first thing in the morning, the other in the afternoon. Being the dependable person I am, I was up and out on time, arrived here early and setup to get started. That’s when it all fell apart.

While I’m slightly annoyed, I’m glad it happened the way it did. Our subject emailed us about thirty minutes after she was supposed to arrive for the experiment to tell us she wasn’t coming in today. Her roommate tested positive for COVID so she didn’t feel comfortable coming into the lab. We agreed wholeheartedly.

While it would’ve been nice to get more of a heads up, you know, like last night when we confirmed she was going to be coming in, it was good that she stayed home. None of us want to get stick and we’re taking all the precautions we can to keep that from happening. Basically it’s just masks and hand sanitizer at this point.

Sure we screen at the entrances, but that in no way eliminates the risk. I’ve memorized where all the hand sanitizer stations are on my way from the office to the lab, I make sure to use them frequently, and if I’m around people, I’ve got a mask on. That’s just life of a researcher during a pandemic, we can’t completely stop, I’ve got to get my degree eventually, we have grants that require us to meet certain milestones, we all have bills to pay. So the work continues, like it or not.

While I can’t say I won’t get COVID, I’m certainly not being stupid about trying to prevent it. I’ve barely left the house and I think outside of the lab, my highest risk of exposure would be the store. I refuse to go to restaurants, assuming they are open, I haven’t kept up with that. I don’t go to bars, I went to a park once this summer, but that’s basically the only real outing the summer break started. I’m not sure how long this will go on, but the answer is probably longer than we think.

I’m hopeful I won’t get sick, if only because I don’t want to become a link in the chain of people who would inevitably get sick if I did catch it. Basically I’m grateful that the person did the right thing, even if it meant I was awake at 4:30am for no reason. I’ve got another experiment this afternoon, so I’m stuck in the hospital until then, no point in going home, changing, showering, then doing it all over again in a few hours.

Hopefully all our subjects will be that responsible, I really don’t want to get sick if I can help it.