--Diary of Samuel Pepys (August 30, 1665)
In that week alone, Pepys observed that 6,102 residents of the City of London had died of plague. Seattle is the epicenter of the COVID-19 coronavirus epidemic in the United States; living in Seattle, it's remarkable to read in the international press that we represent the epidemic in America as Wuhan does for China.
And yet, so far, just fifteen people have died in the entire State of Washington.
But it's interesting to read Pepys's diary, and note the similarities. Although Pepys makes constant reference to the horrors of the plague, the vast bulk of his diary during the plague years revolves around his career and his social life. Similarly, my life and the life of almost all Seattle residents is untouched -- directly -- by the virus. Life goes on.
Which is not to say that our lives are untouched by the effects of the virus. Pepys observes how few people were out and about in the streets of London. That is true here, as well. On Wednesday, I noted on Facebook that Wednesdays usually are the worst days for me to drive home from my favorite breakfast spot near University Village. I generally return home between 8 and 9 a.m. The only available route also carries commuter traffic toward the freeway system and thence either downtown or to the techie employers east of Lake Washington. And it also carries local student traffic to and around the University of Washington. That drive on Wednesdays generally takes 30 minutes or more.
Wednesday -- this week -- it took me seven minutes.
We are approaching winter quarter finals at the UW. You expect to see the campus packed with frantic students. It's been very quiet for the past two weeks, as students have simply stayed home or in their student residences to do their studying, often skipping classes. Now, it's been announced that no classes or final exams will be held in university buildings until the beginning of next quarter; everything will somehow be done on-line.
The Seattle Public Schools have remained in session, but a number of suburban schools systems have suspended classes -- classes that will have to be made up in June, as though we had been hit by a snowstorm in March.
Organizations have cancelled meetings and parties. St. Patrick's Day celebrations are being cancelled. Speculation has begun that the Mariners' opening home game against the Texas Rangers may be cancelled or postponed. Seattle's mammoth Comic Con gathering has been postponed, as have two other major events at the Convention Center.
All of a sudden, many people -- but no where near a majority -- are wearing face masks.
The question we all are asking -- is this pretty much as bad as it will get? Or is this just the beginning? I suspect the latter. For most of us living in Seattle, it isn't the remote risk of our personally becoming seriously ill or dying that worries us. It's the total disruption of our lives as we make the necessary adjustments to protect the small percentage of people who are at risk -- and whose identity can be guessed at only statistically.
And yet, we can handle it. We can work around the disruptions and we can shrug off the risks. A few days after Samuel Pepys wrote the diary entry quoted above, he made it clear that for him and for his friends, life went on.
Thence with my Lord Brouncker to Captain Cockes, where we mighty merry, and supped; and very late, I by water to Woolwich, in great apprehensions of an Ague. Here was my Lord Brouncker's lady of pleasure, who I perceive goes everywhere with him, and he I find is obliged to carry her and make all the Courtship to her that can be.
But how long will it last, we ask. Pepys may have thought the end was in sight in August 1665, but many scholars feel the 1665 plague did not end until the Great Fire of London in September 1666 killed the rats and the plague-bearing fleas that lived on them.
Hopefully, we won't find it necessary to watch Seattle burn.
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