The Coronavirus Is Everywhere
(Fun fact: I started typing out “Coronavirus,” and backspaced to change it to “The coronavirus” because AP style. Because reporter, y’all.)
And that’s exactly why I feel like I can’t get away from it: because I’m tasked with reporting on it.
Because of that, I’m afraid to go back to work.
It’s been really hard because there are only three full-time reporters — and I’m not a reporter in the sense that the other two are, because I don’t cover a specific beat. I cover features, which might be less stories per week, but with all events canceled and residents urged to practice social distancing, it’s a lot harder to get the features that I need, because all of the ones I had planned are no longer working out. We still need photos, too, and those have been harder to get.
Our senior reporter-turned-assistant managing editor is working from home, and that’s hard, because the other two reporters look to me for direction in her absence. And I still look to her, and I need her back in the newsroom.
(At least she’s back from her vacation to Vegas.)
County officials are going to make some sort of announcement this afternoon, and I suspect it may be an advisory to shelter in place. Maybe even an order. But the thing about that is that media is considered “essential personnel” — rendering any “shelter in place” order completely inapplicable to me.
I wish it were applicable.
My husband found out this morning that his company considers them essential personnel, too — though I have no idea how, because he works in a warehouse, fulfilling and shipping out orders of industrial coatings like paint. I fail to see how that’s considered essential in the same way media or first responders or food workers or energy providers, etc., are, and it’s not the news either of us wanted to hear.
I’m okay working, still. I just want to do it from home, and I want my husband and my dog sheltered in place with me.
What I really ought to do is call a doctor and try to make an appointment while I still can, because the stress the coronavirus is putting on my mental health sometimes feels greater than the toll it would take on my physical health. I worked from home on Friday, and while I did give a couple valid reasons for doing so when I texted my boss that I wouldn’t be in the office that day, the biggest reason was the one I did not share: that I’d woken up with anxiety, and I chose to work from home because I felt like I couldn’t handle going into the office that day.
I understand media being considered essential. It’s not what I want to hear — but, then again, I’m paid hourly so if I don’t work, I don’t get paid, so I need my job — but I also understand why we’re considered important. People turn to the news to find out what’s happening, especially in times of crisis. I used to turn on the TV news in college whenever a really bad storm was coming and I wanted to know how bad it would be, whether I could drive an hour north to work or class or whether I needed to stay home.
Now, people are turning to my coworkers and me for the truth in this time of crisis. But who am I supposed to turn to when I feel like I’m in crisis myself?
