Coronavirus hits the heart of Sacramento, shutting down our desire to be together
So much for calm. We blew by all speed bumps of reason by sundown on Wednesday while racing toward a collective emotional crisis.
First it was Santa Clara County banning all gatherings of more than 1,000.
Then Alameda, Contra Costa and San Francisco counties followed suit.
The NCAA then dropped the bomb that its prized March Madness tournament of college basketball would be played before empty arenas. (I had a ticket for next week’s show in Sacramento.)
Then the River Cats March 22 exhibition against the San Francisco Giants was canceled. Then the Golden State Warriors were going to play to an empty arena in San Francisco on Thursday.
Then the NBA was going to suspend its season after the Kings and New Orleans Pelicans finished their game at Golden 1 Center on ESPN Wednesday night.
Then an NBA player tested positive for COVID-19. So did Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson.
Then the Pelicans refused to play the Kings because one referee on hand had officiated a previous game that included the infected NBA player, Utah Jazz big man Rudy Gobert.
Then the NBA canceled the game and who knows when it will play again?
Coronavirus dread takes over
What’s next? Government shutdowns? Becoming like Italy where the entire nation is under quarantine? Empty gyms, restaurants, churches?
The key communal emotion is fear, of course. But confusion is right there with it, creating an information chasm between what scientists are telling us about coronavirus and the panic that is unfolding in spite what they are telling us.
Health experts have said repeatedly that coronavirus is most dangerous to people over 60, people with compromised immune systems, people with underlying health issues – diabetes, heart, lungs, kidneys. The experts say 80 percent would feel mild symptoms of a flu if we tested positive for COVID-19. That’s if we experienced any symptoms at all.
No matter. Some of the most elite athletes in the world, NBA players, refused to come out of the visitors locker room at Golden 1 Center because one referee had been on the same basketball court with one infected player.
This speaks to how the message of science has been overwhelmed by fear and emotion. Each positive test for COVID-19, whether it’s an Elk Grove elementary school student or Tom Hanks, is a breaking story. Each positive test is presented with a ring of terror as if we didn’t know it was coming when the scientists have been telling us that they are coming.
Why? Because by all accounts the U.S. health system was woefully unprepared to deal with the onset of the coronavirus, and testing for COVID-19 was initially slowed by government tape and limited supply. So now, as people are being tested, more positive tests will follow.
Upending Sacramento renaissance
Journalists had already been banned from entering NBA locker rooms. In what seems like no time, this virus has become a threat to a world economy and our economy here at home.
What is the symbol of Sacramento’s renaissance but Golden 1 Center? But there it was, emptying out dismally amid boos and frustration after Wednesday’s night’s game was called off.
Now there are no games. Earlier Wednesday, the Kings announced that they would follow mandated guidelines from health experts to determine whether events and concerts at G1C will go on. The way things are going, who knows if we will have those concerts and events.
And if that big beautiful building goes dark for an extended period of time, what is to happen to downtown hotels, restaurants, businesses? What’s to happen to all the hourly workers? The waitresses? The bartenders? The cooks? Dishwashers? The custodians? In many instances, these are workers who already struggle to make rent in Sacramento.
What will happen to them?
From the NBA to schools, what next?
Commerce shouldn’t supersede public health. I’m not auditioning for the role of the mayor in “Jaws” who worried about business over great white sharks and kept the beaches open until tourists were devoured in plain sight.
Rather, the point here is how Sacramento’s celebratory culture of communal events – G1C, the Second Saturday Art Walk, festival-like concerts such as Aftershock – all make Sacramento go. So is a big part of Sacramento’s culture.
Being out in communal spaces is who we are.
All that is under threat now if the message is mass quarantines. County health officials have tried to avoid that. Unlike San Francisco, local county health officials advised that Wednesday’s Kings game could go forward with a warning that the elderly and the sick should stay home.
We would get together and figure this out. Now, basically, we can’t get together at all.
That went up in smoke Wednesday.
Late Wednesday, the Sacramento City Unified School District announced that a substitute teacher who worked at Sutterville Elementary School in February had tested positive for COVID-19.
“Based on guiding principles on COVID-19 mitigation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released today, and the circumstances of this single confirmed case of COVID-19, the SCPH is not recommending that this school be closed at this time,” said Dr. Peter Beilenson, Director of the Sacramento County Department of Health Services.
Beilenson has been a voice of reason. Most county health officers recommend that public schools stay open despite coronavirus because kids are not a risk group for the virus and because many kids depend on school meals and health care.
And many working parents depend on having the kids in a safe place while they are at work. Moreover, health officials have found that even if school are closed, kids congregate together anyway, So it’s best to try to keep stability in their lives and keep the schools open.
Will that change that now? Late Wednesday night, Gov. Gavin Newsom urged the canceling or postponing of events with 250 people or more.
Are we going to restrict all non-essential events such as sports while keeping schools and other essential services open? Are we taking drastic steps because we’re concerned our health care systems will be overwhelmed?
It would be nice to know.
Someone needs to explain to us what’s real so we can jump off the crazy train of non-stop breaking stories of dread. We seem to have lost our minds, lost our grip. We have lost our way.
This story was originally published March 12, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
