Day 52. Yesterday the Governor of Maryland announced the first small step in the process of lifting the stay at home order which has been in place for the last seven weeks. State parks and beaches will be reopened for activities conducted with social distancing, mask etc. In making this announcement the Governor pointed to the following:

“Over the past seven days we have seen a good trend in hospitalizations with five-straight days downward and then a little bump up yesterday, but overall, we are down slightly from where we were a week ago,” Hogan said. “Even more encouraging is that our ICU numbers have been basically flat, level at a plateau for eight-straight days. If these trends continue into next week, we will be ready to lift the stay-at-home order and to begin stage one of our recovery plan. … That would mean the reopening of certain types of businesses and lower-risk community, religious and quality-of-life activities.”

Careful study of his explanation reveals that there was one single purpose for the stay at home orders and that was to reduce the risk of an overwhelmed health care system. The orders were issued to reduce that risk and only that risk. The means to accomplish that mitigation was to lower the number of persons who became infected thereby lowering the number of hospital admissions and critically ill patients. Now that this goal appears to have been accomplished the stay at home orders are slowly being lifted.

Thus, we should now clearly understand that we have been staying at home to accomplish a public not personal goal. The objective was to flatten the overall curve so that health care facilities and resources would be able to care for the thousands who contracted Covid-19. Reducing the number of infected individuals was simply the means to accomplishing that goal. The goal was not to keep you and me safe and healthy until the virus sufficiently ran its course so that we could resume our lives in safe environment.

What does this mean for you and me? It means that we are not returning to the world we left. We are entering a very different world. A world in which there is a vicious highly infectious disease which will continue to infect and kill thousands. A world in which it will be up to each one of us to chart our own individual path through that new world. We will be left to making our own personal risk evaluation and mitigation plans and decisions.

We are not “returning” anywhere. We are entering a fundamentally changed, less safe, and different world. How we each navigate through it is now up to us. No longer can we rely on the simple but costly protection of staying at home.

Day 51. As states have begun to lift stay at home orders, and as that yet undetermined date gets closer in the Washington DC area, I am trying to get a handle on what exactly it will mean for me .Quite frankly, it’s concerning. For example, what will judges require or demand in terms of when and how my cases are to proceed? Will they require the lawyers “to make up the lost time” and proceed immediately with depositions etc?. Will I be required to attend in person depositions with 10 or 15 people in a conference room for days at end? Will I be ordered to conduct complex depositions and hearings by video? Will I have to resume my travel to attend court hearings and depositions in other cities and states? My overarching concern – Will I be forced to do things that make me uncomfortable from a health and safety perspective while the Corona virus remains a very real threat?

These are not my only concerns. What about our law firm? When will we return to 1742 N Street NW? How do we maintain the health and safety of our firm while the Corona virus continues to infect? How long will the economic effects of Covid-19 last? How acute will they be?

So many questions. So many uncertainties. So many things to worry about.

For the last 50 days, thanks to the stay at home orders, I have enjoyed a modicum of control over my personal health and safety decisions. I have decided where I would go and where I would not go, what I would do or and what I would avoid doing, and what precautions I deemed necessary for my health and safety. The lifting of the stay at home orders removes to an unknown degree that level of personal control.

Monday of this week was difficult as I worried (obsessed?) over these many uncertainties and my impending loss of control. It took a day or so before I came to learn another important lesson from this pandemic. And that is this. At times I (we) may feel, may even believe, that I (we) “are in control”; but in reality I (we) am not. While, of course, I can try to plan ahead, more importantly, I need to take each day and its uncertainties, day by day, and believe that in the end things will work out. There is no other way.

“Control” is a figment of one’s imagination. Uncertainty is real. Living with it and managing it is the key. Another lesson from the pandemic.

Anyone who has tried to help a technologically challenged individual access a web meeting will enjoy this video by an Israeli comedian. (Thanks to my friend George for sharing it).

Day 50. Another of the “commencement addresses” published by the Wall Street Journal this past weekend was written by a professor at New York University, Kwame Anthony Appiah. Titled, “Dreams Made Possible by Others, he struck a theme which resonates loudly to me in my daily life and work – teamwork. Accomplishments , large and small, are not about “me” they are about “us”. Here are a few excerpts from his insightful article.

At a normal commencement, there are two forms of celebration. On the one hand, we celebrate each graduate’s individual achievements in getting a college degree. On the other hand, we applaud the families, the teachers and the classmates who sustained them….

So, who really deserves the credit? Silly question, of course. They all do. The importance of both our individuality and our dependencies is also a lesson of the pandemic – the pandemic that has sent the usual commencement assembly of celebrants into a digital diaspora.

How, after all have we prevented this coronavirus from unleashing its worst? By the heroic exertions of health-care workers, certainly. But also by the small acts performed by countless Americans – staying home, maintaining a safe distance from another. Each one of us is entitled to take our individual credit for that….Yet, your individual contribution only helps when the rest of us do our part. In combination, small contributions take on the magnitude of a large scale lifesaving intervention. We’re doing something great together….

So much of the social fabric we take for granted is like this: many small sacrifices that amount to a huge collective benefit. Too often we imagine there’s a necessary conflict between individuality and community. In truth, individuality – including the extraordinary – is enabled by communal practices of mutual care and responsibility….

Pursue your dreams, yes. But remember that they are only possible because all of us are doing our share to make a society in which those dreams can be pursued.

Wall Street Journal May 2-3, 2020

Another lesson to be learned from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Day 49. Among the “casualties” of the Covid-19 pandemic are graduations and commencement exercises. The Wall Street Journal published several commencement messages to graduates in its weekend edition. I found them quite thoughtful. The following are excerpts from a commencement message from Bill and Melinda Gates.

Think about your own role, however, large or small, in making the world a better place for everyone….

It is true that you are entering this phase of your life in a daunting time….

But there is no question that you have a role to play, whether that’s now or in the future. You inherit a world that has already proven that progress is possible – a world that has rebuilt after war, vanquished smallpox, fed a growing population and enabled more than a billion people to climb out of extreme poverty.

That progress didn’t happen by accident or fate. It was the result of people just like you who made a commitment that whatever else they did with their lives and careers, they would contribute to this shared mission of propelling us all forward. Class of 2020, these are not easy times. But we will get through them. And with your leadership, the world will be stronger than ever.

Wall Street Journal May 2-3 , 2020

If there is one glaring lesson which Covid-19 is teaching mankind in real time it is this: We are all connected. We are all dependent on one another – for good and for bad.

We can infect each other and transmit disease to each other. Or we can protect each other from disease.

We can ignore the suffering of another human being. Or we can care for people in need.

We can live our lives selfishly. Or we can use the life and opportunities we have been given to help others.

How can anyone living through this pandemic not recognize that there is really only one option?

Day 48. No matter one’s politics the following video message released by former President George W. Bush is a meaningful, powerful, and comforting message.

Let’s start this weekend on a high note!

© Judah Lifschitz 2020

Day 46. A friend asked me during a WebEx last night, “Judah, have you driven your car in the last 6 weeks?” “Yes”, I answered, “But I have not purchased gas in the last six weeks”.

Think about that for a moment. How a few short weeks ago my car was so vital to my daily life. My drive to and from the office was spent making calls, catching the news listening to music or a podcast. And then suddenly, something that was so basic, so critical to my daily life, and so enjoyable (I love driving my Q50s) became overnight so unimportant, so irrelevant.

There must be a broader and deeper message here to thoughtfully consider. What else have I regarded as important, as vital, as valuable, when in fact it either is not or should not be? Surely, staying at home, praying at home, working remotely and not in the office, spending 24-7 with my wife, remaining local instead of getting on a plane every week, shopping for only basic necessities and not all those other “things” I “want” or “need” – all of these fundamental changes to daily life are an opportunity for reevaluating priorities. An opportunity not be squandered.

One can look at “Stay at home” as a restriction, as a negative. Or one can see it as an opportunity for reflection; a chance to analyze and redefine one’s priorities.

It’s all about making the most of a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Day 45. A comment received in response to yesterday’s blog post started me thinking. Has my focus over the last 45 days been misplaced? Have I wasted too much time and energy on the here and now of this pandemic? Obsessing over all the “dos and don’ts” of staying healthy and worrying about the financial impacts of the pandemic.

Don’t get me wrong. Of course, these are important issues that needed to be addressed. But have I invested too much of myself in pursuing these important details and in the process missed the “bigger picture”? Have I been so preoccupied with getting through this crisis that I have failed to stop and ask myself – really ask myself – what life lessons are to be learned from this once in a lifetime pandemic?

Is my goal to be the same person I was when this began six weeks ago? Or should I strive to become a better person as a result of having lived through Covid-19? Are there values that I could and should be learning from this experience that can inform the rest of my life? Or will this pandemic have been wasted on me? Just another challenge , another bump in my life’s road.

My exchange yesterday with my reader answered that question for me. This pandemic obligates me to think about about who I am and what lessons can I learn to make me a better person.

Day 44. Surveys overwhelmingly indicate that a substantial majority of Americans prefer extended stay at home orders to a premature lifting of restrictions. Yet, it is becoming abundantly clear that over the next few weeks stay at home orders across the country will be lifted and Americans will be leaving the safety of their homes and begin the process of returning to their once normal lives; albeit with masks and some semblance of social distancing.

Unfortunately, there is no consensus among government decision makers themselves about when and how to safely accomplish the return to normalcy. Nor is there consensus among the decision makers and public health officials about the wisdom of lifting the restrictions in the near time. Consider the state of Georgia, for example, where the governor has begun lifting restrictions on many businesses while the mayor of Atlanta has clearly stated her opposition to such lifting as premature and dangerous. The same is true at the federal level. The federal government has issued guidelines for states to follow in lifting restrictions, while its top public health scientists are warning against premature easing of restrictions and the very high risk of a second wave of mass infection.

If ever there was a time when the public requires and is entitled to a singular, consistent voice and plan of action it is now. I do not envy the decision makers who must weigh the risks to public safety with the draconian economic impacts of the pandemic. While no one is quite sure what the best approach is, it should be obvious to all that the worst case for both stopping the ravages of the virus and for restoring the economy is a confused mess of inconsistent and ill timed decisions and approaches.

There is one thing worse than the price we have paid to date to flatten the curve and that is squandering the gains we have made by ill timed, poorly developed, inconsistent “plans of action”. Confusion is dangerous and in the case of Covid-19 deadly.