Tuesday, February 25.

Day 32. I stay up half the night, sending out hopeful messages and lists of emergency supplies to family and friends. COVID-19 is coming to their communities, and I hope people will take precautions. For many, it's still not on their radar, even with the change in media messaging informing of a pandemic and possible draconian quarantine measures such as in Italy's posh norther Lombardy region.

Xiaolin wakes up coughing, and I am quietly concerned. She's been a bit quiet and grumpy since Sunday, but gets up and makes pancakes, and I enjoy them with yogurt and coffee. We binge the whole season of Joe Hill's Locke & Key show while I alternate between work and exercise. The show is excellent, and he's the spitting image of his dad.

The World Health Organization says it no longer uses the term pandemic, but we're still in an emergency. I guess keeping people from panicking in the age of social media is the most critical priority.

In absolutely fantastic news, China enacts a ban on wild animal trade and consumption, thought to be behind the SARS and COVID-19 outbreaks, overnight, wow! Amazing, and about time. The world is slightly friendlier to animals today and tomorrow.

My dogs are misbehaving again, peeing and pooping on the floor in protest. I wish I could explain to them it's not safe for them outside for multiple reasons, including possible infection, and targeted by concerned locals might see them as a health hazard.

My foreign colleagues in the UK and Germany ask me for information I don't have. They wonder about our health insurance, with our countries warning us to return home, and whether we are going to be paid. There have been only three new cases in the past two days, but one is close to home for us. A man working in a butcher shop (one of the few open businesses around) about 5 minutes from my school is infected and hospitalized.

The Atlantic magazine is leading the charge to change public messaging with this provocative statement: 40-70% of the world will develop COVID-19 this year. I reached out to their expert, Harvard epidemiology professor Marc Lipsitch on Twitter to ask what he thinks about a possible cytokine storm and reinfection. This wild theory is alarming to some experts.

Today I "blow" my one meal a day diet, trying to help Xiaolin cook her dinner. I end up joining her, and we eat a simple meal of greens and rice. I can't justify not eating fresh green vegetables on offer.

Due to local hotels being full, China is sending seven cruise ships to Wuhan to accommodate health care workers being sent from all over China to help treat the infected and suspected infected at the epicenter.

As China downgrades our emergency levels in many provinces, this news we are winning the war on COVID-19 spreads, and the beautiful weather culminates in getting people outdoors again, often without masks. Some scenic areas are giving away free entrance to attract business back until 5,000 tourists flood nearby Wugong Mountain in Jiangxi Province, and online admission is suspended. Experts express a need for restraint and caution.

In another critical exercise of caution, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) is postponing the annual two sessions to protect leaders from all provinces and regions. It's one thing to get factories rolling again, but the congress shall wait.

I steal an Oreo around 9 PM, because dieting is hard, and watch some of Apple's "Mythic Quest" comedy, wondering what it would be like to go work for a Chongqing based video game company. I think I’d enjoy it, so I am going to write them some great stories and see where it goes.

Xiaolin naps after dinner and I read, knowing it will be an early night for me too. This has been going on so long I'm no longer frantically trying to absorb all the breaking news, and I feel like I might be able to relax.