London - 2020
Being told to self-isolate and stay home doing nothing can be both a blessing and a curse. You can work on projects you’d put off, call friends you haven’t spoken to in a while, eat an entire pint of Ben & Jerry’s, or even pretend to be a caterpillar and cocoon yourself in a quilt while refusing to leave your bed until everything blows over. All of this seems eerily familiar as I recall my last experience in quarantine, and gear up to put my very professional quarantine survival skills to good use.
Singapore - 2018
Of all the colourful, interesting tropical diseases one can be infected with when wading through mangroves, hiking across volcanic islands through dense rainforest, and exploring leech-infested lowlands, hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) is definitely not what you’d expect. After a colleague contracted the disease whilst out in the field in Malaysia, they consulted a local doctor who assured them that HFMD was not contagious and that they were safe to continue working. Unbeknownst to us, the nation had been grappling with an outbreak for six months, and that the local doctor may have received his degree in a cereal box. The incredibly virulent disease spread throughout the field camp and the decision was taken to immediately repatriate the infected parties to our base in Singapore.
Two of the quarantined biologists passing the time
Upon our return we informed local health services, and locked ourselves in our studio. Management gave us masks, gloves, food, medication, and we were paid to stay away from everyone and everything for at least a week. So how do biologists pass the time while in various amounts of boredom, covered in blisters and lumped together in a studio apartment? Definitely a lot of intelligent discussions on climate change policy and debates on efficient conservation methods, and not just staring longingly outside windows and facetiming each other from across the room while waiting for the day’s third Deliveroo order. While our isolation was exacerbating our moderate insanity, we understood that it was in the best interest of the population at large for us to stay home and binge Netflix. While HFMD is fairly contagious, it tends to only have mild symptoms, but a small proportion of people can develop very dangerous complications that could lead to death. After a week of isolation and loss of symptoms, we were cleared to leave our prison home and interact with other less insane people.
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As the world continues to fight through the COVID-19 outbreak, we are being urged to stay home to reduce the spread of the virus and therefore help reduce the strain on our respective healthcare services. While we deal with cabin fever and missing our friends and family, it certainly beats the alternative of being infected ourselves or infecting others. Take it from some broke biologists who spent (an admittedly short) time in quarantine, stay home! Work on your hobbies, check in with your friends and family, play video games and eat a pint of Ben & Jerry’s - we’ll be back outside in no time.
This article was originally published on the Broke Biologists.
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