Definition: Quarantine Bubble – “A quarantine bubble is a group of individuals or families whose members have been safely quarantining and who can now start hanging out with other observant groups, so long as the families observe safety guidelines and agree to be exclusive.”
The social trend is called by many names as people seek safe, in-person interactions outside of the home in response to the isolation of coronavirus lockdowns — quarantine bubbles, pandemic pods, COVID-19 bubbles, or quaranteams.
Melissa Hawkins, Director, Public Health Scholars Program Health Studies at American University in Washington D.C. writes, “When done carefully, the research shows that quarantine bubbles can effectively limit the risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2 while allowing people to have much needed social interactions with their friends and family.”
Since the end of February, I began a lockdown, first in response to being laid-off from my part-time job, and then as a result of the growing pandemic. I chronicled my experience for the Wisconsin Historical Society COVID-19 Journal Project in eight installments (at the time of this writing) of Dispatches from the Hideout, an addendum to a series I began writing three years earlier for my blog, Mixed Metaphors, Oh My! I think when this is all over — if it ever is — I may even have a book!
Last month, I drafted, what in hindsight was a continuation of my Dispatch series; a look ahead to the future, The New Abnormal, as we attempted to open up society, yet in the end, it was a condemnation of Trump, the White House, and his Republican enablers.
“Trump’s efforts to restart the economy and “return to normal” has put the country, its people, and our world-standing at risk. His mishandling of the pandemic is literally killing Americans. Trump’s response to the injustice and murders of communities of color is fueling hate, violence, and division rather than tamping it down, uniting, and comforting the nation.”
I now return to my COVID-19 Journal in this latest, Dispatch from the Hideout: Quarantine Bubble Edition
Riding the Coronacoaster
I feel like I’ve been on a ‘coronacoaster’ the past few weeks. Before I detail what that means for me, I want to give a shout out to my sister Tami who posted the following coronacoaster definition on Facebook. Since I’m a recovering alcoholic, drinking gin for breakfast, ‘quarantinis’, ‘locktail hour,’ or ‘furlough Merlot’ are not coping options available to me. Instead, there are extra trips to the refrigerator, recreational escape naps, and endless consumption of cable news. None of these activities in the end help.
We’ve created a whole new vocabulary to describe life during a pandemic, a shorthand to identify the behaviors, attitudes, and coping mechanisms we’ve created in response to conditions outside of our control. I offer the following Lockdown Lingo from the UK online news and culture channel, Heart.
Lockdown Lingo
- Coronacoaster The ups and downs of your mood during the pandemic. You’re loving lockdown one minute but suddenly weepy with anxiety the next. It truly is “an emotional coronacoaster”.
- Quarantinis Experimental cocktails mixed from whatever random ingredients you have left in the house. Fruit squash, bit of fizzy pop and that random bottle of booze from Spanish duty free all you’ve got to hand? Mix it up, pop a glace cherry on top and you’re good to go.
- Locktail hour Wine o’clock’ in the lockdown era, which seems to be creeping earlier with each passing week… and your virtual pubs seem to be opening from lunch onwards some days!
- Blue Skype thinking A work brainstorming session which takes place over a videoconferencing app. Being sat on your own sofa as they happen doesn’t make them any less uncomfortable, which was a surprise.
- Coronials Move over millennials, the future generation of babies conceived or born during quarantine will be the coronials. We will need to wait and see if every birthday cake will be a shoddily made and tasteless banana bread.
- Furlough Merlot Goblets of the grapey stuff consumed in an attempt to relieve the frustration of not working and trying to use this downtime to become a sommelier by watching hours of YouTube tutorials. Also referred to as “bored-eaux” and “cabernet tedium”.
- Coronadose An overdose of gloom from consuming too many news reports and government press conferences in a short time – in rare cases can trigger a “panicdemic.”
- The elephant in the Zoom The glaring issue during a videoconferencing call that nobody feels able to mention. Bad DIY haircut, bombsite house in the background, questionable facial hair or just doing the meeting in a towel as nothing fits anymore.
- Quentin Quarantino The dirge of the social media feeds, this attention-seeker is now making amateur films and comedy which they’re convinced are funnier and cleverer than they actually are. Most likely to have ‘discovered’ TikTok at some point in early April.
- Covidiot Someone who thinks sunbathing or driving several hundred miles to climb Mount Snowdon in their flip flops is more important than following Government advice.
- Goutbreak The sudden fear that you’ve consumed so much wine, cheese, home-made cake and Easter chocolate in lockdown that your ankles are swelling up like a medieval king’s.
- Anti-social distancing Using lockdown as the perfect reason to avoid everyone you don’t like – easier to apply to dodge a dull chat with the neighbours than wriggling out of a particularly tiring and tedious video call.
- Coughin’ dodger Someone so alarmed by an innocuous splutter or throat-clear that they back away in terror and call 999 and beg for the ‘infected one’ to be locked up…
- Mask-ara If people can only see your eyes, you better make them ‘pop!’ before venturing out in public wearing a surgical mask.
- Fattening the curve It doesn’t matter how many Joe Wicks workouts you do; it won’t cancel out all the banana bread, quarantinis and general comfort eating and drinking… but who cares, normal rules don’t apply during lockdown!
Finding Balance
As businesses have reopened and the lockdown relaxed, COVID-19 cases have surged. The inconsistent guidelines and reopening phases between different states and individual communities has created a hodgepodge of mandated mask-wearing, physical distancing efforts, to laissez faire, loosey goosey, anything goes attitudes. We cannot rely on our government leaders, from the top down, and the agencies whose mission it is to protect our health, to do their job successfully with the public’s welfare top of mind.
The situation is made worse by the public’s response, the politicization and partisan squaring off in public, sometimes with dangerous consequences, from ignoring the spread of the virus, to hate crimes, and deadly shootings. In the U.S. it’s literally ‘the wild, wild west.’
Because of the government’s inconsistent response to the pandemic, I vacillate between isolating at home alone practicing Safer-at-Home behaviors to making deliberate choices of which people, friends and family, I can spend time with safely to combat loneliness.
In the past two or three weeks, I’ve gone from physically isolating, except for my part-time job and essential services: grocery shopping, curbside or drive-thru restaurant trips, medical and dental appointments, a haircut, and yesterday a car service, to a return to scheduling social distancing, outdoor dates with individuals and small groups of friends and family who practice similar safe behaviors to protect their health and prevent the community spread of the virus.
The Pod Squad
Melissa Hawkins writes, “After three months of lockdowns, many people in the U.S. and around the world are turning to quarantine bubbles, pandemic pods or quaranteams in an effort to balance the risks of the pandemic with the emotional and social needs of life.”
Illustration Credit: Pete Gamlin
Since I’m a cinephile and shameless television and streaming content consumer, I‘m able to connect most current events to a film, TV show, documentary, or episodic web series. The same is true when I wanted to name my quarantine bubble. Since I play with words and mix metaphors, I’m trying out Pod Squad, a takeoff from the 1960’s television series, The Mod Squad. The main difference is we’re not young, not hippies (at least anymore), not quite counterculture crime fighters, yet we’re politically progressive, medical and science believers, mask-wearers and physical-distancers, committed to our own health, the health of friends, family, and loved ones, plus strive to protect our community.
Yesterday, I had a lovely deck dinner outdoors with three friends, today a Mary Trump, Too Much and Never Enough Zoom Book Club date with friend Janet, aka Louise to my Thelma, and of course, my twice weekly phone dates with my elderly father who continues to shelter-in-place, maintain a positive attitude, and remain healthy with the care and help from my sister Kelly and her husband Bill.
The truth about ‘bubbles.’ They’re bigger than you think.
Mask-wearing work colleagues at OutReach LGBTQ+ Community Center are members of my expanded Pod Squad. We practice safe behaviors, plan virtual events, facilitate Zoom support groups, and design and lead educational webinars to serve our community while our office remains closed to the public.
What Does It All Mean?
In the end, I’m a mask-wearing, physically-distancing, medical and science-following, aging Mod Squad-Pod Squad member, striking a balance between Safer-at-Home and safely socializing behaviors with like-minded friends and family.
Stay safe, stay healthy, stay-at-home when you’re able, wear a mask in public, and seek the support and solace of the friends and family you trust.
Additional Reading from Mixed Metaphors, Oh My!
(Following are links to the entire Dispatch Series from the most recent to the oldest.)
Dispatch from the Hideout: Hip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah!
Dispatch from the Hideout: Love in a Pandemic 2.0
Dispatch from the Hideout: Omicron Edition
Dispatch from the Hideout: Pod Squad 2.0
Dispatch from the Hideout: Two Steps Back
Dispatch from the Hideout: My Post-Pandemic Life
Dispatch from the Hideout: Exit Strategy
Dispatch from the Hideout: A Shot in the Arm
Dispatch from the Hideout: Love in a Pandemic
Dispatch from the Hideout: The End Is Here!
Dispatch from the Hideout: Riding the Coronacoaster
Dispatch from the Hideout: Staycation Edition
Dispatch from the Hideout: Letter to Loved Ones
Dispatch from the Hideout: What Was, What Will Be
Dispatch from the Hideout: Skin Hunger
Dispatch from the Hideout: Back to Life
Dispatch from the Hideout: Stirred Crazy
Dispatch from the Hideout: Home Alone Easter Holiday
Dispatch from the Hideout: Home Alone Edition
Dispatch from the Hideout: Pandemic Edition
Dispatch from the Hideout: Social Distancing
Dispatch from the Hideout: Premature Hibernation
Another Dispatch from the Hideout
Related Reading on Quarantine Bubbles
Quarantine bubbles – when done right – limit coronavirus risk and help fight loneliness
The Dos and Don’ts of Quarantine Pods
What Sex Educators Can Teach Us About Socializing During COVID-19
The Quarantine Bubbles Are Coming and I, for One, Am Stressed
Some people are ‘quaranteaming’ to ride out the outbreak — but is it safe?
I LOVE the lingo, among other things, but I won’t borrow them without permission. When will you start accepting some of “your” dvds??? Lewis.
Lewis, you may borrow the ‘lockdown lingo’ as you wish. I borrowed it too from the British. Which proves, if nothing else, it’s a worldwide pandemic.
Thanks for this piece. It made me think and smile.