Column: With COVID-19 spreading across the globe, time is going by in a blur

I don't know how your last few weeks have gone, but if they were anything like mine—and I'm guessing that's a good bet—they flashed by in a hurry. With the coronavirus pandemic spreading its reach and impact, it seems like everything is happening in fast motion.

And because this global phenomenon has varying effects on everyone, it's natural to view everything from your own personal perspective. So here's how time has looked like through my eyes.

My first concern was immediately for my daughter, Molly, who is a nurse and also has asthma, which puts her in a high risk category and on the front lines of that battle at the same time. She has given my wife practical advice throughout the coronavirus' progression, and is an example of why health care workers will be among the heroes of the stressful and dangerous event.

Then COVID-19 became very personal to our family. Our niece, Amy, became one of the "faces of coronavirus," as she was the second person in our county to test positive. While some people were still "blaming the media" and calling this health threat a hoax, she bravely shared her story on Facebook. Her post went viral, being shared more than 25,000 times, and leading to appearances on local and national media.

Thankfully, as of this writing, and while still suffering, Amy appears to be on the road to recovery. Her story also gave me some thoughts as to how a virus like this can cross the world in a heartbeat. While they haven't been able to trace the direct cause of her exposure—her family and others with whom she was in contact haven't shown symptoms—her ex had been in contact with one of their children. The ex actually works in our industry and recently returned from attending an overseas tire-related event. Other attendees from his company had come in from Italy, which at the time was just about to be hit by one of the most widespread—and deadly—outbreaks of coronavirus cases.

I am not saying in any manner that this is how my niece was exposed, but those of you who travel to expos, conferences and annual conventions in our industry know how many people you come into contact with.

If you're at an expo, you may be going booth to booth, or hosting visitors at your own stand. During conferences and conventions, you're huddling closely during presentations and networking events. The days often start early and end late, and that often is followed by more travel and exposure to those at airports and on planes—not knowing where any of your fellow travelers have come from.

While some travel and separation measures—including the now-common phrase "keeping a social distance"—may have seemed extreme at first, they also appear to be the best hope to "flattening the curve" (another new phrase) of the COVID-19 progression.

The cancellations of nearly every sporting event certainly got the early attention, from there it was onto the impact of businesses and other aspects of everyday life. Unfortunately, it was inevitable that cutbacks would come. Again from a personal viewpoint, that included one of my oldest friends, who was laid off from his "dream job" that he had landed a little over a year ago. (He doesn't work in the rubber industry, but if anyone needs IT help in Northeast Ohio, I'll give him a great reference).

Next was word that our parent company, Crain Communications, wanted every department to test working from home to ensure we can complete our publications remotely if our offices are officially shut down.

That's probably a likelihood, especially because we live in Ohio, where Gov. Mike DeWine has been one of the most proactive in implementing measures to help keep COVID-19 from spreading. First it was keeping crowds under 500, then 100, then 50, then 10. Then it was closing down bars and restaurants except for takeout, followed a day later by measures that shut down most everything outside of grocery stores, pharmacies and a few other essential places.

From there, news from our industry started heating up. There were meetings being canceled or rescheduled—including those organized by our publication and other Crain brands. Our whole spring travel season was basically shelved, as I'm sure many of yours were. Events such as the ACS Rubber Division, NAHAD's annual convention, the Clemson Tire Industry Conference and local rubber group meetings were among the casualties.

It has been difficult trying to keep up with everything happening in our world of tire and rubber products that we need to keep pace with. We have to be ready to bring both the breaking items to your attention immediately on our website at rubbernews.com, as well as craft pieces that put everything in perspective for our print issues.

Just the day I wrote this, that meant posting no fewer than 11 separate stories across our digital platforms, more than enough to keep our Online Editor Erin Pustay Beaven busy the entire day. Those stories included such breaking news as Goodyear's plans to temporarily halt tire production first in Europe, and then later in the day in North and South America. All this while the Detroit 3 auto manufacturers agreed to idle North American manufacturing sites as well.

We are fortunate to be able to draw not only on our own talented staff, but also from the resources of our Crain sister publications, including Tire Business, Plastics News, European Rubber Journal and Automotive News.

By the time you read this, I'm sure there will have been dozens of more updates. And it doesn't look like time will be slowing down anytime soon.

Stay safe everyone.

Meyer is editor of Rubber & Plastics News. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @bmeyerRPN.