Summary: <p>K: So, lately I’ve been thinking about basically what everybody’s been thinking about, and that’s the novel – the new, novel corona virus, or COVID-19. And we really struggled with whether or not to even do this episode to begin with. We’ve avoided talking about it for the past month, even though I’ve been on quarantine since March because, as many of our Musick Notes already know, I have lupus and hereditary coproporphyria. What lupus is is – it’s a blood disorder that causes your immune system to attack yourself. And one of the treatments for lupus is to take immune suppressors. I am not currently on any immune suppressors, but were I to contract a virus, I would most likely die from it. I’m at a higher risk of dying from it. And you have asthma – which I feel like you live in denial about your asthma. We have an emergency inhaler that you have to use several times a year.<br>C: About once a year.<br>K: Okay.<br>C: I don’t live in denial that I have it.<br>K: Okay.<br>C: But I know very specifically what it is, and I have allergic asthma.<br>K: Yeah.<br>C: Because, when I was a kid, it was unclear what kind of asthma I had. It was just, “you’ve got asthma. Take craptons of medicine.”<br>K: Yeah.<br>C: But when I was 17, I joined the air guard. And then, within a couple of weeks, went to Lackland Airforce Base and had an asthma attack and died. So, they – after you die in basic training, assuming you get brought back, they test you to figure out why before they kick you out. So, they did stress tests – like having me run in full fatigues and everything. And having me inhale various allergens. And when they got to the one that shut down my lungs, which was ragweed, they stopped and sent me home. So, I know that at least ragweed causes me severe asthmatic reactions, but there are some pollens here in Japan that do, too.<br>K: Yeah. So… it’s… the end of April, and COVID is just – in terms of the pandemic level – we’re just starting to see an indication that the pandemic aspect of COVID is not skipping over Japan. And, so, we live in the city of Nagoya – which is southwest of Tokyo – right? We’re<br>C: Yes, that’s right.<br>K: Yeah. Southwest of Tokyo.<br>C: Nailed it.<br>K: (laughs) If you’re a Musick Note, you know it’s rare that I know where Nagoya is located, and that’s in the prefecture of Aichi. And the<br>C: Which is the Chubu region or the Chugoku region – both of them mean central, so we’re in central Japan. Of the main island.<br>K: And I think it’s really cool because the mayor of Nagoya has not been messing around since March. So, at the beginning – I want to say about – by the second week of March, the mayor of Nagoya had shut all of the schools.<br>C: And it’s interesting because I know the mayor – like, socially, I know him.<br>K: Yeah. And I’ve met him, too.<br>C: Yeah. And he is… not the person I would’ve expected to take it seriously.<br>K: Well, that’s because we always meet him in social settings where we’re drinking and having a good time, and everything’s really relaxed.<br>C: Yes.<br>K: So, to me, I feel like we’re very lucky to be in a city that has a mayor who’s on top of things, and I’m really enjoying the mayor’s response and the mayor’s attitude. I’m really enjoying the governor of Aichi’s attitude. And I feel very fortunate to live in an area in Japan where the prefectural government and the local government are both taking it very seriously. In March, we were having difficulty finding beds for individuals with… COVID-19. I call it COVID-19. I know some people call it the novel virus. Some people call it the corona virus. I call it COVID-19 because there’s a bunch of different corona viruses out there, and this is corona virus number 19, and the abbreviation’s COVID-19. So, sorry if it works your nerves, but that’s what I call it.<br>C: So, actually, the corona virus – or the novel corona virus 2, or SARS – I think it’s novel SARS-COV-2 is the virus. And COVID-19 is the illness that you get when </p>
