Life in Quarantine: Week 4

Thank you so much for following my life and adventures in Shanghai! I’ve really appreciated all of your messages asking how I’m managing and holding up during the coronavirus epidemic. If you haven’t seen my prior three posts, which discuss the current situation in Shanghai and China, please take a look at them.

https://astronomerinshanghai.com/uncategorized/life-in-quarantine-week-1/
https://astronomerinshanghai.com/uncategorized/life-in-quarantine-week-2/
https://astronomerinshanghai.com/uncategorized/life-in-quarantine-week-3/

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Life in Shanghai

I want to start this post by again thanking all of you who have reached out to message me by e-mail or through the blog to ask how I am doing and holding up. I really appreciate hearing from so many of you. Your messages remind me how many people care about me and help to lift my spirits. Before I update you about my life here, I want to once again reassure you that I am happy, I am healthy, and I am safe.

To start this entry, I’d like to update you all about the coronavirus situation here in Shanghai. As of this post (2/23), there have only been 335 cases in Shanghai. That means there were only 7 new cases since my last post! This is an excellent sign that in Shanghai, many of the measures taken by the Shanghai Municipal government are working! More importantly, of those 335, 249 have already recovered! Sadly, 3 people have died. So, here in Shanghai, the virus appears to be winding down. Additionally, there were no new cases in the Huangpu district, where I live (only 6 total).

Despite the improvements, there are still many safety restrictions in place. It’s still required to wear masks every time you go outside. Also, in my little lane neighborhood, we now lock the front gate (which was never locked before). Thankfully I have a key. :). Additionally, in most neighborhoods and buildings, guests are not allowed. Unsurprisingly, stores and malls require people to take there temperature (now on the wrist instead of the forehead) prior to entering. However, I did find it funny that when I entered the nearby mall to pick up some groceries, I had my temperature checked both when I entered the mall and then a few minutes later when I entered the grocery store! I guess you can never be too careful. 🙂

In terms of China as a whole, the number of new cases continues to grow. However, the vast majority of these cases are in Wuhan and Hubei province. Overall, the number of new cases per day has been generally declining, and has been on this trend for about the last 10 days. Moreover, Since the 18th, there have been more recovered patients in China than new cases. Hopefully this is a sign that the quarantines and rigorous travel restrictions put in place by the Chinese government are working. Additionally, one number that I constantly see in US news articles is that the fatality rate is ~ 2%. I want to emphasize that this is likely an upper limit. First, it’s likely that (especially in Wuhan) there are cases that are undiagnosed. Second, if you remove Wuhan and Hubei, then the fatality rate is only 0.76%. So, outside Wuhan, the numbers are drastically different. Sadly, outside of China, the number of cases is growing, particularly in South Korea. So, while things appear to be improving here in China (or at least moving in the right direction), I’m still hoping and praying that a cure will be discovered soon.

At this point, I’m sure it surprises none of you that I spent the majority of the week working from my apartment. I continue to be grateful that I’m able to do so much of my Astronomy research on my laptop. In terms of research, I’m predominately working on my DES project. As I noted last week, I found a bug in that analysis that I have since fixed. While I was able to fix my mistake, this mistake has actually been somewhat of a scientific blessing, since the corrected measurements have allowed for a lot of new scientific inquiries that will undoubtedly strengthen the analysis of this work while also illustrating the robustness of my scientific results. Additionally, I began work on my Luminosity function analysis again and am quite close to matching the first of two figures I am aiming to recreate. So, overall, this was a productive week. I’m aiming to keep this up for the weeks to come.

Additionally, on Wednesday, the Zu research group had our first Zoom meeting! It was great seeing and hearing from my boss/mentor, Ying, as well as some of his graduate students. Many of the students are spread out throughout China and not in Shanghai. One of the students was in a very rural part of China and we could hear a rooster crowing the entire time he was talking! 🙂 Despite being separated, it was nice to reconnect with some of the other people that I work with and am used to seeing on a daily basis. Additionally, Prof. Zu informed me that SJTU will be beginning online classes this week. This is a precaution that they are taking because they don’t want to delay the start of the semester indefinitely and end up with the semester running through the hottest part of the summer.

In terms of the rest of my life, I’m still able to get wonderful and fresh produce and food from Kate and Kimi. So, for this weeks cooking, I made black bean burgers. Additionally, I’m continuing to have plenty of time to read books and comic books as well as get caught up on all my many podcasts. I’ve also been able to watch plenty of TV (though on my computer) and listen to music. So, I’m at least able to entertain myself . 🙂

I did make some time for fun activities this week! On Friday, I joined my friends Shimi, Heather, Yael, and Barbara for dinner (I’ll discuss the food later). It was great seeing everyone in person and I had a wonderful time chatting and hearing about how everyone has been. Also, the restaurant was packed, so it was really nice to see many people out and about.

The last few days have been incredibly nice (in terms of temperature and air pollution levels), so on Sunday, I joined Heather and Shimi for a bike ride around Xintiandi, the French Concession, and Jing’an (about 3km). I haven’t really done any biking in Shanghai before, but even biking while wearing a mask, it was a fun way to get to see so much of my new home city!

One thing I noticed was that unlike a few weeks ago, there were a lot of people out and about. Many people were going for walks or getting food or walking there dogs. It is nice to see that some of the life has returned to Shanghai. Below are some highlights from my outing!

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And yes, for those of you wondering, sometimes my beard prevents the masks from fitting as tightly as desired, especially when I smile, but I’m able to tighten and readjust the mask so that it works functionally.

We also stopped for ice cream after our bike ride! I got blueberry!

After out bike ride, we met up with Yael and her adorable dog Shoshi. Overall, this was a fun day and it was great fun to see so many of my friends! It’s days like these that help to make the current quarantine situation tolerable.

Food in Shanghai

On Friday, we went to a Sichuan restaurant for dinner. Sichuan food is generally spicier than food in Shanghai style. Thanks to help from my friends, we were able to get a ton of yummy vegetarian dishes!

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We got an eggplant dish, spicy vegetarian ma po tofu, cabbage, cucumber, potato shreds, and my personal favorite sesame noodles! Other than the numbingly spicy ma po tofu, the rest of the food wasn’t too spicy and it was all great!

Jewish Life in Shanghai

When we were at dinner this week, all five of us joined the now weekly Zoom Shabbat, this week hosted by Kehilat Beijing! While it was funny to have all of us sitting around a table staring at our phones, it was really nice to feel a part of the broader Jewish community both here in Shanghai and in China! While these zoom events are nice and a lovely way to connect with members of the community, hopefully, we’ll be able to have some in person events soon as well.

Despite another week of continued semi-self-imposed quarantine, this was a good productive week. It’s very comforting seeing friends and colleagues both in person and through Zoom.

I hope that this update about the coronavirus epidemic and how I am coping has reassured you about my health and safety. Hopefully a cure will be discovered for the coronavirus soon and the spread will continue to slow or even cease. I plan to make this another productive research week as well as take advantage of the nice weather the next few days (going for walks). I look forward to updating you all about my life and adventures next week! If you have any questions/comments or concerns about Shanghai or my safety, let me know!

In peace,
Jesse