Archive: Opinions

I am stunned that so many people are surprised at the recent surge of COVID-19 around the country.  And outraged that wishful thinking, politics, and an absolute absence of common sense is causing so many people to get sick and die.  COVID-19 is not just an annoying cold that is miserable and inconvenient for a week or so and then goes away.  People don't die from colds.

So when a killer virus is unleashed on the world and there is no known cure or inoculation, what do you do?  Isolate, take precautions when you do have to go out, monitor your health?  Or go where there are lots of other people and act as if life were the way it was pre-COVID?  Hint: it's not a trick question.

When the virus first broke, the Tompkins County Health Department held a press conference.  Tompkins County Public Health Director Frank Kruppa explained that wearing masks other than the heavy duty ones that medical professionals use would not protect you much from getting the virus.  He explained that it will protect others from getting it from you if you are infected.  So wearing a mask is not for your protection, it is an issue of common decency to protect everyone else.  If they wear a mask, they're protecting you.  It's a community thing -- it only works if everyone does it.

The number of people we see not wearing masks here in Tompkins County suggests that people think that was true then, but somehow it has changed.  It hasn't changed.  If you're not wearing a mask in public you have no respect for other people.  The only thing that is going to change this is the development and widespread distribution of a vaccine or cure.  Right now there is no vaccine.  There is no cure.

My children live in states that have ignored common sense in their hurry to restore normalcy.  Both states (Florida and North Carolina are among the biggest hotspots for new infections, and both kids live in the hottest spots in their states.  Those two states are on Governor Cuomo's list that requires travellers from those states to New York to remain quarantined for 14 days.  With their work schedules they can't visit me.  And if I visit them I have to stay home for two weeks after I return.  Am I worried?  You bet I am.

I am also worried about what is happening in Tompkins County.  So far we have been relatively COVID-free.  This is because of a quick and thoughtful response from the Tompkins County Public Health Department and a general willingness in the community to conform with Health Department and CDC guidance and the Governor's lock-down.  But I am worried that the very conservative four-stage reopening plan has been implemented too soon, and that things may get worse here as we are among the first areas in New York to reopen.  And when the colleges open their campuses in the fall it will get worse.

Mind you it's still a heck of a lot better than states that are on reopen or bust binges.  But just because we're safer than many other places doesn't mean we're safe or back to normal.

Because (I want to say 'read my lips' in my best macho George H. W. Bush impression -- and wouldn't no new taxes be great?!) there is no vaccine and there is no cure for COVID-19.  So locking down, social distancing, and wearing face masks should, in any sensible society, be facts of life until effective treatments are developed.  That is not now. I'll say it again: there is no vaccine and there is no cure for COVID-19.

Until there is, sorry, folks, there ain't no normal.

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