140,000 new cases of Covid in only ONE day this week. The most in one day since all this started with more than 100k daily for over a week. Back in the spring, these numbers were thought to be apocalyptic, now it’s the daily newsfeed, like the price of stocks. Oh well…Lalala…another day of eating bon bons.
Hospitalizations also on record pace.
North Dakota, the worst state with respect to Covid positive percentages, has 100% occupancy of all the hospitals in the state and despite that “we respect individual freedoms and trust our residents to be responsible” was their governor’s response to not having any statewide mask mandate. WTF?
Mobile morgues being deployed because of increasing deaths.
1000s of students rushed the field at a Notre Dame after a football game this last weekend like there was nothing going on.
What do we do about Thanksgiving? Well, the answer is NOT to do what happened up north.
Despite having a good handle on this outbreak by employing strict basic measures and a population following the rules, Canada has had a recent uptic in numbers, partly thought to be secondary to loosening restrictions and their Thanksgiving holiday get togethers, which is our Columbus Day. By the way, I grew up in Toronto, Canada and we always insisted that the “real” Thanksgiving is in October, not November!! Now that I have been in the US for more than 25 years, Thanksgiving is back in November.
The simple answer is that Thanksgiving will be different this year. It HAS to be to keep people safe, especially our more vulnerable. But even those we think of as less vulnerable, are still vulnerable. Kids get sick. Kids suffer long term side effects. Kids can even die. Most importantly, kids spread the virus.
Positive news about an effective vaccine is great but it’s no panacea. Even if you get the vaccine tomorrow, you still need to follow basic protection measures since you can still get it, get it again and definitely spread it.
It will be this way for at least the next 6months, if not the next year. And there is a very real possibility that this will turn onto another flu-like infection, needing yearly or even twice a year immunizations. We need to be vigilant for now, and the foreseeable future.
It isn’t that hard. It’s not fun, but not that hard.
DISTANCE. Isolate if necessary. Have much smaller groups. If your kids come home from college, you may have to isolate them for 5-7 days to make sure they don;t bring an unwanted guest into the house!!!
WEAR A MASK. Just do it already. It’s not just for you but for everyone else also. Cover your nose. Stop touching it.
WASH YOUR HAND.
VENTILATE. Especially if you are having some guests over. Consider a HEPA air purifier for the room but also keep windows and doors open a crack to encourage fresh air.
VACCINATE. As Gandalf said in the Lord of the Rings, “We must face the long dark of Moria (ie the pandemic). Be on your guard. There are older and fouler things than Orcs (ie SARS-Cov-2), in the deep places of the world.” The flu is one of them.
GET HEALTHIER. The most important missing talking point. We continue to ignore our health. Weight and chronic disease rates continue to climb. It’s not a good situation.
Stay safe and be well.
AC