THE COVID-19 MINDSCREW
I’d go through this range of emotions almost daily. As F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in a 1936 essay in Esquire magazine... The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise. I have the opposing ideas down pat. The “ability to function” part was more difficult... And as time went on, I developed a level of skepticism toward anything COVID-related. Is the media hyping it up ? And the news only intensifies my conflicted feelings toward the coronavirus... There was the case in Missouri of two COVID-symptomatic hair stylists who worked on clients in a reopened Great Clips and potentially infected 140 people. Yet, weeks later, none of the exposed people had symptoms or tested positive for the virus. Zero. How is that possible? Are we to assume everyone wore masks and did so correctly for the entire time they were there, and that every single client, who were each in very close proximity to two people sick with COVID-19, washed their hands or used sanitizer... eliminating any possibility they could catch the virus? Call me a skeptic, but my eyebrows are raised over this one. But then there’s the tragic story of Broadway actor Nick Cordero who, after a terrible 96-
And as time went on, I developed a level of skepticism toward anything COVID-related. Is the media hyping it up?
day struggle, just died of COVID-19. Nick was an otherwise healthy 41-year-old with no pre-existing conditions who leaves behind a devastated wife and young son. News articles reported on his recovery and the world rallied behind his journey, even after the virus caused his leg to be amputated and put him on a transplant list for new lungs. It’s hard to wrap my head around the disparity between this stark reality of the pandemic and online images of Florida spring-breakers, who said “screw you” to COVID-19 and partied en masse... most of them seemingly fine with no consequences. School districts across the country are in planning mode right now, but it’s very unlikely public schools in this area will resume in the fall anywhere close to the normal we once knew. Following the CDC guidance is next to impossible... Class sizes would need to be cut in half to even attempt the social-distancing and sanitation rules. And a five-year-old in a face mask for 8 hours? Forget it. I have two boys and every time I’ve visited their elementary school – a veritable petri dish on a good, pre-COVID-19 day – I’d spy several kids with fingers in their noses, thumbs in their mouths, or vice versa.
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July 2020
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