Short Attention - What Was That Again?

 Thanks. Thanks a lot.

A family in Corte Madera, California sent their chose to send their child to school last month. Not a huge deal except that this child was infected with COVID-19. The parents chose not to notify the school. Subsequently, seven other children caught the crud and seventy-five more needed to be put in quarantine. This meant that all those families who had plans to travel for Thanksgiving were not able to do so. It also meant that school officials had to do the maximum amount of investigation and contact tracing to be sure that they had examined all the possible links in the infection chain. 

To be clear: These parents were informed of their child's condition, but they chose to flaunt the protocols and precautions in place. Sorting this kind of thing out is the school's responsibility. Keeping in mind this happened in the liberal bastion of Marin County, California. 

I work for a school. I spend a great portion of every day there reminding kids to wear their masks. Wear them properly. Wear them as something besides chinstraps. Four months since our return to in-person instruction, kids and adults are feeling the strain of maintaining conventions put in place to slow the spread of the disease that has killed nearly eight hundred thousand Americans. A few days ago, I had taken off my mask while attending a Zoom meeting while I was alone in my classroom. When it was over, I got up and started getting ready to leave, and I made it all the way into the hallway before that telltale breeze on my upper lip let me know that I had forgotten something. The alarm bells went off in my head as I rushed back to my desk to retrieve my mask. I felt a flood of relief as I took that first deep breath of cloth-filtered air. 

Human beings have not become more resistant to COVID-19 by ignoring its existence. Across the globe, thousands are still dying from coronavirus and its Greek Alphabet of variants. It will not go away just because we lost interest in it, like we did with McLean Stevenson. 

Is it a complete and total onerous bore to have to test and vax, rinse, later and repeat? You bet it is. You know what's worse? 

Dying.