Stage 2…

We are nine months into a two-week social lockdown due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 virus pandemic. You read that right. It seems like yesterday since the outbreak started, expanded, and the world did its utmost to control it by basically shutting down life.

That was….March? Now it’s November. In the U.S., states were given leeway to control the outbreak of the virus. Some states, like New York, had an explosion of cases; whereas others, like Idaho, saw far fewer. So New York and others similar to it went into extreme control mode: Manhattan turned into a ghost town, businesses shuttered, churches didn’t meet. Most states strongly encouraged people to comply. Other states, like Michigan, imposed penalties if you didn’t.

And what did we know? Pretty much nothing. What were the infection rates? Who was most vulnerable? What was the death rate? Hospitals were initially overwhelmed. The lack of beds and ventilators was stark. It appeared Covid-19 was a vicious strain of influenza, attacking the respiratory system primarily, but also affecting other areas of your health.

The initial lockdown had everyone afraid. How bad was this? How did you catch it, and how could you avoid it? “Social Distancing” came into effect. Masks were recommended, then not recommended; recommended again, and once again, not. The number of people allowed in one place was severely limited. Team sporting events became a thing of the past.

Social distancing was the most effective, it seemed. Of course, handwashing and not touching your face were encouraged as well, no-brainers during a typical flu season. The two-week lockdown was supposed to at least gain a foothold on the control of the virus’s spread.

And it seemed to work. New cases started to decline. New testing became widely available. Things began to relax a bit. Here in Idaho, we went from Stage 3 to Stage 2. Eventually, back to Stage 1, which essentially opened up everything, but with cautionary recommendations, like wearing a mask (which seemed to become effective at slowing the spread of the virus. Again.). Businesses began to require customers to wear a mask before entering their stores. It seemed as if that as long as you wore a mask and kept your distance, this virus would be held in check.

But the virus never went away. And due either to more widespread testing or the mutation of the virus itself, new cases have begun to break out all over the place, to the extent that now we’re sliding back to where we were when this broke out six months ago. Here in Idaho, which has seen a huge spike, we’re back to Stage 2 restrictions. Forgive me, but I’ve forgotten exactly what those are.

So what to do? Take precaution and try to live life. Don’t know what to think should the greater economy take another serious body blow. But it seems that the “experts” haven’t actually considered that. Everything is in the “best interest of the country.” But how do you comply with “scientific” data when a few weeks later, it changes. A business might fail during that time. How do you explain it to the people who poured their life into it? I think the majority of the country is getting a little tired of all this.

But the virus is what it is. People ARE sick. And people have died and will die. The death rate may be not what it used to be, but there’s no doubt people are affected. So we soldier on in Stage 2, hoping and praying this situation is corrected somehow, perhaps through a vaccine; perhaps through herd immunity. Hard to say. But Christmas is coming, and 2020 will forever be defined by Covid-19.