Well, that was working for a while.
But it’s not anymore.
Take a look at the latest chart of cases from my local county:
That tells a simple story:
- things started slowly
- but we saw the potential and reacted early
- we shut down most of the economy and told people to stay home
- this worked well enough to maintain a steady level
- folks managed this for about 2 months
- then, around May 1st, they just couldn’t keep it up
- boom
So, now we’re looking at the steepest growth curve we’ve had since the very beginning with the current doubling period being about 10 days.
Of course, some of this is due to expanded testing now that resources are a bit (but only a bit) more available. The county is doing some proactive testing, so some growth in identified cases is to be expected.
But that started a month ago, where that small uptick is around April 20th.
It does not explain the rapid increase since May 14th.
But pressure to get back to “normal” does.
As if that were even possible.
That’s not to say that we couldn’t reopen a bunch of the closed businesses and public facilities.
Parks, for one, could certainly be used safely especially if the CDC is correct that surface-transmission is rare.
Any business that can do delivery or curbside pickup, and can reasonably ventilate their building so the staff are protected from stale-air viral buildup can operate safely.
But you’ve gotta think about this and follow through sensibly, and I just haven’t seen it going that way.
The local Safeway, for example, has stopped metering how many customers are in the store at the same time and though they have their staff masked many of them wear the masks below their noses or loose around their necks.
And I’m definitely seeing more folks out on the streets with no mask at all.
So, folks are getting antsy and sloppy.
That is not a good combination. Be better, folks; we’re all depending on each other to do this right.
