My carved wood bunnies with "scarves" anchored with little red wooden hearts clearly are not adhering to the recommendation that we keep a safe distance of 6 feet apart from other people, and wash our hands regularly, wear protective masks and even gloves, to try to stave off contamination from the rampant conoravirus that has now spanned the globe. If the lack of a cure or vaccination from this virus isn't incentive enough to embrace the dictates of practicing good hygiene through these vital safety precautions, I certainly don't know what is.
It's medical science people, not a hoax, and certainly not a joke. Thousands of people have died in the state of New York alone, and more than 100,000 around the globe. As I noted in my last post, I already spend a good chunk of time here in the "Great Northeast" indoors during the winter, so accommodating a directive to stay home except for absolute necessities (food and medicines) wasn't, and hasn't been, that hard for me to do. But, in certain parts of the country, I'm mind-boggled by the lack of belief, and, as a result, the lack of practice of these basic health and safety directives by so many of the population -- and, equally scary, their elected officials from the local to the state level - who are in utter denial about the risk of this insidious virus and are unwilling to curtail certain civil liberties in the interest of public health and safety. It's a pandemic - no one, but no one, is immune here or anywhere.
Honestly, this virus doesn't care about your political beliefs and to ignore the recommendations of people who spend their lives establishing expertise in the nature of this infectious disease because "it's only in certain areas" is to live, effectively, under a rock that won't protect you or anyone you love. If you won't do it for yourself, do it for those you care about and particularly those who are most vulnerable in our society - the elderly, who generally have weakened immune systems, and those with pre-existing conditions that make them more suseptible to infection.
Seriously, people, too many already have died because we didn't get out ahead of this disease here in the US, and many more will die if we don't do everything we can to protect against it individually AND collectively until the risk clearly has diminished. Don't be in a hurry to get back to "normal" life until the experts tell us it is safe to do so. This virus is NOT adhering to your personal agenda.
Don't think for a minute that because it's "not in your back yard," you're not at risk. It is inevitable that it will be where you live in due course if it isn't obviously there yet, and when it does emerge, it will do so with a vengeance. Do what you can now to help prevent that from happening to you and those you love, or at least from affecting more rather than fewer people. No one should have to die because they didn't take the necessary precautions to protect themselves and those they love. Ignore those safety recommendations at your own, and their, peril.
And, oh, be thankful that on this Easter Sunday, if you're able to spend the holiday enjoying it and not being among those directly affected by a deadly virus that is very clearly in our midst, or worse yet, that someone you know is one of those who we lost to it.
Be safe, be careful and stay home.
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