We’ve been dealing with this for some time, since mid-March when we closed the campus. Seven months is a long time even over a superannuated life span. We’ve also been dodging the hurricanes. With any luck that’s just about at an end. Looks like we’ll be dealing with the virus for the rest of year, but with any good fortune it will mainly be a 2020 phenomenon.
We continue to try to move toward sustainability of an approach that recognizes the social needs we have and the benefits derived therefrom while practicing make-sense prevention. We will continue the daily checks, knowing that this can be felt to be intrusive, though we have appreciated the cooperative nature of the community’s response to the daily checks. We will continue to screen at the single point of entry and establish protocols that allow visitors and essential workers on campus. We’re not ready to let our guard down by removing all the safeguards of visitation, group activities, and other programs.
The most concerning information I’m hearing now is that transmission of the virus is expanding through small family groups. As families gather, sometimes they do so without the necessary precautions that retard transmission. Being aware of the possible presence of the virus is important in these small groups too. We’ve promoted the notion that everyone should behave as though they have the virus and don’t want to give it, especially in a family group, and everyone should behave that someone else has it and they don’t want to get it, especially in a family group.
If small family groups are presenting a larger risk, it’s particularly problematic as we approach Thanksgiving when so many families come together. COVID fatigue, which many experience (we’re just tired of dealing with this), may well incline us to lower our guard and make some compromised decisions. It’s a tough choice. Can we have it both ways? I don’t know, but I do believe we can have a familial and social life while taking care of how we do it. Increasing availability and reliability of testing, even perhaps a month from now, may help us a great deal.
I certainly believe that we have the ingenuity, creativity, perseverance and motivation to take good care of ourselves as far as careful choices are concerned. Some present sacrifice can yield great rewards.