A good friend became a grandfather for the fifth time on his birthday last year, so, this past Saturday his family hosted a party for both the birthday kids.
They laid out an abundance of food and a beautiful, large, decorated cake.
Only a lot of the food got packed-up for the coming week. And the crowd consumed less than half the cake.
You see, about half of the invitees dropped-out at the last minute: all had sick members of their household.
The next morning our church service had more empty pews than normal.
Yes, flu season hits every winter and all sorts of bugs thrive in cold weather. This is much, much worse.
The information from the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force, the Centers for Disease Control and expert after expert on the cable news channels warn that the Covid pandemic hit overdrive once Omicron took hold. More people than ever are sick, record numbers need hospitalization and, well, government from the local school board to the White House cowers in fear of truth denying anti-vaxxers. Personal freedom trumps science.
An educator posted that personal freedom seems to include sending sick kids to school and demanding that the school doesn’t require mask wearing, frequent hand washing or social distancing.
The situation with adults is no better. Shopping this week I estimate that barely 60% of those in the stores wear masks despite the signs on the door. And, an increasing number of store employees (even in union grocery stores) no longer wear masks.
Why should they: His Accidency, the governor of Missouri declared the emergency over. Ignore the endless lines of people seeking Covid tests or overfilled emergency rooms. All is well.
That’s reality in this deep red state. The legislature is in session and Republicans, of course, aren’t wearing masks and agree with Mike Parson that Covid is so 2020. This week’s hot topics are banning Critical Race Theory, creating a means to recall school board members who don’t genuflect before Trump values and getting rid of one more Missouri Democrat in Congress.
Ironically, some people still care about Covid and the toll it takes on our Missouri neighbors. Each weekday Matthew Holloway from the Joplin area posts on facebook the latest Covid numbers he can gleam. Not a surprise, he documents more cases than the state seems able to find. And, he has been relentless in identifying counties and agencies which don’t report what’s happening in their communities.
By not counting and reporting cases, well, Missouri’s totals reported to Washington don’t look as bad. We earn less attention (and scorn) for our weak Covid response.
Back here in the real world, meanwhile, a great many people are missing birthday parties due to illnesses and a lot of that illness is Covid. That’s good if you like leftover birthday cake.
Glenn Koenen