The answer is, “Don’t!”
That holiday smooch might be the kiss of death.
The perfect storm is about to play out, not only in Whatcom County but nationwide. As we are surpassing our COVID cases from last April when we thought THAT was really bad (see chart above), COVID will celebrate an upcoming five-holiday spree with which to wreak havoc. First is Thanksgiving with all the folks who are just “dying” to be with the family around that turkey groaning board. Then in December, it is the Four Horsemen of the COVID Apocalypse: Hanukkah, Christmas and Kwanzaa leading up to the grand finale, the New Year’s Eve drunkathon. There were relatively small hikes in infection rates after Memorial Day and the 4th of July when all of the then utterly unnecessary gathering folderol could take place outside, but now we are all indoors where it will be “party hearty” for viral particles looking for some nice moist nasal passages or other ports of entry. There will be no shortage of victims. Yes Virginia, Santa notwithstanding, this virus just does not give a shit.
Locally, President Randhawa closed WWU’s in-person classes when the number of positive cases, revealed by testing students, tripled in the space of about 10 days after being at 4-5 total since the start of classes in September. A closure was planned for after Thanksgiving (students were told to go home and stay home) but was moved up, in a fashion. A small fraction of students got about seven weeks of face-to-face instruction. Was it worth it? We will likely never know as these young men and women fan out across the state, possibly as asymptomatic carriers. It is time to get ahead of the curve and just announce on-line-classes-only until at least next June.
As WWU closes for the Thanksgiving infectathon, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) is now telling us not to travel. Like Rip Van Winkle, the CDC arose from its bed the other day to make this stunning pronouncement, which is so obvious to those who have been paying attention that a country-wide “Doh!” shook windows everywhere. A friend wrote me that he “would rather stick needles in his eyes than get on an airplane.” Yet people will do just that - getting on planes. But in recent CDC fashion, its holiday instruction web page tells you what not to do, but then tells you how to do it if you really, really have to.
Don’t French-kiss puff adders, but if you really must…
