covid diary: day 133

all fall down

Sometimes, a person just needs a day off.

Mike fell asleep on the couch last night and woke up tired and out of sorts, so I convinced him to take the day off. It's advice I could use myself, although the nature of my job is different, meaning that if I don't work, I don't get paid. I'm glad at least one of us gets paid time off. So today, I'm taking the day off vicariously through him, even though I'm at my desk juggling projects and fighting exhaustion as usual.

This afternoon, the governor had a press conference to announce a statewide mask order effective July 27. Why wait five more days, Governor? Why not just order people to mask up TODAY? Better late than never, I guess.

More high school sportsball teams have been having kids and coaches test positive. With every new story I hear, I think, Is this it? Is this the one that makes the schools finally reconsider this disastrous plan of reopening? But no. At least not yet.

But it does feel like we're moving closer and closer to a tipping point. Our county is still in the red zone, with a rate of new infections of 28.7 per 100,000 (seven-day average). We're second in the state now, with Dubois County in southern Indiana in first at 38.8. And I might be reading between the lines here (I am definitely reading between the lines here), but I get the impression that at least one coach/teacher in town has tested positive, because even after a quarantine period, people are complaining about that person being allowed around kids again. Which of course is ridiculous. If someone has COVID-19 and recovers and is no longer contagious, there's no reason they can't be around other people or resume their job duties.

The point is, I guess, that all this pressure on superintendents and school boards and teachers feels to me like it's building toward something. And if I had to make a prediction (I stink at predictions), I would say what we're building toward is this: remote learning for everyone, but with athletes still allowed to do sportsballs. That sort of sounds counterintuitive, doesn't it? But I think that's what will happen. Half of the complaints I've heard since March are about how unfair it is that the kids are losing out on so many treasured activities, so keeping sportsballs addresses that issue while still minimizing the number of kids exposed to each other. The other half of the complaints are either for or against school opening in person, and I would say that generally speaking, the parents who are for school opening in person are also vehemently against making those kids wear masks, so for them that will be a deal-breaker. Going virtual solves most of those problems too. There will definitely still be issues, of course (food insecurity, lack of socialization, all of it), but I really don't see how they do this any other way.

Nationwide cases: 3,940,592. Deaths: 142,677.