Editor’s Notes: Taking COVID seriously
Trending
Watching daily briefings and news reports that drone on may not be the most effective way to understand where we stand in terms of the resurgent COVID-19 pandemic. After a year-and-a-half of report after report, many of us are a bit numb to it, and may not fully grasp what is happening right now.
So let me take a different approach. A friend of mine had a daughter experiencing cold symptoms, who was (rightly) told she could not go back to work until she had a negative COVID test. So began the search for a testing timeslot. My friend called everywhere and was told there was not an available timeslot for another two days. Panic began to set in.
I and others suggested to her that maybe she could try one of the at-home test kits that we had seen at local pharmacies and other stores. She searched high and low and could find no store with any in stock.
She did, eventually, get an appointment, and it turned out her daughter really did have nothing more than a cold. But her experience got me worried. What is happening? How many people in our communities believe they have been exposed to the virus, that there are no testing slots available and no at-home kits in stock?
I know that because schools have not returned to remote learning, there is a significant portion of the student population having to get tested as they are exposed at school or through school activities. Many workplaces, too, are requiring employees to show them a negative test result after experiencing symptoms, before they can return to work. Perhaps that is the bulk of the problem.
Once she had her own situation sorted out, my friend calmed me down a little by pointing out this may be a good thing. People are finally taking seriously the need to test often and stay home if they are sick, she said. And, of course, I know a large number of tests being taken does NOT mean a significant percentage of them are coming back positive.
Meanwhile, there is another worry for parents. While many were relieved not to have to alter their work schedules to accommodate remote learning again this semester, it turns out a different inconvenience is created when hundreds upon hundreds of students are being quarantined because of possible exposure. We haven't even made it to Labor Day yet, folks, and at one point last week there were more than 800 Wood County Schools students in quarantine. Many of those students were alerted of their exposure at school, and parents or guardians had to drop what they were doing and go pick up their kids, when they got the call.
Imagine being the school official who has to keep track of who is being quarantined when, who has been fully vaccinated, who is ready to come back to school, who has turned in a negative test result … God bless that person or people. I would be losing my mind.
One person who had just been called to pick up a student (who was exposed while participating in a sporting event) wondered whether it might make more sense to go back to remote learning for a month or two. I suppose that would be a good idea if we had any assurance the mask and vaccine resisters would actually do the right thing and help us fight this monster. I shudder to think how long all this might go on -- how many variants we might create -- if they don't.
Meanwhile, the rest of us will have to do what it seems so many are already doing. Get tested if you have symptoms, and stay isolated if you are sick. If nothing else, we will know we are doing our part.
Christina Myer is executive editor of The Parkersburg News and Sentinel. She can be reached via e-mail at cmyer@newsandsentinel.com