Responsible restrictions set by the Cooper administration over the last several months have clearly left our state much better off than most of the rest of the American South. This is because the pandemic isn’t getting better right now. Sadly, the problem with all of these jury-rigged schemes is that try as their architects might to make them safe and sane, they still fly in the face of common sense. Meanwhile, UNC Chapel Hill has hatched a plan to reopen the campus in mid-January for a delayed, spring “breakless,” second semester that will, it is hoped, fare better than the disastrous effort attempted in August. Soon thereafter, however, uncertainties in that standard prompted the board to shift gears and look to other CDC guidelines – both of which remain rather fuzzily spelled out. According to the Winston-Salem Journal, the initial decision specified that the final determinations on whether to proceed would be based upon the rate of positive COVID-19 tests in the county staying below 5%. In Forsyth County, for example, the school board recently adopted a plan that would allow for some elementary students to return to school for in-person learning as early as Nov. This phenomenon is playing out right now across North Carolina as K-12 and college leaders look desperately for ways to justify a full reopening of schools, even as a new and deadly wave of virus infections threatens to spike. When right-wing extremists are threatening to murder governors who have listened to science and put public health first, it’s not surprising that some officials are moving to reopen things faster than they might have. One can sense this instinct rising in many state and local officials as they have gauged the frustration and despair that plagues many of their constituents. At one moment, we are promised a universal vaccine in record time and the next, the talk shifts to a quixotic pursuit of “herd immunity.”Īt such a bleak moment, there is an obvious and understandable temptation to think with one’s heart and say, in effect, “to hell with it – anything is better than this.” Meanwhile, our rudderless national government tacks wildly in one direction and then the other. Rates of unemployment, business closures, hunger and homelessness have all soared along with a host of less-well-tabulated social ills – including widespread stress, depression and social unrest. The pandemic has damaged the economy – particularly for women and people of color. Nationally, more than 8 million people have become infected and 220,000 have perished.Īnd, of course, these tragic statistics are far from the only gloomy news. In just over 200 days, we’ve seen at least a quarter-million of our neighbors contract the coronavirus and 4,000 die. It’s been seven months since the COVID-19 pandemic turned life upside down in North Carolina, but it feels like seven years.
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