June.

This right here is a (quasi) education blahg. We’re, like, you know, into people getting smarter. Improving themselves. Learning about the world and how it works.

With all this clamor to re-open American society, we just hafta say… Things are going to be much much worse again before they will be better.

Sure, you’ll be able to go to the beach if you want to this weekend.

Sure, you can go get a beard trim or a manicure or whatever other maintenance services your body is currently in need of after an extended period in home lockdown. (Please don’t share the details. We don’t need to know.)

Sure, you need to get out of the house or you’re going to go flippin crazy.

We get it.

But here are the facts, as conveniently laid out for us in this op-ed from an actual, like, medical-type person :

…Once social distancing is relaxed, covid-19 will again spread with explosive speed.

But, of course, that might not be apparent for weeks or even months. That’s because of the lag between new exposures to the virus and the subsequent increase in infections, hospitalizations and deaths. As everyone knows by now, the incubation period — the time between exposure and symptoms — is up to 14 days. It could take another week or two before people become ill enough to seek medical care, and another week or more for those who are severely ill to succumb to the virus.

 
 

We KNOW that the economy is in trouble. We KNOW that bad times are ahead. We KNOW that people are suffering — you yourself, most probably, due to the uncertainty, boredom, dread. Getting back together with your gang for some in-person gaming or libations or just sitting around chillin with folks is important for mental wellbeing.

But being careless with the precautions that most of us have been strenuously implementing is only going to have dire consequences in a very short time.

June is likely to see a resurgence in infections, hospital admissions, and deaths. Maybe not everywhere, because some places like New York and California are maintaining their lockdown orders for longer. But not everyone is complying as they originally had been.

This is not a political situation (though it’s very unfortunately become highly politicized). It’s about that oddly rigid and intractable thing called reality.

The virus is not convenient.

What it is, though, is invisible.

And apparently humans, or at least Americans, have very short-term memories.

So here’s unfortunately another one of our dire predictions:

Everyone’s going to go out in the world and loosen their standards, and congregate, either inadvertently or quite intentionally.

The virus is going to come back.

We’re going to have another wave of tragedy.

Then guess what? All the schools will be issuing their final verdict on reopening for Fall, and it’ll be in the midst of our second outbreak and they’ll be forced to retreat and declare the virus a winner, and it’ll for sure be an online-only decision for Fall.

We hope we’re wrong on this. If we’re wrong, that means fewer people are dying.

Let’s pray that we’re wrong.

Please people, even if your area relaxes the rules, please stay safe and don’t risk yourself getting this thing.

We’re an education blahg. Let’s use science to make decisions in running our lives.