COVID thoughts ...

Looking back on the pandemic's first year

About the Wall Street Journal’s editorial "The Case for Reopening Schools" (July 14)

Parents, teachers and students are anxious to learn about the nation's blueprint for reopening schools this fall.  With this in mind, I urge district school board members coast to coast to consider these questions before finalizing any plan to welcome students back into their classrooms:

As a parent, should I let my child ride the bus to school?  Everyone knows the bus is a petri dish for kids passing cold and flu germs.  How will each bus be made safe from COVID-19?

If teachers test positive for COVID, will they be quarantined for two weeks?  If a middle- or high-school teacher, who typically has five classes a day with 30 students in each class, contracts the virus, what happens to the 150 students?  Will they be allowed to pass each other in hallways?  How quickly will they all be tested?

If 150 students are exposed to the virus, there is the chance they may have exposed their siblings, parents or grandparents.  How long will it take for all of them to be tested?

If need be, how and where will the district find substitute teachers?  Substitutes teach in multiple schools.  What if a substitute is diagnosed with COVID-19?  Do the students in all the schools where he or she may have taught need to be tested?  What about their families?

How many teachers are over 45?  According to the CDC, more than 15% of the total number of COVID deaths in the U.S. were in people between the ages of 45 and 65.

I wonder how many other questions need to be answered?

-DF

Grocery clerks need COVID-19 protection

At a time when most people coast to coast are focused on the health of doctors and nurses treating coronavirus patients, don’t forget our local grocery clerks. Because these essential workers are dealing with hundreds of customers daily, they need to be outfitted with the same protective masks, gloves, and gowns other essential workers are wearing. The last thing we need is for one of Laguna’s grocery stores to be closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Are you listening Whole Foods, Ralphs, Gelson’s, Pavilions, and Trader Joe’s?

-DF

Wear a mask

I think we have gotten off track when it comes to wearing a mask or not. On the one hand, the vast majority of medical experts believe wearing a face covering helps prevent the spread of COVID-19. On the other hand, those who refuse to wear a mask say it is perfectly legal for them to “just say no.”

Shouldn’t we be doing everything possible to slow the spread of the coronavirus? Why not pass a federal law requiring every citizen to do his or her part in the war on COVID?

At 71, I’m old enough to remember the good ol’ days of driving without a seat belt. The objections to enacting the federal Motor Safety Law in 1968 were virtually the same then as they are now to wearing a mask. In the end, Congress decided the health and safety of all Americans outweighed an individual’s right to drive any which way he or she wanted.

The old phrase, “You don’t bring a knife to a gun fight,” applies to our current battle against COVID-19. Simply put, attacking the virus piece meal state by state, county by county, city by city—isn’t working. We need a unified, national plan to break the back of this virus. It’s time everyone, and I mean everyone, buckle up and join the fight. Wear a mask.

-DF

Isn’t it supposed to be 65 not 75?

Nationally, the Biden administration is trying to wrap its arms around the COVID pandemic and vaccinate 300 million Americans by the end of summer.

Here in California, the Newsom administration has just revamped its previous guidelines governing which businesses can reopen and where mass vaccinations are to take place.

All this sounds positive, but there is one question I’d like to ask: When will the Laguna Beach Community Clinic and Kaiser, my health care provider, agree to vaccinate seniors 65 and older, not 75 and older? Both seem out of step with today’s national and state age guidelines.

-DF

Living alone in the time of COVID-19

As a result of COVID-19, life as we have known it has changed dramatically in the last several weeks. At the beginning of the month, Laguna’s beaches were open to the public and parents were looking forward to watching Little League games at Riddle Field this spring.

Today, neither is possible, thanks to the coronavirus shelter in place directives. Because no one knows when they will be lifted, I’m guessing both time-honored traditions of taking prom photos or celebrating the graduation of LBHS seniors are on hold now.

Despite these and other unfortunate circumstances, it is gratifying to see so many people in Laguna reaching out to help friends in need. From teachers leading online classes to Food Pantry volunteers offering provisions to hungry neighbors, the notion “we are all in this together” is more than a catchy slogan here. 

So is staying in touch with friends. Many of mine are married or in a relationship so they have a familiar face to shelter in place with daily. Not so for people who live alone. I ought to know. I’m one of hundreds in Laguna, both young and old, who wake up single, spend my entire day single, and go to bed single. Thanks to my phone, email, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, texting, and Zoom, I don’t feel like I am in solitary confinement; but, I never forget I’m alone. As my Seattle-based son recently asked, “Dad, what happens if you fall in the shower and black out? Who would know?”

Don’t get me wrong. I am not looking for sympathy. My hope is life as we once knew it returns to normal sooner rather than later. In the meantime, I’d like to remind my married friends (that) when you receive a text, an email, or see a Facebook post from a single neighbor or relative, try to reply in a timely manner. Sometimes a simple yes or no is all it takes.  Other times, a sentence or two is necessary. Either way, your response is one more way we all can remain connected in these trying times.

If everyone does his or her part, then making lemonade out of lemons will be one of the easiest things we do during this unprecedented, national health crisis.

-DF