The Title of This Blog is Looking More Prescient

There's a headline in the BBC today "Swiss say young children can hug grandparents". What even is this world anymore? It also is an article that explains that while the Swiss are saying that young children can hug grandparents for a short time, other researchers say that they are mistaken in saying that young children don't spread the coronavirus. So there's that.


You can tell people are getting frustrated by the restrictions. I saw that this morning, when I went to the grocery store, and fewer people were wearing masks than they were a few weeks ago. I see it in the news articles about protestors, and cautious reopenings. I mean, reopening has to happen. Our economy cannot survive a shutdown for much longer. And it's nearly summer, hopefully that will limit spread more, if only because people are outside more than inside. But I'm looking at autumn with trepidation.

Especially since my college, like many, is planning on opening face-to-face in the fall. Colleges are hotbeds for infections, and our financial situation is already precarious, investing in the resources needed to do protect students and staff alike is going to also be a heavy burden. And, of course, I'm anxious about how pandemics tend to work - in waves. The 1918 flu had one wave in the spring, then a more deadly wave in the fall and then a third wave in the winter. I pray we won't have the same problem, but I'm realistic about the high chances that things can actually get worse.