Coronavirus doesn’t get fatigued
Hamilton County Health Department Administrator Becky Barnes delivered one of her harshest warnings of the pandemic this week, pleading with families to limit Halloween and upcoming Thanksgiving festivities as the coronavirus continues to spread unchecked throughout the entire region. She said the largest drivers of our case surge are lack of appropriate mask-wearing, lack of social distancing, small gatherings without precautions, family spread, continuing to leave home while ill or while awaiting for a test result, cooler weather and shorter days leading to more time spent indoors – where a lack of air circulation helps the highly contagious disease spread more easily. Barnes also blamed pandemic fatigue, which can cause people to skirt precautions in hopes of having some semblance of normality.
I don’t know a single person, myself included, who isn’t tired of COVID-19. But the hard truth is that the virus doesn’t get fatigued. It doesn’t care how badly we want to see our friends and family, how much we want to trick-or-treat or that following safety precautions is an inconvenience. We cannot will COVID-19 into non-existence, but we can flatten the curve by practicing behaviors known to reduce the spread. “We are at a critical juncture. We must pivot to safer practices in our community,” Barnes said on Wednesday.
We’ve flattened the curve before. Let’s show our community that we can again.
– Elizabeth Fite, health care reporter, efite@timesfreepress.com