I’m not certain how coming out from under the shelter-in-place order is going to work here in Mississippi. There are so many different opinions on what needs to be occurring, when and where, that it would be impossible to meet all the criteria at one time. Not to mention that everyone — the experts, and the common folk like me — seem to have differing ideas on whether or not this pandemic is, or is not, real. For the record, I believe it is real. Very real!
Somewhere I saw or heard that the president recommends 14 straight days of declining cases as a good meter for opening up a state’s economy. Here in Mississippi we’ve hardly had two or three straight days before spiking again.
Just last week Governor Tate Reeves began taking baby steps to loosen up some of the restrictions he placed on Mississippians by allowing state park lakes, reservoirs and the Mississippi Gulf Coast beach to reopen under certain guidelines. Then on Sunday the state reported the largest number of confirmed cases of COVID-19, to date, at 300.
The lakes and beaches didn’t reopen until Monday morning so the two obviously have no relation, but the coincidence is awkward.
Then there is that magic number of 10 we have all heard so much about, and read about, and been preached to about, when it comes to gathering in groups. In my meager opinion that is just a guideline for the sake of having a guideline. If 10 people gather in the backyard to have a barbecue and one of them is already infected that number ceases to have any meaning.
Or perhaps it could mean that 10 more people are infected and if all 10 go to backyard barbecues with 10 different people then 100 people are potentially infected. Those 100 go to backyard barbecues with 10 people each and 100 turns to 1,000 and on, and on, and on!
Everyone would have to be observing all the other guidelines to a tee to prevent anyone from getting infected and that, my friends, simply is not happening.
I may be overthinking it all, but my wife and I do have my 87-year-old dad under our watchful eyes, not to mention each other, so when I buy gas for my car, for example, I wipe off the nozzle and the buttons on the pump with an antibacterial wipe and then either wash my hands or use some “germ-X” or the like for extra safety measures. I also wear my mask, and especially when I go into the store to pay if not paying at the pump.
Last week I was filling up and the station was pretty full, and nobody else was taking those same precautions. In fact nobody else was taking any precaution at all as far as I could see. In fact some of those, the ones that one might call naysayers, were looking at me like I was the strange one. I don’t often take offense at being looked at as the strange one, but I kind of took offense!
Likewise, about once a day I take a drive around town, mainly to see if I might find a photo op or two, but also to see how the population might be handling the pandemic. The population isn’t handling the pandemic very well from what I’ve seen.
Folks are visiting, yes often in groups less than 10, but clearly not observing the six foot distance rule. Folks have their heads stuck in other folks truck windows, and are right up in each other’s faces. Some folks are being polite and holding the door open for other folks but in the process they are getting really close to those other folks at the same time.
And, although I’ve not seen anybody shaking hands in a long time I do see people patting other people on the back, and putting their hands on other people’s shoulders and all sorts of close encounters of the unallowable kind. Once again it is 10 times 10 times 10 and on, and on, and on!
I’m a toucher, and a hugger, and a handshaker and my personal space is tiny, but in 2020 everything has changed and I’m doing my very best to adapt to that. I only ask that everyone else do so as well.
