Connecticut reopened its gyms and swimming pools today along with indoor dining. Unfortunately, neither my pool or the two gyms I go to reopened. Nor word yet when they will. Bummer.
I had no desire to celebrate the phase two opening by going to a restaurant to dine indoors, so tonight i am in my backyard grilling hamburgers and in a little bit I will get in my small hot tub that I just paid $600 to get the leaks fixed in and a new motor after a few years of unuse, I will also likely have a couple of hard seltzers even though I find they interfere with my sleep.
Connecticut has been doing great as evidenced by the map below. We are one of the few states in green, meaning we are a state making progress in our battle against COVID. Part of the reason we are in green is we were hit so hard in the first wave that made its biggest initial impact in our neighboring New York, spreading into New Jersey to the south and Connecticut to the north. Our state made some good choices early on and for the most part people have followed physical distancing protocols. I use the term physical distancing now because that is really what it is all about. We should never socially distance.
While the reopening and the fact that today Connecticut has less than 200 people hospitalized with COVID down from a peak of over 2,000 in April, is cause to celebrate, the more I read, the more realistic I realize I and we all need to be about the future.
The interview below with Dr. Michael Osterholm, noted epidemiologist and author of Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs, a great book that is clear-eyed in its appraisal of what we face.
COVID-19: Straight Answers from Top Epidemiologist Who Predicted the Pandemic
Only 5% of our population has been infected.
Covid-19 has no reason to disappear.
Unless we have a vaccine, which is no sure thing, COVID will burn until 60-70%of our population is infected, and will likely kill 800,000 to 2 million american in the next two years.
Chances of a successful vaccine that prevents COVID are not good.
Our darkest days he says are still ahead of us.
He recommends avoiding prolonged contact with others in indoor spaces with poor ventilation and cautions that cloth masks offer only limited protection in such situations.
What we must do is find the safest ways we can to live the life closest to what we have loved about our society, and if we have strong leadership that speaks the truth to us, we will get through it.
Please read the interview, and if you are looking for a good read, try the book. It in nonfiction, but reads like an adventure story. It covers everything from Ebola to the flu.
Be safe out there.
