Yes, This Is Another Covid-19 Post

The ongoing debate as how to best handle the Corona Virus pandemic is far from being settled.
Where I live, in the region officially designated as the "Southern Tier" of New York, the stay in place order was lifted a week and a half ago. The number of new cases in the region has dropped considerably over the last few weeks.

That's a good thing, of course. But it's no guarantee of ongoing reductions, nor is it a guarantee
of economic recovery. Some restaurants have reopened here in the Binghamton area.

A few closed permanently, and at least one new one has opened. I know, because I walked past it last Tuesday. But many businesses are still closed, including most hair salons and barber shops. My most recent haircut was in the second week of March, and boy, do I need one now.

But if even if I could find a place to get one, I'm not doing that anytime soon. Not after two hair stylists in Arkansas have just recently triggered an outbreak of at least 100 new cases. Both stylists were experiencing symptoms of Covid-19 but didn't let that stop them from going back to work.

No thank you, I will not take that risk. I'll cut my hair myself when the grooming kit I ordered from
Amazon arrives later this week.

What bothers me about things in this area is that over half of the people I see on the street are no longer wearing protective masks, nor are they practicing social distancing.

I get it, people. If someone has to go back to work, so be it. I may well be in that situation myself by the end of next month.

But this whole situation is far from over.  If we stop doing what we know works, we're just setting
ourselves up for an even worse situation down the road, as it were. Not wearing a mask or not keeping an acceptable distance in non-work situations, to me, is simply unacceptable.

The local economy in Broome County was decent before all this started. Now it's hurting, badly. But what trade off do we consider to be acceptable? How many deaths equals what level of economic growth? Personally, I'm inclined to consider the human cost as being much more important than the economic one.

But I'm just one person, one who has no say in how things are to be handled.

Sorry for the real downer of a post, but that's just where I'm at right now.