COVID-19 Hasn't Left

Thursday, June 18th, the following headlines appeared in the Hammond Daily Star, “Local high schools to host graduation ceremonies” and “PHS parade rolls this weekend.”   The first story reported that seven high schools in Tangipahoa Parish were implementing traditional senior graduation ceremonies involving the gathering of people, while the second reported the holding of a downtown parade in Ponchatoula followed by a social gathering at a local venue.

Fast forward to Tuesday, June 23th, and the following headline appeared in the New Orleans Advocate, “Grad soiree, DJ party cited as outbreak catalyst.”    That story reported that a June 8th graduation party for Isidore Newman School students and their parents was identified as a source of the COVID-19 spread.  The state health officials reported that dozens of the private school college prep school’s parents and students have been infected.

In disbelief one of the parents of a Newman student who attended the party stated he would be “shocked” if it had sparked an outbreak, but did acknowledge that there “wasn’t a whole lot of mask wearing.”  Only 50 people attended the gathering.  Sadly, he was wrong in his disbelief for both his wife and child tested positive for the virus along with others.

And to make matters worse, many of those with positive results have subsequently visited other relatives and friends, in addition to perspective colleges for possible attendance this fall.  God only knows how many others they’ve now infected.

While we continue to ignore the presence of the COVID-19 and push the envelope of returning to pre-virus normalcy, COVID-19 remains undeterred, and isn’t magically disappearing into the great unknown anytime soon.

Just keep poking the rattle snake with a stick and see what happens.

While it is not necessary to become obsessed with COVID-19 and completely drop out of daily living, it is necessary to stop being stupid by ignoring that some aspects of your life style must change or the virus will continue to spread unimpeded.

The damage done from the graduation ceremonies and the Ponchatoula parade, followed by the social gathering is set in motion and we won’t see the results for possibly two weeks.  Hopefully they are minimal.

 

However one has to wonder about the question posed by Dr. Jennifer Avegno,  Health Director of New Orleans.  She asked the following, “Is the joy of a graduation celebration worth the guilt of infecting others?”  Apparently some city leaders, Tangipahoa parents, and the Tangipahoa School District administrators have decided selfishly that the answer is a resounding ‘yes’.

Hopefully our behavior will change or we can instead continue to pretend that everything regarding COVID-19 has mysteriously vaporized and follow the advice from Dr. Avegno, “ If you decide to throw a gathering of 100 or more, look around and decide which seven of them you would be comfortable with sentencing to death.”  The number is even greater if elderly are in attendance.

Just how much are you willing to risk regarding your loved ones and others?  Only time will tell!

Mask Time

I have noticed that our local media are now filled with pictures of selfish and uncaring individuals when it comes to protecting others from COVID-19 by wearing a mask;  particularly, pictured senior citizens, the most vulnerable group for contracting the disease.

While wearing a mask other than N95 has limited results in protecting you from contracting the virus from an infected, non-masked individual, its assistance in preventing an infected individual from transmitting COVID-19 to others is soundly supported by the CDC. 

If you don’t trust the CDC how about the Mayo Clinic?  The following statement appears on the Mayo Clinic’s website, “Asking everyone to wear cloth masks can help reduce the spread of the coronavirus by people who have COVID-19 but don't realize it.”

And therein is where the selfishness and uncaring come into play in our surrounding communities.  Unless all those individuals who choose not to wear a mask got tested and received negative results immediately before interacting with others, they have no idea of whether or not they are a carrier.  And I suspect they go blissfully about in their daily lives uncaring about possibly infecting others in their day to day activities. 

Those who selfishly wish to not wear a mask based upon whatever principle they choose to adhere to, or make up, should at least have the common decency to be more concerned about the others they interact with; particularly those in high risk categories.

It’s not just about you choosing to take a personal risk, but instead also about the others who don’t wish to take that risk.

And for those, who think this was “all a left wing hoax,” tell that to the husband and kids of the front line ER doctor who committed suicide over all the COVID-19 deaths and suffering she encountered, or those front line health care workers who tearfully provided first hand testimony on our news outlets of the horrific events they have and are still witnessing.

Such a minor inconvenience, wearing a mask to protect others.  So simple.

The demise of recycling

Getting people to recycle is a tough enough battle without individuals creating road blocks which limit its success.  The recent decision by Tangipahoa Parish President, Robby Miller, to close recycle drop off sites in Roseland and Hammond will seriously impede recycling efforts in the areas surrounding those closed sites.

By his order a large portion of Tangipahoa recyclers will now have to travel some 25 or more miles to drop off their recycle waste.  That will probably mean that many will no longer recycle.  While it was bad enough that rural parish residents were never afforded the luxury of curbside recycling services, at a minimum of once per month, at least we had the ability of a short drive twice per month at convenient drop off auxiliary locations.

After first trying to convince residents that the closures would benefit them by claiming better access due to extended drop off hours, Mr. Miller retreated and stated that the closures save the parish money.  This is due to the fact that now the parish won’t have to cover the cost of transporting the recyclables from the Hammond and Roseland drop off sites to the Independence land fill site.  However, no supporting cost saving data was presented as to how much this action saved.

Furthermore, the cost of running these satellite locations was already included as part of the parish’s operating budget for the present fiscal year, so it wasn’t necessary to close these locations at this point in time.

The 2020 Tangipahoa Operating budget lists $13 million as the departmental expenditures from the General  Fund.   I am sure the cost of transporting the recyclables from the Hammond and Roseland auxiliary sites to Independence doesn’t cost any more than one percent of that amount, if even that much.  But since no figures were presented to the public with the closure decision no one knows exactly how much we are saving vs sacrificing the environment.

Sadly, Tangipahoa Parish joins others, nationwide, in the notion that recycling is no longer a priority or worth the effort.  The parish president should have been upfront with his support of that belief from the very beginning instead of initiating an end around game which will result the curtailment of parish recycling services all together after the auxiliary sites closures result in reduced use of the inconvenient Independence landfill facility.  He will then be finally able to blame it on the public and curtail the entire recycling service “due to a lack of recycling interest by the public.”