Friday, April 3, 2020

Coronavirus Update 4-3-2020: I killed the Easter Bunny


My family has been self-quarantined for the past three weeks. We did so before Ohio ordered people to stay at home, and before anyone started talking about social distancing and flattening the curve.

We chose to do this because our son is high-risk with a heart defect and asthma, and none of us wanted to get him sick.

We take our responsibility to halt the spread of this killer virus very seriously. We view it not only as a responsibility to ourselves not to become ill, but also to society as a whole not to spread it to others in the event we are silent or pre-symptomatic carriers. We know that one can transmit the virus for up to 14 days after exposure and before any symptoms appear; we’ve not been closer than six feet from anyone but the four of us living this house for weeks.

For all of these reasons, I was appalled earlier this week when some neighbors in my subdivision planned an Easter Parade. They announced it on our private Facebook Page, complete with a parade-route map. The plan was for someone dressed as the Easter Bunny to ride the parade route, and toss out candy bags to the children lining the sidewalks. The organizers were soliciting candy and other goody donations from neighbors.

My initial reaction? This is a terrible idea. It’s the exact opposite of social distance and sheltering in place. We should not be gathering en masse outside at public events, and we shouldn’t be queueing up to catch goody bags of potential coronavirus.

So I posted on the Facebook page, suggesting that the organizers reconsider their plans and cancel the parade. When they pushed back (“Only old people and sick people are dying.” “You’re overreacting.” “I already told my kids the Easter Bunny was coming to visit, what am I supposed to tell them now?”) I pushed harder, telling them they were being irresponsible and selfish. And when they still refused to do the right thing, I contacted our Mayor who shut it down immediately.

And that’s when things got ugly. One of my neighbors actually accused me of being against the parade because I’m Jewish. I’d love to be able to share his offensive comment, but the page admins immediately deleted it and took down the entire page. (No one asked for my opinion, but I’d have much preferred the comment remained live so that eveyone could see his ignorant hate.)

I’m sharing this story to highlight the need for us all to come together as a community at every level to do our small part to help combat the spread of this virus. Our healthcare system depends on it and our lives depend on it.

What are you doing for your part? I’m maintaining this blog, sharing information daily (sometimes more than daily) to get businesses the information they need to navigate this crisis. I know others who are sewing masks or volunteering at hospitals.

I’d love to hear from you as to what you are doing in the battle we are fighting against coronavirus. Please share in the comments below.

Be well, stay distant and healthy, and have a great weekend.

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In other news, I recently recorded an episode of WorldatWork’s Work in Progress podcast. We discussed long German words, musicians that aren’t, but should be, inducted into the Rock Hall, and life and law in the time of coronavirus. You can listen here, or subscribe and download in your podcast app of choice.

* Photo by John Fornander on Unsplash