Instead of Happy Anniversary, how about Good Riddance?

I join the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of others who are saying this mid-March,

“What a year it has been.”

Like so many others, I had no inkling of what was to come after we published that first issue on COVID-19 March 12, 2020. There were days when the information came so rapidly we couldn’t keep up. We’d no sooner get one announcement that another came in on its heels. Schools closing, offices closings, government building closing and amid it all, who had the virus and did I have contact with them?

Reality unfolds in sometime peculiar ways. I can’t tell you the date or time, or even if it happened only once. Yet I have a clear memory of standing in the Big Room here at the Chief, the one where we do layout and editing, and the realization came to be in waves, “Our doors are closed. I’m wearing a mask. No one can come in. We’re in a pandemic. This is serious... stuff.”

One of the things that has struck me time and time again is the language we have come to use.

“How many cases?” You don’t even have to ask what type of cases. We all know.

“I tested negative.” In the past if someone told you either of those, in the back of your mind you might wonder what in the heck they tested for and is it even your business? Now if they say they are negative, you’re glad for them because you know what it means, and if you’re in the same room with them, you’re glad for yourself, too.

If you hear, “That person tested positive,” you immediately begin to review that past several days in your mind, trying to figure out when you last saw “that person” and for how long and were you both wearing masks and were either of you coughing or sneezing and so many other things.

“I got my shot today.” At another point in time, that, too, could be logged under “Too Much Information.” Now we don’t even flinch. We don’t have to wonder if they got a flu shot or wonder if they opted to vaccinate themselves for rabies!

It is said the end of the COVID-19 pandemic may ... emphasis on may ... be in sight. It’s also said the mutations of the virus may bring increased numbers of infections and illnesses.

Well, I certainly won’t be giving COVID-19 any presents for its first anniversary. And here’s to hoping it’s not around long enough to have a second one.