Wanting me to get COVID means we’re in agreement

We are not living in glass-half-full times, but in this particular instance I’d like to concentrate on the positive aspects of what some of you will see as a dark, even sinister situation.

Let’s take those lemons and make lemonade, shall we?

Over the past several months more than a few zealous readers have sent me emails or left phone messages or reached out on other social media platforms offering the same general message that was sent to me recently by a persistent correspondent named Jon. He wrote:

“I can’t wait until you get COVID.” Like many American families, ours has been touched by the virus. One member of our household tested positive, spent several weeks dealing with the illness and now appears to be mended.

The rest of us took the necessary precautions and, to Jon’s disappointment, have not yet been infected.

His message, however, inadvertently argues in favor of the very precautions that he and others often rail against.

By wishing me unwell Jon is admitting that COVID-19 is a dangerous, potentially deadly illness. That simple admission makes the case for going slowly and cautiously when considering actions that could lead to mass exposure.

Like, for instance, reopening schools.

Gov. Doug Ducey has set an “aspirational” start date of Aug. 17 for reopening Arizona’s schools.

Many others have urged more caution. A group of 60 school board members from throughout the state, for example, signed a letter asking Ducey to delay in-person schooling until Oct. 1.

They wrote in part: “Remote learning is the only guarantee we have for the safety of our students and staff during the rising COVID-19 outbreak in our state . ... No study indicates that the number of infections will have decreased by any certain day on the calendar, and administrators, teachers, and families across the state are very nervous about returning to our school buildings and classrooms.”

Likewise, Arizona’s schools Superintendent Kathy Hoffman has pushed the governor to base any decision on solid data.

That would include a consistent decline in COVID-19 cases, a decrease in the percentage of individuals who test positive for the virus and a system for testing that provides rapid results.

In New York, for example, the standard is a regional daily infection rate of 5% or lower on average for 14 days. Arizona isn’t close to that.

Hoffman has said, “I want students back in our classrooms because that’s the best place for learning and growing. However, we cannot ask schools to make decisions that will impact the

teachers’ and students’ health and safety without first providing them with the necessary public health data and funding to make safe decisions.”

I’d guess that even those individuals among us who least admire or appreciate a particular newspaper columnist would wish no harm to our schoolchildren or to their dedicated teachers. And, since they seem to recognize the danger posed by COVID-19, I’d guess they would agree to implementing the necessary precautions prior to reopening schools.

To that extent, I’d like to thank those readers for helping make that argument.

Or, like an old college friend of mine used to say: When life gives you lemons ... break out the salt shaker and the tequila.