The party’s over

Spring began very early this year, starting at 11:49 p.m. Eastern Time Thursday night. Spring Break 2020 — like everything else in the world — should be canceled. Not toned down, not subdued. Canceled. This goes especially for the idiot revelers on Florida beaches. The governor down there should immediately disperse those morons off the sands, teaching them a lesson not only in limiting contagion but in basic civic responsibility.

The young are not immune. Neither are the drunk. Or the stupid. But even if they were, they don’t have the right to endanger the rest of us, which is what they do by packing together to drink and cavort. While older folks and those with underlying health problems are at greatest risk of serious, or even fatal, coronavirus complications, everyone infected becomes a contagious carrier who can pass along the bug.

While it’s more than 1,000 miles from Fort Lauderdale and Miami to Borough Park and Williamsburg, and while barely clothed road-trippers look nothing like modestly dressed ultra-Orthodox Jews, the same message must be heard up here, where despite clear edicts to limit large gatherings, some groups keep on keeping on.

By tradition, a Jewish wedding can’t be cancelled. The same for a bar/bat mitzvah or a newborn boy’s bris. But Jewish law, which says never endanger people’s health, trumps tradition. If need be, have the ceremony but with no guests. And postpone the party until the virus is gone.

This is not a joke. This is not a suggestion. This is not a drill.