And just like that… It’s August

    

Yikes, it is August.  We are entering the sixth month of the pandemic. 

At the beginning of July, I saw this graphic on Facebook.  I said “Amen,” when I read it.  We needed and collectively wanted a good news month.  But July was anything but that.  Whatever optimism we were feeling at the end of June was wiped out by the surges in several states and the slight increases in many more.  The politicization of the pandemic, civil unrest, the “science is bunk” fake news, and the crazy “no one can make me wear a mask” thing has noticeably taken everyone’s level of weariness up a few notches… mine included. 

I am a bit surprised by number of people that said, “watch this pandemic miraculously end after the elections.”  I have heard this from, what to me, is a diverse cross-section of the population that includes supporters of both candidates, mask wearers and mask haters, conspiracy mongers and non-conspiracists, as well as smart and not so smart folks. 

I am hoping that August will follow the advice that someone gave to July at the end of June.  I hope it does come in, takes a seat, doesn’t touch a darned thing, and keeps quiet. The reality is that we seem to be headed in an opposite direction.  It is very disappointing.  People are attempting to resume a normal lifestyle again albeit a masked, hand sanitized, and socially distant facsimile thereof. 

August will also be a short and busy month.  Classes for the new school year start on August 24.  My university is starting with a mix of face-to-face and online classes.  Of course, depending on the state of the pandemic in Illinois, Chicago, and our campus, we have to be prepared to move everything online if needed.

With social distancing requirements, all of our classrooms have been reconfigured to occupancies of only a third to a half of the number of students the rooms used to accommodate.  As a result. most of the face-to-face classes will be hybrid.  Hybrid?  This is where part of the class attends a Tuesday session of the class while the other half joins in online via MS Teams (Microsoft’s answer to Zoom).  For the Thursday session of the class, the face-to-face and online groups switch places.  To complicate things a little more, some students have opted to only attend online.  This shouldn’t be hard to manage for students or professors.

I think everyone thought that by this time, we would have “flattened the curve” and be cautiously reopening with the proper social distancing and PPE protocols.  We would be starting the school year, at all levels, in a better state than the reality we will confront in a few short weeks. 

Amid all of this, professional basketball and hockey have resumed their seasons that were suspended in March.  Baseball started a shortened season.  Players have come down with the virus.  Baseball games have been postponed, forfeited, or vacated because some teams have too many players in isolation or quarantine or something like that.  To be frank, I am not following it that closely nor am I watching any of the games. 

Football?  It looks dim for many college leagues and probably the NFL as well.  At this writing the Big Ten has yet to make a decision on the upcoming season.  The Division III conference our university competes in has already postponed all fall sports.  They hope to have all sports compete in the spring.  I do tend to watch replays of Michigan Football.  Not surprisingly, I watch games that we win.  We are 31-0 in this fake summer season.  This year, this may have to suffice.

The economy?  Savvy investors made out pretty well in selling off the stocks that home isolation would devastate and buying up securities that would flourish in this new market.  My fear is that unemployment and businesses impacted negatively by this pandemic will drag the economy down at some point.  I think we are close to that tipping point.

A few closing thoughts:

First, we are still learning about this virus as to how it behaves and how it will impact us long term.  Scientists are working furiously on vaccines and treatments.  There seems to be some positive news in the progression toward a vaccine. 

Lastly, are we as a country behaving like a fat person?  The fat person, and I know whereof I speak, musters up some resolve and goes on a diet, loses twenty or thirty pounds over several months, and then happily and proudly proclaims victory.  Yay!  The former fatty returns to their old habits and gains forty pounds quicker than it took to lose thirty.  The fat again person realized they wasted months of dieting effort for naught and will have to start anew from an even worse position than they began.  The start of the next diet is compromised because  their mood and self-esteem spiraled downward because the first one failed.

Sounds like us.  Perhaps, it will all go away with the election.