Whenever my laptop, or my phone, does something unusually funky, my first course of action is to shut it off and then turn it back on.
Almost always, that solves the problem.
If life were only that simple. But in a way it is. What makes it difficult is our collective will to take the necessary steps to wipe the slate clean, or the amount of pride and conceit we have that prevents us from doing it.
Since December (or late November, I guess) we’ve been plagued with another variant of the COVID-19 virus, this one with the cumbersome-sounding name of “omicron.”
As has been the case with these COVID viruses since day one, there’s a blizzard of information about this variant — very little of it is consistent. I’m no scientist, so my only opinion on this is that if the scientific community is telling me different things, it means the scientists are still trying to get a grip on it.
This can’t be easy. Every other day, it seems, we’re having something else thrown at us, and none of it is easily solved. We’re left to take our own steps to protect ourselves and hope for the best.
Not very comforting. And it does no good at all to believe the last thing we read on the internet, because the next thing we read may be radically different.
To wit: there seems to be a consensus of opinion, with omicron anyway, that while the virus is even more contagious than COVID itself, if you’re vaccinated thrice (two originals and a booster) the effects may not be quite as severe. In other words, it probably won’t kill you. Or, at least, kill the average healthy person.
But who really knows? Or more to the point, what responsible person wants to take the chance that he or she won’t be the exception to the rule? Certainly not me.
So there’s no secret concerning what to do. Mask up. Try — as best as we can — to be islands unto ourselves in public. As David Byrne once said, “same as it ever was.”
In that sense, I have to applaud the Greater Boston League’s decision to hit the “pause” button on all school sports — games and practices — this week. When you start talking about “super spreaders,” few can be as dicey as athletic events. Why create needless situations? If you have even a week where nobody is tempted to walk into a highly-populated event without a mask, or inadvertently forgets to put one on, that’s one week, and one event, where this thing can’t get further out of control.
I believe, in the long run, that COVID is one virus that is going to take all our resources, and all our cooperation, to eradicate — if we ever do. Perhaps the best we can hope for is a vaccine that’s similar to the annual flu shot. Yes, between the flu, COVID, shingles, and whatever else, we may become human pin cushions. But if that’s what it takes, well, it’s better than the misery that can result from contracting COVID and any of its variants.
As someone who truly does love sports, it’s silly to see professional sports leagues have to tiptoe around this pandemic. Only the National Hockey League had the good sense to hit the “pause” button. The National Basketball Association, National Football League, and Major League Baseball plodded through (the Red Sox had a particularly tough time).
Before Christmas, there were several games postponed due to players and coaches being placed in COVID protocol, and there’s just no reason to keep playing when it gets to that point. Why? Why endanger people like that.
So thank you, Greater Boston League, for doing this. My only comment beyond this is that perhaps all school sports should do the same. I’d rather see a tournament in March with everybody healthy than one where kids are deprived from playing because the schools just couldn’t contain this virus.