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Virus fight may be just getting started

Should we have needed any more reason to take seriously the COVID-19 surge in our region, Dr. Dan Breece, vice president of physician services and chief medical officer for Memorial Health System put it in terms that can be understood by anyone who has been watching events unfold on a national scale since February.

“It’s our New York-type moment where we are seeing our surge, and we have not seen it peak yet at all,” he said.

Just because we are tired of it — and we are ALL tired of it — does not mean the virus will take a break. In fact, it appears more tenacious than ever, and is taking advantage of so many bucking the guidelines of late.

“The last couple of days have continued to rise,” Breece said Monday. “I would call on all our fellow citizens to be diligent, now more than ever. I know we’re in COVID fatigue, but we have to protect each other by wearing our masks, having good hygiene, respecting personal space and social distancing.”

Protect each other. That is the key. Even if you believe you would weather COVID-19 fairly easily (though you might be wrong), it is still important to do everything you can to keep from spreading to someone who might not.

Of course, there’s also the small matter of trying desperately to keep our economy open as it struggles through recovery from the last round of shutdowns.

Our hospitals are strained and having to make difficult decisions as they support each other, and bear the load of many more counties than simply Washington or Wood. Our schools are doing their best to keep up with the same kind of will-we-or-won’t-we they experienced in the spring without our kids’ education suffering. Too many of our local businesses have closed and many more are facing immense challenges.

And people are dying.

Do not let down your guard, do not stop taking every precaution you can. The fight, in many ways, is just beginning.

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