A Thanksgiving Warning – Do You Want to Kill Grandma?

Or yourself? Or your brother or sister? Or your spouse?

No?

Then read on.

Back when I first got into computers the joke was there was a fellow looking at a print out coming from the computer and he was saying, “This can’t be happening.”

Just in case you don’t understand the humor – The point is that the print out is clearly showing THAT IT IS HAPPENING. Your saying it’s not is really irrelevant. 

Although this week my wife and I have watched the graphs of state after state and their infection rates. It is climbing and is almost straight up. As in “The Sky’s the Limit!” We’ve heard hospital administrators say their hospitals are full. We’ve listened to nurses, doctors, and hospital staff say they are exhausted. The surrounding hospitals are full. There are no places to call for more ICU staff. Prisoners are being recruited to move the dead bodies. We’ve seen the morgues in trailers. We’ve seen the memories of people who have died. One couple, the husband got sick and died. As his wife was planning his memorial she got sick and died. They leave behind a four year old.

Infectious disease experts and governors are telling us, it will get worse. 

What can we do? 

Governor Cuomo said something I found very interesting. He said it’s not the schools that are spreading the disease, but home gatherings. It’s the little party in your house. It’s the wedding or funeral. Places where you, for whatever reason, drop your guard. 

The stories of infection of “how did you get infected?” seem to fall into two buckets. Either they don’t know or they can point to one person. In the latter case the story typically goes like this, “I got it from … and then I gave it to …”

At this time the best advice is TO STAY HOME. Don’t go see anyone. WAIT.

Please. 

We were going to go see our new grandson. He’s in Massachussetts. We decided not to risk it. We were going to go to the lake to see Shelby’s parents and spend the time with her brother and his family. We decided not to risk it.

I don’t want to get it. I don’t want to give it. 

This is no joke. It can kill.

North Dakota has the worst outbreak of anywhere in the world. Have you ever been to North Dakota? You can drive for miles and miles and not see anyone. I knew a guy who said in the town where he lived there was a traffic light twenty miles to the east, and to the west you could drive for 120 miles straight until you hit a curve in the road. That state has the worst outbreak in the world.

Don’t think you are immune. Don’t think you can’t get it (just because you haven’t gotten it so far.) 

You can get it. You can die from it. You could give it to someone else, someone you love, and they could die.

To semi-quote the actor Samuel L. Jackson, “Stay the F at home!”

Thank-you.

Me, wearing a mask, waiting to vote (way back when.)

PS Happy Birthday Benoit Mandelbrot!