By Ian Allen
I’ve been thinking a lot about hope this week. It’s hard, when we’re looking at the numbers of infected and the impact on the economy to have a lot of hope. But there are things that are helping me see a path forward.
First of all, there’s the COVID Path Forward, which lays out the concrete steps that the experts say are necessary to keep us healthy, starting with physical distancing through the point where we have the vaccine. All of this is concrete but doable.
Though we’ve been seeing some protesting, Americans, by and large, want to stay at home, knowing that the risks to them are greater when people are closer together and when they are unmasked.
Another positive sign: seeing studies show that, for example, the virus does not spread nearly as much in open-air environments with people spread out. This means that plazas and outdoor activities are likely to be manageable from a risk perspective.
Other countries are reducing their spread and are seeing dramatic reductions in new cases. This lets us know there is a path forward for us. We need to listen to the experts and make the right choices for ourselves, our neighbors, and the country.