My children have been home this week after their schools shut down amid coronavirus worries. I was going to cover Joe Biden’s rally in Cleveland on Tuesday, and that got canceled. I was supposed to speak tonight at a university in Ohio, but they have shut down all campus events effective today.
The National Cathedral has shut down its schools. Fairfax County, Va., and Washington, D.C., have closed school for this coming Monday. I bet you $100 they’re not going to open on Tuesday. If you live in the D.C. area, your kids will be home next week. It will only be so long before your workplace tells you to work remotely. Large events of over 1,000 people should also be canceled, according to the D.C. government. Soon that number will be 100. Or even a dozen people.
But this is a national thing. In New York, 3.14 square miles are basically a no-go zone, with multiple schools closed. Seattle finally closed down its schools. Universities across the country are shutting down. The rest are going to follow suit.
This will hit the entire country soon. If you live in the United States of America, the odds are that your kids’ school will shut its doors before the end of March. For many, this Friday will be the last day of school for a while.
And if you have a wedding planned, a conference, or any large event, it will be canceled or scaled back.
The virus is going to keep infecting more people, and the value of social distancing will become increasingly apparent, especially if we see a death rate approach and surpass three digits. There’s some evidence that you don’t need to come in contact with anyone sick to get it–if you come in contact with anything that came in contact with anyone sick.
You may think this an overreaction. You may point to the low death rate, and that almost all cases are minor. But this disease is 10 times as deadly as the flu, and twice as contagious. Nobody wants to be responsible for spreading it.
The virus may seem very distant to you. Seattle is forever away. You’ve never heard of New Rochelle. D.C. is a swamp. Maybe your state has no cases, or only the biggest city in your state has any cases.
That doesn’t matter. The tipping point in closures has been hit. The elites–their alma maters, their kids’ schools, their employers–are all hunkering down. The tone is set. Time to steal away and stay away.
Your life is about to be shut down. For a while. Time to face it.
