BY JILLIAN RISBERG @JillianRisTV
That global pre-pandemic, the one where we could do laps on the track in a packed park without so much as a care, before a quick trip to the market for bananas meant arming ourselves with face #masks and gloves, and adhering to social distancing mandates of six-feet apart at all times. That world is gone and any incarnation of it is now just a distant memory, a snapshot in time when the "new normal" wasn't used to describe everything from sheltering in place to #Zoom work meetings in our sweats.
If you don't know what day it is or feel like you're in a perpetual fog, trust me -- you're not alone. The 24-hour cable channels bombard us with staggering numbers (#coronavirus deaths topple four million), along with devastating images of #COVID-19 patients on ventilators struggling to breathe and worse.
As states gradually ease restrictions, Dr. Anthony #Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases cautions that doing so too soon they risk doing so safely, and could have "serious" consequences.
Realistically, we don't yet have total control of this #pandemic, the top immunologist testified remotely Tuesday before a Senate committee on the administration’s coronavirus response.
Fauci also warned against taking a "cavalier" attitude about children getting infected.
In fact, we can expect "needless suffering and death" without an "adequate" response by fall, on Monday he told the New York Times.
The COVID-19 information and misinformation is endless -- we're slammed on the daily. Even with so much time on our hands to sift through it, do you want to?
Do you want to read about more symptoms that were discovered or the statistical probability of possibly getting the virus, even if you do everything right. I know I want to arm myself with as much knowledge as I can to make informed decisions about my health and well-being, but I also want to sleep at night without having nightmares. So that means staying home if the acclaimed infectious disease expert deems the situation a matter of life and death, social isolation (but connected virtually with loved ones) and wearing protection in high traffic (risk) locations.
More than anything, we all want to get back to living on the regular and savoring the unexplored; whatever that now means. But even with the curve flattening in New York (rural areas are now feeling the heat) -- why chance opening up states prematurely when it still feels like dipping our toes in shark infested waters, the scare factor is too high. If we preserve our health, it will not have been for naught. I look forward to feeling free again.