“What we’re short on is imagination. Officialdom can never cope with something really catastrophic. And the remedial measures they think up are hardly adequate for the common cold. If we let them carry on like this they’ll soon be dead, and so shall we.” — Albert Camus, The Plague (1947)
It astounds me that folks in the mayor’s office are “feeling good” and “cautiously optimistic” about the way Greenfield’s COVID-19 statistics are shaping up. I’m not feeling good, and neither should anyone living in what has needlessly become the state’s hottest coronavirus spot.
The number of new confirmed COVID-19 cases in Greenfield this week (ending Friday) was up 12 percent. The week before that, new cases were up over 22 percent. Maybe this meteoric rise is partly the result of more testing. The data, however, don’t seem to support that — although neither the town nor health care officials seem to have the corrected number handy. You deserve that number.
The fact remains that Greenfield has climbed well above the threshold of 1,000 cases per 100,000 people. That puts our infection rate in the top tier in Massachusetts and of similar cities well beyond our borders.
This is tragic. At the same time, however, it is stupid and unnecessary — because if we were doing what we could and should be doing, the infection rate with would be plummeting toward zero. We know how this virus works and what to do about it. Stay at home, maintain social distancing when you can’t, and wear a mask. It’s that simply. Within six weeks, COVID’s gone. It’s no mystery. There is no dispute. There are no politics. If you can’t stay home for four-six weeks, two out of three ain’t bad. Period.
What’s really tragic and embarrassing is that Greenfield has been lazy and lackadaisical since the beginning of the crisis. Long after the virus became a crisis, the mayor allowed a gym to operate and nursing homes to remain untested and un-isolated.
Our infection rate implies that somebody is not doing what they need to do. I would suggest that begins in the mayor’s office. This is not good. This is not leadership. This ain’t no party, this ain’t disco, this ain’t no fooling around.
“No longer were the individual destinies; only the collective destiny, made of plague and the emotions shared by all. Strongest of these emotions was the sense of exile and of deprivation, with all the cross-currents of revolt and fear set up by these.” — Albert Camus, The Plague (1947)
Wesley Blixt is a resident of Greenfield.