Musings about COVID-19 and the Return to the Office

These are some random thoughts I’ve had lately about work, life and press coverage under the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Do the people who write the articles about never seen before numbers of unemployment claims and rates of unemployment implying that these things seemingly came out of nowhere really not realize this didn’t just happen, but was caused by government-mandated shutdowns never seen before in the history of our country?
• Is it misguided to think that after proving you can be at least as productive from home as in the office that you will be allowed to continue to work from home several days a week even when the pandemic is completely over?
• Do people who report the total number of infections realize the number will never do anything but go up? The real numbers we should be looking at are the trends in new daily cases and the number of people with the virus active.
• Why has the primary focus of school become providing day care and lunch instead of teaching and learning?
• Is it wrong to want to scream when you see yet another article on what you can do to fill all the extra time you have when you actually have more, not less, work to accomplish because of the pandemic?
• If we have never developed a vaccine for things from the common cold to HIV, what makes us think we can develop a vaccine for this virus in a matter of months?
• What happens if we never develop a vaccine? Do the powers that be embrace the concept of herd immunity and if so, was the delay in obtaining that herd immunity worth it in the long run?
• I never realized how separate the supply chains for restaurants and grocery stores were; I figured the food all came into one place and then was split up, but it’s clear that it doesn’t work that way.
• Did you realize how much you can save by not paying for gas, entertainment and travel?
• Did you notice the definition of essential changed, maybe for the better?

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