{"id":48296,"date":"2021-05-16T09:21:39","date_gmt":"2021-05-16T13:21:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=48296"},"modified":"2021-05-16T09:22:24","modified_gmt":"2021-05-16T13:22:24","slug":"were-winning-the-war-on-covd-but-we-havent-won-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=48296","title":{"rendered":"We’re winning the war on COVD \u2014 but we haven’t won yet"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, The Times<\/em> @mikemcgannpa<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The announcement that the Centers for Disease Control said that those of us who have been fully vaccinated may now pretty much do without masks everywhere but on public transportation and medical facilities means one thing:<\/p>\n

We\u2019re winning the war on COVID-19 \u2014 but we haven\u2019t won yet.<\/p>\n

And we may not win for quite some time.<\/p>\n

In places like Chester County \u2014 which has the highest rate of vaccination in Pennsylvania \u2014 it is possible that COVID will be all but extinguished by mid to late summer. Each week now, we see the number of cases and severe hospitalizations drop locally. We did the hard stuff: we closed when needed, we wore masks, we were careful and when the shots became available, we turned out in droves to get our vaccinations.<\/p>\n

While it might seem like common sense, there are parts of Pennsylvania where this is not true. As of this week, both the south-central portion and northwest portion of the commonwealth are still seeing increases in cases. One doesn\u2019t have to be a rocket scientist to guess these were the areas that first wouldn\u2019t wear masks and now don\u2019t want to get the vaccine.<\/p>\n

Those folks will have to live with the consequences of their decisions \u2014 and the histrionics of their local legislators who spent much of the last year acting like spoiled toddlers. As we become fully vaccinated it will be much less of an issue for the rest of us.<\/p>\n

Here in the southeast, most of our leaders were sober and careful and our residents did their best on the whole to follow the science.<\/p>\n

With so many having been lost and so many more having gotten sick \u2014 some of whom are still battling lingering symptoms \u2014 it feels difficult to take a victory lap.<\/p>\n

But yes, as a community, Chester County can and should take pride in how it responded.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For the more than half million residents of this county, it appears the worst is over in terms of COVID. Every day, life will get a bit more like normal. By the fall, it may feel very close to normal \u2014 with full school classrooms, people back in full restaurants and bustling business offices.<\/p>\n

Now, it is important to remind you: some stores and restaurants are still going to require masks for everyone. As private businesses, they get to make this judgment call. Don\u2019t be a jerk about it, wear your mask, be cool about it. Also, don\u2019t give other people crap for continuing to wear masks \u2014 they may be immunocompromised or just be acting with an abundance of caution (maybe they have someone vulnerable at home, or are just trying to set a good example for kids who still have to wear masks).<\/p>\n

Please understand how these businesses deal with this in the coming days and weeks is not going to be easy. I was speaking with the owner of a southern Chester County eatery who expressed hope for guidance and said he and his staff were taking a conservative approach \u2014 continuing to wear masks even while vaccinated for the time being.<\/p>\n

Even as I was out and about Saturday night in Kennett Square, I saw more masked people than unmasked, which I think speaks volume about the care and concern our county residents have taken in fighting this pandemic.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve done really well and are seeing the benefits. Let\u2019s keep compassion in our hearts, a bit of patience and we can do just as well in this final phase of the pandemic.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Chester Countians have every right to be proud, but job is not quite done, yet. Let\u2019s finish strong.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

If you are one of the few Chester County residents who did not vote by mail, I\u2019m going to remind you that everyone \u2014 including independent voters can vote on the four constitutional revision questions, Tuesday.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to focus on just two: the harebrained attempt by the legislature to subvert the power of the governor to call and maintain an emergency.<\/p>\n

These two referendums would make it much easier for the largely ineffective legislature to end emergency declarations \u2014 essentially for political reasons.<\/p>\n

Right now, as it stands, a 2\/3rd vote by both houses of the General Assembly can end an emergency declaration \u2014 a sound option for when a governor goes off the rails and one that requires the agreement of members in both parties.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But what legislative Republicans want is the option to end an emergency when the legislature goes off the rails, as happened in 2020, when too many GOP members acted like toddlers (and by the way, hurt both the businesses and people of their districts \u2014 see who still has growing COVID rates and who doesn\u2019t).<\/p>\n

In short, this is entirely unnecessary and would give power to a body that has shown it is only capable of using it to do harm.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Vote No on both.<\/p>\n

The other two referendums, one securing rights on the basis of race or ethnicity, the other allowing local fire departments and EMS to qualify for loans seem like an easy \u201cYes\u201d vote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times @mikemcgannpa The announcement that the Centers for Disease Control said that those of us who have been fully vaccinated may now pretty much do without masks everywhere but on public transportation and medical facilities means one thing: We\u2019re winning the war on COVID-19 \u2014 but we haven\u2019t won yet. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48295,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[29,12969,7426,13044,12856],"class_list":["post-48296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","tag-chester-county","tag-covid-18","tag-featured","tag-masks","tag-pandemic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48296"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48297,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48296\/revisions\/48297"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/48295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}