COVID CONVOS — It’s Time To Wake Up And Smell The Virus

COVID Convos is a series of original columns conceptualized to give you something else to think about as we manage the coronavirus pandemic. Hopefully, they will provide you with a different perspective about an issue related to the crisis…or at the very least, a brief smile. Remember, with COVID-19: this too shall pass.

by Michael P Coleman

Early yesterday afternoon, I ventured out to my local grocery store for a weekly food grab. It had actually been a little over a week, as I’d delayed the junket as long as I could, in an effort to adhere to local and Centers For Disease Control guidelines. While I’ve fully embraced online shopping for non-edibles (much to the glee of Target and Amazon, I’m sure), I’ve not yet taken to ordering groceries online.

After yesterday’s trip to the market, that may well change, as I was stunned by the number of shoppers browsing aimlessly through the store, wearing absolutely no type of face covering.

I am decidedly not using the word “mask,” so as not to confuse the type of face covering that everyone should be wearing with the surgical and N95 masks that should be reserved for medical professionals.

I stopped counting at 30 people in that grocery store with no face covering at all, far outweighing the number of us who were wearing them.

Now, I’m an advocate for everyone doing their part to protect the community and halt the spread of the novel coronavirus, and I’m the first to state the obvious about the lack of leadership and definitive guidelines from our elected leaders. Just last week, our president suggested the injection or ingestion of cleansers to cure the virus, for the love of God.

But the need to socially distance — to remain at least six feet apart from each other in public — and the need to wear a face covering when in public settings where social distancing is challenging, is as clear as the big blue X’s on the floor at the post office, the pharmacy, and at my local grocery store.

I’ll tell you what else is clear: the novel coronavirus is ravaging the African American community and other communities of color. While hovering at about 13% of the overall population, blacks comprise one-third of coronavirus infections and over 40% of COVID-19 mortalities. That’s DEATHS, people. We as a people carry a plethora of pre-existing conditions — diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, etc — that leave us much more vulnerable to coronavirus. It’s up to us to protect ourselves.

Read MPC’s full column and call to action!