Ruminating on the coronavirus

My thoughts when I began hearing about the Coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak were mixed.

When I began to hear all the hype about it I wondered how serious this might be.

What started happening in the latter part of last week was startling to say the least.

With everything that took place in such a short time span, it created some pandemonium.

One day last week, the Stock Market dropped 2,300 points, its worst day in three decades. The NCAA canceled not only March Madness, but all the winter and spring sports championships.

The NBA suspended play indefinitely. The PGA canceled tournaments for three weeks and the Masters Golf Tournament was also put on hold.

The Oklahoma Secondary School Athletic Association postponed indefinitely the state high school basketball tournament. That directly impacted two area teams, the Dale Lady Pirates and the Dale Pirates who were scheduled to start play last Thursday.

The list of cancellations, suspended and postponed activities just goes on and on. It’s almost endless.

I’ve heard lots of comments in recent days about why all the pandemonium and the panic. Some have even labeled it craziness, a pretty fair description.

Much of it seemingly be gan after the World Health Organization announced that the Coronavirus is now considered a pandemic.

President Trump went on national TV the same night trying to caution people not to panic. Didn’t seem people listened very closely because cancellations of many of the events I named started quickly, some of them immediately.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, I thought, did a nice job in one interview I saw of encouraging people to be cautious but emphasized there is no need to panic. He’s absolutely correct.

This situation doesn’t call for panic. It calls for common sense, calmness and being watchful. That doesn’t mean change everything we’re doing.

It may cause some to change plans, avoid large crowds. This could lead to people to alter some of their social activities temporarily.

The actions being taken by local, state and federal officials seems to be out of an abundance of caution. One person even mentioned to me that some of these cancellations may be due to organizations and entities wanting to avoid any legal actions that might be brought against them because a person or people were infected by the virus at one of these large gatherings.

That’s one aspect I hadn’t even considered but it makes sense.

I’m a Eucharistic minister at my church. When I showed up for Mass that Saturday evening I was advised no handshaking and no wine was being used until further notice.

That is wanting to be extremely careful and cautious.

I may not agree with everything that is being done, but I believe there is good reason for it. We have a long ways to go before we know more about this new virus.