By Wendy Sigmund
The open date for California was June 15, 2021. At that point, things could begin to return to normal or at least normal-ish. Restaurants and bars opened to a more full capacity, amusement parks were opening, and events were allowed to commence. Though events did not happen immediately because it takes a while to plan and get permits, they are here now. The question is are we ready?
The Santa Cruz Mountain Classic Car Show took place at the Historic Brookdale Lodge. The CZU Remembrance event was held there a couple of weeks later. The Scotts Valley Art and Wine Festival took place last weekend and brought very large crowds. All of this while California is at 68% vaccination. That number may grow due to the FDA approval of the Pfizer vaccine or it could stay the same because some people just don’t want vaccines.
The CDC says we are safe if we observe safety protocols. That is: use a mask, wash your hands and observe a social distance of 3 feet. (It used to be 6 feet.) Is that an accurate statement? Is that what we need to do to stop the spread of the virus or is it the vaccine or is it both?
Schools are open now and already there are 180,000 new COVID cases in the last week nationwide, according to the New York Times. Also, it is not yet the flu season which is when we witnessed such a spike last year.
These are just questions. They are not meant to make anyone upset and this writer and this paper will not presume to answer any of them. Can anyone, with any certainty, answer? This is all new territory, isn’t it? A living experiment in action.
The spread may not be the only issue. We saw what shutting down did to our kids whose mental health was affected by isolation from online learning. We also saw what the shutdown did to the economy. Many businesses shut down never to re-open. This led to increased poverty in our county and our country. The events happening in our mountains are complying with state and local regulations to provide safety measures for the population. These are business and fundraising endeavors that organizers were also greatly impacted by during the shutdown. The public seems to want events, the regulations are in place, and the businesses need to recover, so what is the answer?
One observation is that the conversation and the questions get shut down fairly quickly. Have you tried to look for these answers? If there is any information that is not a glowing review of the vaccine they get taken down from Facebook and YouTube. These are not the most trustworthy sources, however, they are a place where conversations can happen.
That is where the old-fashioned newspaper can play a role. They can’t shut down freedom of speech or freedom of the press like they can block topics on a social media platform. Knowing who the “they” are, is a step but not in the scope of this article.
So let us have a real conversation about if we are ready to open back up. Please send your letters and comments to scmbulletin@gmail.com or let’s do it the old-fashioned way. Mail a letter to 6265 Hwy 9 Felton CA 95018.
Stay safe!
Hi Wendy, this piece has some inaccuracies.
1) The CDC’s first recommendation to prevent COVID-19 is to get the vaccine.
2) The distance to keep from others is still 6 feet. I think you’re thinking of recommendations for school children when you mentioned 3 feet.
Here’s the link from the CDC.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/prevention.html
Take care,
Julia