The situation today is that tremendous progress has been made in reducing the number of COVID-19 cases here in the United States. Most people attribute that to the surge in vaccinations that happened as soon as the vaccine(s) became available.
As I write this, we are at the start of the Memorial Day holiday weekend. People will be traveling and gathering in small and large groups. While I think the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s revision of mask policy was a flawed rollout of the change, there are still many people where I live wearing their masks indoors and some outdoors.
The question is, will coronavirus cases start to track upward this coming fall as people move back indoors and we have large gatherings of people for sporting events, in movie theaters, at schools, etc.?
If you think of the virus as being like the common cold and the flu in the manner in which it spreads, I think the answer has to be yes. It is an airborne disease that spreads in the air and there are other common illnesses that start to appear and spread similarly in the fall.
For me, I’ll target the end of October and beginning of November as the dates on the calendar to watch and see what happens. All the more reason to still get vaccinated if you have not already done so.
Eric Holdeman is a nationally known emergency manager. He has worked in emergency management at the federal, state and local government levels. Today he serves as the Director, Center for Regional Disaster Resilience (CRDR), which is part of the Pacific Northwest Economic Region (PNWER). The focus for his work there is engaging the public and private sectors to work collaboratively on issues of common interest, regionally and cross jurisdictionally.
