The Kings County Memorial Hospital in Montague is one of two on the eastern side of the island. It’s normally open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., but now closes at 4 p.m. as the COVID-19 outbreak in the inpatient unit puts additional stress on hospital operations.
No, we needn’t cancel all the fun activities that involve large groups of people. But maybe we should give some thought to how those things work.
Would normalizing the use of decent masks help? Would it help to offer refunds to those who test positive or even just don’t feel well? Maybe there are ways to run them that doesn’t require people to be packed in like factory farmed chickens. Maybe there are ways to manage ventilation in a way that doesn’t move the air horizontally through facilities. Maybe there are ways to partition the crowd into smaller cohorts that don’t mingle with other cohorts.
I wouldn’t mind finding a way to attend some of these things without just accepting that I’m going to catch something every couple of times I go out.