March 12, 2020

The Start
COVID-19: Day 1

Last fall I read Stephen King’s The Stand. I read it while sick with a bad cold. Still it made an impression, and I liked the novel. While nowhere near as severe as King’s Captain Trips, COVID-19 is amping up its spread in the US.

This evening, we received a notice from MGA’s president that instruction will be halted for the next couple of weeks:

“ Based on the latest information, system leaders have made the decision that effective Monday, March 16, 2020, all University System of Georgia institutions will temporarily suspend instruction for two weeks to allow time for USG institutions to test their business continuity plans and online instruction modules and for state officials to continue to assess the current situation regarding coronavirus (COVID-19) in Georgia. ”

I’m not sure what a “business continuity plan” is, but I understand that this is a directive for me as faculty to get my classes online for the rest of the semester. No problem; I seem to have two weeks to make it so.

So far, Montessori is not closing, though Henry is on his three-week spring break. He was scheduled to go to camp, but I think we’re going to keep him home. Self-isolation seems to be the key here.

While Macon has had no reported cases of C19, I’m sure it’s only a matter of time. People are already starting to buy up all the toilet paper (this is not Ebola, folks). And, predictably, our federal government is more concerned with optics and the economy of rich people to really do anything. I’m not sure our state response has been much better.

Still, here we go. We knew it was likely to happen for a while, and here it is. Let’s see how resilient we really are.