The Air We Share

It’s now known that — by far — the No. 1 cause of COVID transmission is the air we share.

So it makes perverted sense in this country of misplaced priorities that untested and “un-bubbled” athletes are being sent into close encounters with one another. . . breathing, shouting, heaving and grunting in each other’s faces.

The mantra of medical experts for avoiding the spread of COVID is: “avoid large gatherings and wear masks.”  What are sports competitions but large gatherings. . . of athletes, coaches and supporting staff. And, in many sports in many places, they are gathering and competing without face coverings.

These actions are NOT “data driven.” They defy the data and shun the science. They make the air we breathe laughing gas. . . or it would be if these matters weren’t so damn serious.

Meanwhile, the sky above my Midwest head turns from blue to silver to brown as smoke from western US wildfires drifts east. The sun — recently a tarnished burnt orange — disappears in a haze an hour before it reaches the horizon, as the West’s disaster becomes the Midwest’s discomfort.

And still, the not-so-distant cousins of COVID deniers — climate change deniers — blame the blazes on everything but the obvious, as if hallucinogens lace their smoke filled air.

JER