Band Together

Last night I was basically in tears of stress thinking about the fact that I have band practice tonight. For the last few weeks, there's been a little unease, a little bit of joking every time someone coughed, but mostly business as usual. But the way things have been exploding this week, especially in our area, I feel like continuing to hold rehearsals and an eventual public concert in a few weeks is an irresponsible choice.

At rehearsals and concerts, up to 100 band members sit in relatively close quarters. In addition to regular coughing and sneezing, there is spit and drips and who knows what kind of bodily fluids flying through the air. The CDC recommends staying at least 3 feet apart to prevent the spread of the virus - and that's without considering spit valves! Many of our band members are elderly or immune compromised; many are teachers, with exposure to lots of students every day.

I've voiced my concerns, but as of now it seems the band is planning to continue holding weekly rehearsals in preparation for a public concert in a little over a month. In response to my suggestion to cancel rehearsals and postpone the concert I was told, "There are very few cases and I think it will be improving soon." Not sure where that data came from, as new cases are being discovered every day and increasing exponentially. Many of the cases in the state are from our local region, and with every new one you know there's at least a couple more coming...

Photo from a recent concert

I keep reading all these articles about missed chances in communities in the US - chances to test and take action sooner - and how more and more cases are being discovered that could have been avoided. Like look at all the people sick from that Biogen conference. They could have cancelled their event, but they thought there was still time. I don't want us to be responsible for something like that. I finally sent one last plea to our band board, and said that I would not be attending for the foreseeable future and hope to see them all on the other side of the curve. Hopefully they will reconsider. [Edit: Looks like their hand was forced - the school district where we hold practice and concerts is cancelling use of their facilities starting this weekend. So while they are still planning to rehearse tonight, they won't be able to go back for at least a month - but still planning to put on at least an abbreviated concert at this point 😕]

In other news, today:

• I went to the office for probably the last time for a while, and brought home my plants and a few other things from my desk
• The student business program I volunteer with placed a 2 week hiatus on meetings
• My alma matter became one of the many colleges to move to online-only classes
• My dentist's office sent out a message asking patients who are sick or have traveled to a high-risk area to reschedule appointments for 2-4 weeks out
• The World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared COVID-19 a pandemic
• I spoke to one of my colleagues from Wuhan, where they are looking at a hopeful end to their quarantine soon, and the last pop-up hospital there just closed due to the decrease in new cases 🙂