By Peter R. Quinones

Last year when I first heard that the NBA was ending their season due to a virus commonly known as COVID-19 (CV19), I knew the world was about to change. And boy did it. Governors mandated lockdowns of certain businesses with no rhyme or reason, threatened people with State violence if they left their homes, and generally appeared to be enjoying their newly self-endowed power. However, there was one aspect of the CV19 hysteria I caught onto before most people. I knew that the average person on the street was going to somehow make the hype surrounding the bug all about them. And how right I was.

One of the first points of pride I saw people revel in was being able to stand six feet (curiously the depth we bury the dead) away from one another. When a client would come to see me, I watched them stand as far away from me as they possibly could while stretching their arm all the way out to hand me the appropriate forms I needed. When I grabbed the forms and had them properly secured in my hand, you would’ve thought they just handed me a baton in the 4 X 400 relay at the Olympics. It’s almost as if it started as a game but then people started to take it seriously.

Next up, of course, were the masks. I believe it was the first week in April when I was asked, very politely mind you, what I say if someone asks me why I don’t wear a mask. Even then my answer was, “well, if you’re wearing one why are you worried about me?” That answer sufficed until the God-Emperors of “Medicine” on TV decided that everyone needed to wear one. And as I’ve written before, if it’s on TV, and coming from the “experts,” it becomes Gospel truth.

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