Marginalia

For the past two plus years, we have endured harrowing days and nights of a pandemic that keeps mutating into ever more contagious sub-variants that infect someone somewhere, wreaking havoc on our common life. So insidious is this particular coronavirus disease (COVID-19) that it cannot literally “die off”; instead, it incessantly perseveres in finding enough people to infect to ensure its survival until it can come roaring back in an epidemic or, God forbid, a pandemic of virulent respiratory illness. During the warmer temperature months, COVID-19 is less apt to infect enough people, who spend a great deal of time outdoors, to trigger a full-blown epidemic. But, during the colder temperature months, people spend more time indoors in poorlyventilated spaces, breathing in virus-laden air, and touching contaminated surfaces; hence, increased infections and continued social disruptions. Thankfully, given the newly advanced state of testing and treatment, most people now infected with COVID-19 will experience mild to moderate respiratory illness and recover without requiring an unexampled course of drugs. Some people, however, will become seriously ill and require intensive medical attention. Despite our social distancing, masking, quarantines, vaccines, and even lockdowns, inescapably, COVID-19 is a reality with which we must live, one hopes, in milder forms and with which we can cope. Meanwhile, our world has been turned upside down with