I’m thinking we’ll have an NFL season that starts on time.

Count me also as someone who believes baseball will have a season, too–just one that extends into November once it begins.

The surgeon general has even climbed onboard the optimist train, today predicting the nation’s coronavirus fatalities will be less than the 100,000 to 240,000 the White House task force issued a week ago.

Whether it’s justified or not, I’m glad we’re reading and hearing more good news from the media both online and in television reporting.

We can’t let up, though.

We have to keep our foot firmly on the accelerator pedal.

When a generational foe such as the coronavirus comes along, doing otherwise is tantamount to starting from scratch.

There is no vaccine.

Nor is there any other treatment that can reliably overturn severe cases.

Mitigation efforts are our best strategies.

Staying at home and practicing social distancing.

If you would have told me six months ago that maintaining at least six feet of distance between you and the next person would be the planet’s overall best chance at reducing the ravages of a super virus, I would have said no way.

But yes, way.

Like a bee that keeps buzzing even when it accidentally goes indoors, we must keep up our isolation measures and not let our guard down.

If we do, we stand to get hit in the mouth really hard.

Special thanks

Many people cannot practice social distancing as effectively as those who can remain at home and/or work from home. That’s because they are helping keep order, care for our sick and maintaining food, supply, and goods channels among other vital areas.

Our doctors and nurses treating COVID-19 patients deserve our thanks and appreciation for risking their own lives while they care for our loved ones.

Warehouse workers, distribution fulfillment center employees, truck drivers, and U.S. Postal Service workers put their health and well-being on the line each day so we can have food, products, packages, and mail delivered uninterruptedly.

Grocery store workers who could not have known their jobs would become dangerous when they signed on are also owed our thanks and gratitude for helping keep stores open and shelves stocked.

Our police,  firefighters and military personnel who already risk dangers each day are now deserving of our thanks more than ever as they contend with a lethal, faceless adversary that never sleeps.

The list of those we should thank is long and while I only mention a few groups above, I wanted to also say thank you to all the caretakers of the elderly who silently go about their duties yet deserve our thanks and recognition as much as anyone for their selfless, caring ways.

…

COVID-19 is all-consuming and as someone critical of the media’s sensationalism at the onset of this crisis, I’d now like to express some thanks to them for recently tamping that down a little bit.

Stirring people up unnecessarily rarely does anyone good.

Being objective, even-toned and presenting both sides of a story usually does.