MOUNT VERNON, Wash. — With the coronavirus quickly spreading in Washington state in early March, leaders of the Skagit Valley Chorale debated whether to go ahead with weekly rehearsal. Skagit County hadn’t reported any cases, schools and business remained open, and prohibitions on large gatherings had yet to be announced.
On March 6, Adam Burdick, the choir’s conductor, informed the 121 members in an email that amid the “stress and strain of concerns about the virus,” practice would proceed as scheduled at Mount Vernon Presbyterian Church.
“I’m planning on being there this Tuesday March 10, and hoping many of you will be, too,” he wrote.
Nearly three weeks later, 45 have been diagnosed with COVID-19 or ill with the symptoms, at least three have been hospitalized, and two are dead.
Sometimes, precautions just don't work. Even in the House of God. We've been here before, like in 1918:
Roughly 500 million people — or one-third of the world’s population — became infected with the virus, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which described it as an H1N1 virus with genes of avian origin. The virus caused at least 50 million deaths worldwide, about 675,000 in the United States.
Closer to home, the disease killed over 3,000 in Oregon, and an estimated 164 in Clatsop County, most within a four-month span.
Don't feed the birds - which are basically the only extant dinosaurs left on the planet.
They'll be fine.