Your Turn: The virus won’t take a spring break – SC Times

Daniel Whitlock, St. Cloud Published 8:12 a.m. CT March 19, 2021

Most colleges will have spring break sometime between March 9 and April 21.An annual migration of young women, resplendent like colorful butterflies with dazzling white orthodontic smiles, will migrate to the white sands of Florida and Texas. They will be followed, in pursuit, by young wannabe he-men with straight white teeth, well-groomed hair, over-built pecs and arms and booming voices. The rites of spring!

Undoubtedly the COVID-19 virus will hitchhike its way to the busy beaches of the South and is preparing to have its own unbridled hedonism, during and after spring break.

In this gravid environment, the virus is laying plans to develop variants of itself, in effect giving itself a genetic promotion so that it can spread easier and kill more people.

Daniel J. Whitlock(Photo: Submitted photo)

The virus never sleeps and will be an unplanned companion at spring break.Its always working, planning and taking whatever opportunity it can.Spring break, with its partying and invasive privilege, presents the ideal chance to invade, multiply and eventually spread itself to every community in the country, in a more dangerous mutated form, a variant." This environment is perfectly tuned, allowing this COVID-19 to take full advantage of a unique opportunity.

Fortunately for the revelers, their youth, absence of obesity, paucity of diseases like diabetes, hypertension and heart disease make them generally resistant to COVID-19 infection that results in serious hospitalization and death.Tens of thousands may become infected but will just suffer mild cold-like symptoms. Oh, to be young!

But the virus never sleeps.Its business is invading a persons cells, to steal the cells metabolic machinery and make copies of itself.When the cells of the lung die from this invasion, thousands of new baby COVID-19 viruses are released and expelled in breath, by vigorous young adultsin close contact.

Multiply this invasion of millions of individual cells with the thousands of viruses created in each cell. And then multiply that by the tens of thousands of beach revelers and you have a lot of virus running amok.

Because of the large number of viruses created, there is also the increased chance that a variant may be created. Viruses, and possibly a new variant, will be spread by celebrators, in bars, by kissing, shouting and being closer than the CDC suggests.Masks will not be a deterrent because most beach states are, irresponsibly, loosening their restrictions paving the way for the success of the virus. Spring break is nirvana for the virus.

The energetic young partiers on a beach are ripe to become super-spreaders of a new variant, to each other and to their communities once they return.They and the virus can generate variants and amplify the spread and aggressiveness of COVID-19.This is a potential disaster.

What Im describing is obviously a worst-case scenario. Its not highly probable but it is possible.And this is a legitimate warning.

However, we learn a lot from planning for the worst case, because it reveals weakness and vulnerabilities in a system vulnerabilities that may return to haunt us. For example, planning for a worst-case scenario in Texas, for a grid failure resulting from a snowstorm, might have saved many lives even though it was not a probable happening.

Plunging into a week of feeling good, especially in the context of yearlong lives of isolation, is understandable but dangerous.Spring break should make us all cautious, especially those of us with college and high school age kids who crave the southern beaches to let off steam.

The virus never sleeps or takes a break.Its always looking for an opportunity to improve its ability to spread and kill.

Daniel Whitlock retired from St. Cloud Hospital CentraCare after 16 years as its vice president for medical affairs. He has no current ties to CentraCare other than as a patient. He and his wife live in St. Cloud and have enduring ties to Quiet Oaks Hospice House.

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Your Turn: The virus won't take a spring break - SC Times