Dear Editor:

I don’t know about y’all but this is my first big pandemic/epidemic … (excluding SARS, MERS, Zika, ebola, seasonal flu) — which didn’t seem to make it up the river to our little community at the foot of the Absaroka Mountains.

What do I get at the store? What do I do if I get sick? How much toilet paper should I buy? Why is everyone freaking out?

All answers to all questions revolve around one word: Novel, meaning the virus is new.

Our public and private health systems don’t have a vaccination and our immune systems don’t have known antibodies. Some cultures and countries have more experience than others in dealing with contagion(s), but the U.S. has some catching up to do. So we’re calling an audible on this one.

Recently I was in an area with documented cases, and as I write this letter I am in self-isolation with my family so as not to be the jerk that gets everyone sick because they’re too important to follow what the experts say: Stay at home if possible. Flatten the curve.

Then again, maybe this is a nothing burger. Maybe all the liberals are colluding to make Trump look bad; maybe it’s a conservative conspiracy to suppress voters on election day. Both positions are possible but currently not probable, and at this point we need to concentrate on probability more than possibility.

It is possible that COVID-19 is overblown, but it is probable that older people will be proportionately more affected. It is possible we’ll be over this pandemic soon, but in the meantime it is probable that 100% of us are in the midst of weirdness with no clear end in sight.

As all of this is novel, we don’t have the complete playbook yet. But every day we all choose fact over opinion when understanding COVID-19, we’re closer. On isolation day 1 I took a picture of my wife, son (3), and daughter (5 months) with my phone. Before I sent the picture to grandma I noticed the smiles in the picture — the kids smile like they do at that age, but my wife’s smile was dampened a bit by the worry in her eyes. It’s a subtle look we can see in the people we love who are under duress.

Let’s keep that worry among us adults. Let’s focus that energy on understanding just where we stand in the midst of this curious event we call a novel coronavirus.

But all of this doesn’t describe the uneasy space we find ourselves in. I don’t know for sure (as this is my first pandemic!), but based on the chatter we are in a liminal space … the space between what was and what will be.

So buckle down folks, if you listen to the experts, YER gonna be just fine!

No, scratch that. Listen to the experts and we’ll smash the hell out of this little critter!

Be well,

Marko Ruble

Cody