Indianapolis Star, November 2020
Wear your blank, watch your blank, and blank your blanks. At this stage of the pandemic, does anyone need help filling in the blanks of the simple steps we all can take to curb the spread of the coronavirus? And yet, it appears enough of us just aren’t taking them.
As coronavirus cases have soared, Gov. Eric Holcomb and state and local health officials have repeatedly implored Hoosiers to adopt these basic public health practices, along with avoiding large public gatherings and staying home if you feel ill.
One need only look at coronavirus numbers to see the message may still not be getting through to many. Since the start of October, the number of people in Indiana infected has soared from below 15,000 to more than 70,000, according to the Regenstrief Institute, an Indianapolis research organization. Nearly twice as many people are hospitalized for COVID treatment today in the state’s hospitals as were hospitalized during the peak in the spring.
On Wednesday Holcomb invited three Indiana hospital executives to appear at his weekly coronavirus press briefing and issue their own plea to the public to, yes, do all those things — wear masks, watch distances, and wash hands. Public health experts say they are not surprised that despite repeated pleas to people to do the right thing, too many people just, well, don’t.
