Although we weren't sold on face masks in the beginning we've learned to accept them. To not only protect ourselves but to protect others.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey issued a mandatory face mask order for people in public. We see some with masks, we see others without. We know some stores won't let you in the door without a mask and others that don't care.
School bells for the Escambia County (Ala.) School System are still set to ring next Friday, they say we're playing high school and college football and everybody seems to think things are back to normal but they aren't.
Positive cases for COVID-19 and deaths from the virus continue to increase. We were all told by so-called experts months ago that when hot weather arrived it would kill the virus. If the heat we've had hasn't killed the virus by now, we don't follow that logic.
The one thing we do know is the virus is here and it appears it's here to stay for a while.
Politics has gotten into the middle of our dealing with the virus and that's always a bad thing. Our local officials are making tough decisions based on the best information they have available at the time.
It appears that reckless behavior by some has caused this pandemic to spike. Many people who get the virus never know they have it, but they can pass it along to someone else who has underlying health issues and if they get it they can die.
Do masks work? We don't know. Does washing your hands 20 times a day work? We don't know.
But we do know that doctors, not politicians, say those things work. We remain in unchartered territory with this virus. Anything we can do to protect ourselves, which in turn protects others is the only way to get this thing under control.
We'd love to see high school football and we'd love to see college football. That may depend on what we do as individuals to slow the virus down.
