Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Come and listen to a story ‘bout a virus named Covid

Poor little germ barely had a hold on his caverns

Then one day when headed for bat pie

He saw a man there and jumped into his eye.

Good livin’. Virus paradise. Let’s multiply.

Well the next thing you know, Wuhan is in his hands

Then he travels over China, then on to other lands

He crosses mountains, oceans, everything you see

Scares people and governments, everywhere he be.

Here, that is. Pickup trucks. No TP.

Well now Covid would like to thank you folks, for never staying home

If you had done it from the beginning, he might be dead and gone

You’re all invited back again, to Covid’s big par-tee

And have a heaping helping, of his constant misery.

Pandemic. That’s what they call him now.

Bad virus. Go away and don’t come back, ya hear?

Just trying to add a few smiles into a situation that deserves no smiles. The virus is here. It’s real. People are getting sick. People are dying. And we’re the only ones who can stop it.

Don’t worry about which neighbor or friend or co-worker may have the virus. It’s here. They didn’t want to get it. Most have no idea where they got it.

Pretend that you suspect everyone you meet has the virus. Chances are they don’t, but there’s also a chance they are carrying the virus and have no idea.  It could be your eye the virus is targeting. Better safe than sorry.

It’s best to do what Davie Health Director Suzanne Wright has been touting all along. Stay home if at all possible (I saw a sign on I-40 over the weekend that said “Stay Home.” Shouldn’t it have said “Go Home, And Stay.”? Wash your hands. Often. Use hand sanitizer. Often. Stay six feet away from everyone other than those in your immediate household. Always.

And if you feel sick, quarantine yourself in your own home. If you think you’ve got COVID-19, don’t rush to the hospital, get out and march into the emergency room. Call first. Learn where to go. Learn what to do. If in a house with multiple people, have one caregiver for the sick person.

It’s basically common sense, folks. Don’t wait for our government to tell us what to do. It seems that even the states like North Carolina that are taking drastic measures to stop the spread of the virus are at least two weeks behind in doing so. We know how the virus is transmitted, so why can’t we stop it?

We’re a dollar short and a day late, as the saying goes.

We’re so focused on making a living that it takes priority over everything else, and rightly so. Without a job, where would we live? Without a job, how would we pay for food? Without a job, how would we buy clothes for our children? The list goes on. And most of us are so worried because it wouldn’t take a lack of too many paychecks before each of us is in a bad economic situation.

That’s understandable. It’s also understandable that we’ve had it so good for so long, that we feel immune to things such as a pandemic virus. We’re not. It can rob us of our health or life. It can ruin our economy.

But only if we let it.

Stay home. Take precautions when going out.

– Mike Barnhardt