Mike Tarselli
Screaming stats into the ether.
I first heard about the pandemic as my organization prepared for a global meeting on the West Coast in January. I took my last flight of 2020 in February; masks were still uncommon and hand sanitizer was scarce. By March, cases were mounting in NYC and my home city of Boston. My mother and sister-in-law are both front-line healthcare providers - they were already re-using PPE and disrobing in the garage by early April, to avoid bringing the virus home.
Since the beginning of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, I’ve been checking public case counts, fatality rates, hospital capacities, and scouring public infographics to test accuracy. I post daily across my social networks about comparisons to past casualties (WWI, for example), projections based on current behaviors, and trying - TRYING - to communicate clearly and objectively how masks and hand washing can help. I haven’t been in a group larger than 8 since March 13, 2020. I haven’t been to gyms, museums, libraries, or schools since February. And I miss it all. I’m anxious, tired, and hope we can “turn the corner.” But through it all, I’m also resilient - I believe in our public health officials and other countries’ success at fighting this virus. So I continue to press on - masked and distanced - to tell everyone I can about how to remain steadfast and trust in scientists to get us out of this.