They kept saying it would happen, and they were right. The COVID-19 pandemic is surging like a giant tidal wave all over the United States. As other countries around the world are slowly returning to normal, the U.S.A. is Number One: exponentially more infections and more deaths than anywhere else. Other developed nations have banned travelers from the U.S. We're now an official plague nation.

But not here in Massachusetts, and certainly not in Winchendon. Formerly one of the top "hot spots" in the country, we've gotten COVID-19 under control here. Our reopening plan is progressing with no delays in its cautious timeline and no setbacks (so far). That is because (no "may be" about it) the vast majority of us follow the rules. We wear face masks. We practice social distancing. We wash our hands.

There is so much we don't know about this virus, including how many people have really been infected. We may never know. We have no idea what the baseline infection rate is. Even a new virus won't infect one hundred percent of the people exposed to it. Some of us have very nimble immune systems. Younger people's immune systems are stronger. Older people's immune systems are "more experienced," in a sense--they've reacted to many similar viruses for many years. There is evidence that having had common colds--caused by several different coronaviruses--may be conferring some resistance to COVID-19. It makes sense; centuries ago, both physicians and common folk noticed that the mild disease known as cowpox conferred immunity against the lethal disease of smallpox.

But no one can know in advance whether they will or will not contract COVID-19 if they're exposed to the virus. And just as with smallpox and other lethal diseases, we can't ignore the long-term, possibly permanent effects of COVID-19 on those who survive. Organ damage, brain damage, loss of taste and smell, debilitating fatigue, respiratory difficulty and other lasting side effects are reported by survivors, some of whom were sick for weeks or months. Even with 5 to 1 odds of not dying, you wouldn't play Russian Roulette (at least I hope not). Why would you take the same pointless risk with your own and others' health?

So we need to keep on doing the simple things we can so easily do in order to protect ourselves and those around us. Wear face coverings. Practice social distancing. Wash our hands. It's the right thing to do, and that's all the rationale we need. Civilization exists only because people voluntarily, even gladly, change their behavior for the benefit of everyone. If someone has to force or coerce you to be responsible, you're not civilized--in fact, you're not even a grown-up.

But what do we do about the people who refuse to behave responsibly? People who not only refuse to wear face masks, but taunt, threaten, assault and abuse those who do, and anyone (like a 17 year old ice cream stand employee) who asks them to put on a mask even for a few minutes?

No one has a right to abuse and assault others, and those who do need to suffer some serious consequences, especially when it's a public health matter. Until we have widespread immunity, we need everyone to wear a mask. You don't have a "right" to endanger others. This has been established by law and court cases over and over.

COVID-19 has been great news for the anti-vaxxer cult. People are divided on whether they'll get a COVID-19 vaccination when one becomes available. Those who say they won't have different reasons. One is valid: a vaccine rushed into production without years of extensive testing, from a for-profit pharmaceutical conglomerate hoping to make a fortune on it--that might well give us pause, based on historical examples of vaccines that had to be pulled off the market. We don't know what a vaccine will look like yet so that decision is still in the future for us.

But wild-eyed notions that everyone getting a vaccine will be "chipped" like your pet dog--this is tinfoil-hat paranoid delusion territory. Yet people seriously believe it! Which is definitely an argument for reopening the schools, and making formal logic, reasoning and critical thinking required subjects along with reading and math, for grades K through 12.

It took a Supreme Court decision, Jacobson v. Massachusetts in 1905, to make universal smallpox vaccinations mandatory. Now smallpox, one of the worst known scourges of humanity, is the only disease in history to be eliminated by science.

We'll get through this. We're doing okay here in Winchendon. But we need to keep on doing the right things, until the virus is well and truly done. Wear face coverings. Stay six feet apart. Be respectful and gracious about it, not immature and resentful. There's nothing "communist" about these precautions. Remember E Pluribus Unum? Coming together and caring for each other--that's the TRUE American Way.

Inanna Arthen