Dear Neighbors,
As the Labor Day holiday approaches, many of us have "COVID fatigue" - being tired of taking coronavirus precautions.
According to John Hopkins' University Medicine psychologist Carisa Parish:
"You can add extra steps to your routine for a few days, but sustained behavior change is hard. Especially when no one around you is sick, and you just don’t feel like wearing a mask or saying no to things you like to do. But the fact is, the precautions work.”
Additionally, Dr. Parish says, “Unfortunately, some people get a bit of a thrill from doing something risky and escaping consequences.”
According to the Chicago Department of Health, the greatest source of infections right now are family and friend get togethers without face coverings.
“This is the sort of thing that we are regularly seeing, where people are getting together with friends and with families and with neighbors and with extended families," according to Dr. Alison Arwady, our Commissioner of Public Health.
Block Club has reported about a
pool party was held in Chicago in August
"It attracted mostly high school students, including students from four schools.
Within four days of the party, people began testing positive for coronavirus. Within 10 days, 13 people from the party were positive, with an average age of 17.5 years old.
Some of those people are believed to have spread the virus to others, including school teammates, people in their car pools and, in one case, to a brother."
We know that Labor Day weekend is a time for fun and good times. But please don't let your party be the reason other kids can't go to school, or our stores or restaurants shut down, or God forbid, someone gets seriously ill.
I know that our Ward can be a very caring community. Let's all pitch in and wear a mask.
