This. It is increasingly clear that the uptick began with people coming back from camp with COVID, and them or family members subsequently attending weddings and other simchos.
Now it looks like it’s making its way through schools, shuls, and everything in between.
Is it time yet for a frank conversation about whether we are our own worst enemy?
They shut down NY-NJ sleepaway camps, so we sent our kids to camps which were being held in other states, and now we are hearing stories of community spread due to kids bringing it back from camp.
They asked us to limit the number of attendees at weddings and while some halls played by the rules and limited the number of guests, others brought in massive tents and hosted weddings of more than 3x the limit, or claimed that the weddings were in separate rooms (or just covered their windows).
I admit I sent one of my kids to camp, although I rationalized that since my son had COVID in March, tested positive for antibodies and donated antibodies, it was safe to send him. When he came back he took a test again (which BH was negative) before leaving for Yeshiva in Israel, so I was not personally impacted, but clearly other were.
Same for weddings - my Aishes Chayil and I went to two weddings in August and while we wore masks (other than eating at a separate table) many people at the weddings, especially the friends of chosson and kallah at a large "tent wedding" in NJ did not.
While the state restrictions on the size of a simcha and the refusal to allow sleep away camps to open seemed onerous and burdensome, I have to wonder if there would not be a spread such as it is now if people had just followed the rules.