Summer vacation 2020?

Olga's homemade Salmon and potato Ukrainian Soup

When one of my staff asked me about whether we would take our regular summer vacation in August, I stared back in disbelief. After all we had been closed for almost three months and had only recently reopened. After my initial shock wore off I was able to give this question more serious consideration. Since our practice numbers were clearly down (30-40% below our normal numbers) we actually could take the last week in August off. Clearly all our patients could be seen in the first three weeks of that month since many of our patients were at least temporarily residing outside of the city and were not  keen about coming to our office for the time being.

After only a few minutes of this contemplation, I assembled my staff and suggested we could take a weeks vacation the last week in August.   After all, most of us are seeking a little normalcy in these uncertain time and a week summer vacation might be a good morale booster. Although this  would likely be a staycation for them, but my staff would welcome a short break. Since our reopening in the beginning of June, we have pulled together, made all the necessary changes to our protocols and are seeing patients four days per week.

We will reopen August 31 rst and may not have another break until the last week in December.  At the moment NYC's infectivity rate is less than one percent and New Yorkers have figured out how to wear their masks properly. Those who haven't or refuse  to are likely to already have been exposed to the virus and  have recovered .

I have stayed at home for my vacation, preparing delicious meals and streaming Netflix.  I have had ample time for contemplation about NYC and the pandemic and I have come to the conclusion that we may have achieved a form of herd immunity, since either people are maintaining social distancing and wearing masks or they have probably already contracted the virus, so effectively our risk for currently getting infected is lower than most parts of the country. If we can keep this up until a effective vaccine is tested and generally available, the worst may be over.

That being said, with the public schools contemplating re-opening and more businesses likely to be encouraging workers to return to their offices, this is not a forgone conclusion. The late fall usually brings an increase in influenza cases and the same may be true for the corona virus as colder weather arrives and people are more likely to stay inside with windows closed. No one really knows things will be like several months from now, but why not keep our fingers crossed and our masks on correctly.