2 Wednesday, April 8, 2020 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon O P I N I O N Editorial… Welcome to the new Stealthy, insidious virus stokes anxieties abnormal When an invisible, stealthy enemy invades, it9s only natural to want to know if there is danger close. Several people have contacted The Nugget asking whether there are con- firmed COVID-19 cases in Sisters. The answer isn9t very satisfying to them. While there are daily reports on confirmed COVID-19 cases in Deschutes County, medi- cal officials will not confirm the specific locality of those cases. If The Nugget were to confirm by other means the existence of COVID-19 cases locally, we would likely report on the fact 4 but not specifics of who or where. People can do strange things out of fear, and potentially stigmatizing those who have fallen ill will help no one. The important thing to recognize is that the specific locality of confirmed cases is actually not very important information. The reason Sisters Country is shut down, along with most of the rest of the world, is that people who have no symptoms at all can carry the virus. We don9t have the testing capability to iden- tify who is or isn9t sick, or who might be. That9s why we have to err on the side of caution, stay home and avoid contact with others. We know that COVID-19 is in Deschutes County. We can assume that the number of confirmed cases underreports the actual num- ber, because testing is limited. People who likely have the virus but are suffering only mild or moderate symptoms are recovering at home and are generally not being tested. We should assume that COVID-19 is present in our local community and protect ourselves and our neighbors accordingly 4 simply by staying home and maintaining physical dis- tance and hygiene protocols when required to go out. Recent guidelines indicate that wearing a cloth mask may provide some benefit. This is a time for calm, prudent precau- tions 4 and also concerted effort to prevent anxiety and fear from overtaking us. Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief Letters to the Editor… The Nugget welcomes contributions from its readers, which must include the writer9s name, address and phone number. Letters to the Editor is an open forum for the community and contains unsolicited opinions not necessarily shared by the Editor. The Nugget reserves the right to edit, omit, respond or ask for a response to letters submitted to the Editor. Letters should be no longer than 300 words. Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned. The deadline for all letters is 10 a.m. Monday. To the Editor: My mom has always been a strict propo- nent of hand washing. She should receive some sort of presidential Medal of Honor for her relentless efforts at cleanliness. She9s taken some flack through the years and even been teased about it on occasion. Even now when I9m home from a visit at her house my son will ask me if Granny K made me wash my hands when I got there. You do not under any circumstance get to be in her kitchen, much less touch anything without washing your hands first! In fact, visitors are mostly banned from her kitchen. When my sisters and I were growing up we had to wash our hands after everything. When we got home from school, from church, from playing outside or from a friend9s house, the first item of business was hand washing. And especially after using the bathroom or picking our nose or scratching ourselves in the yonder regions. My mom did not hesitate to ask our friends to go wash either when they came over to play. As soon as any meal was ready we had to wash before we could sit at the table. Now my grandkids balk at me when I tell them to wash their hands as soon as they step through my door. I guess we9re born lazy. But now we9re learning all the more the importance of hand washing. I think we9ve become a soci- ety of quick fixes. We want to rely on medi- cations and remedies to make us well rather then putting out the extra effort to combat it See LETTERS on page 18 Sisters Weather Forecast Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Monday Sunday Sunny Sunny Sunny Partly Cloudy Partly Cloudy Partly Cloudy 63/38 70/41 67/42 58/34 52/29 54/32 The Nugget Newspaper, LLC Website: www.nuggetnews.com 442 E. Main Ave., P.O. Box 698, Sisters, Oregon 97759 Tel: 541-549-9941 | Email: editor@nuggetnews.com Postmaster: Send address changes to The Nugget Newspaper, P.O. Box 698, Sisters, OR 97759. Third Class Postage Paid at Sisters, Oregon. Karen Keady Guest Columnist A friend and colleague pointed out that =Social Distancing= is much more difficult for extroverts than introverts. Makes sense. Sisters is a community of huggers. We don9t do the Euro thing of the double cheek buss (which always seems to be a little phony and unmeaningful); we hug. A lot. At first it sort of bothered me at social events, all of that hugging. I joined Kiwanis in 2011 and WOW! Talk about huggers! We9re great. So, now here we are, social distancing. I dislike the term,