This Bus is Empty

My town opened park trails this week at April’s end. Come walk with me on this photo journey, no mask and no worries. Let me show you what the COVID-19 Stay Home, Stay Safe mandate looks like in Connecticut, less than an hour from New York City.

It had felt good to walk in the park, breathe in the cool morning air, take in the soft trails underfoot, and get out of the house. And, I hadn’t thought much about school until I left the trail.

The ghost fleet of buses were parked row on row, like tombstones of childhood.

The eerie silence, vacant halls, and shuttered doors of the Home of the Rams, the horns painted with verve at the top of the building, a symbol of youth and vigor.  A new track with no one allowed to run on it, the nets slouching to the court.

This sign posted at all entrances, a reminder that only trails are open and to keep your distance and wear a mask. I saw a dozen walkers on a damp Wednesday morning, most without masks and all kept their distance.

I entered Waveny Park from Lapham Road and walked the perimeter loop by the Merritt Parkway and South Ave.

The town’s High School is surrounded by the park and I followed the trail onto the side lot. Signs posted in the rear window of each bus.

For the Class of 2020:  In Waveny’s fields the lilies blow; And the buses sit, row on row…

Take up our quarrel with the foe, We’ve hung up our cleats, because it’s time to go.  And from helping hands we throw, A Wish for you to hold on high. Keep faith with us, though lilies grow in Waveny’s fields. (Inspired by John MacCrae’s poem, Flanders Fields)

April morning at the Home of the Rams, an empty lot

Closed doors by a tree in bloom

Nets down and courts empty

Gates locked and track vacant

Adult community center empty

Dog park is quiet and still

Latest Connecticut guidance on May 3, 2020 from portal.ct.gov

Key Points of Connecticut’s Executive Order

• • • Stay Safe, Stay Home – Mandated March 23, 2020
    • Schools are closed until May 20, unless otherwise modified.
    • Must wear face coverings when six-foot distance is not possible.
    • Gatherings no more than 5 people.
    • Everything is closed except food, grocers, essential employers.

Seniors of The Class of 2020 and all the students across the town and the country, the no-to-low-risk population, have been forced out of school and off college campuses, cloistered, imprisoned into cells.

**Experts fail to find a single case of children passing virus to adults, Royal Academy of Pediatrics,  The Sydney Morning Herald, April 30, 2020

**UN’s World Food Program reports up to 250 million people may be facing starvation from the economic impact of COVID-19, (Treat the Patient, Not the Virus by David Goldhill, author of Catastrophic Care)

Why no Lockdown for this flu season?

No lockdown for 80,000?

TheMicrobeScope – Chart of Deadliness vs Contagiousness

COVID in lower left (less deadly range) lower limit below 1%.  Incoming data continues to push fatality rate down and to the right as cases increase. COVID is not as deadly as SARS, MERS, Bird Flu, and Spanish Flu.

*This chart compares the fatality rate on vertical axis to contagiousness (R) on horizontal axis. Visit the site to view data with different variables. Sources CDC, WHO, CDRAP, Link to view charts and Data

* Viruses, Primary transmission method:  Airborne, Body Fluids, Bites, Fecal-oral, sexual