The debate about reopening was really all contained in a news story in The Mercury Friday.
Gov. Laura Kelly had announced that there would be a bit more delay before bars and nightclubs could reopen. Rather than Monday, Gov. Kelly’s new plan pegged that no earlier than June 1. She said that was because the rate of transmission of the virus hadn’t slowed enough.
That prompted the director of the Aggieville Business Association to complain at a local meeting, saying it could be “disastrous” for that business district. He might be right, of course.
But what would be most disastrous for Aggieville, and for Manhattan generally, would be if colleges are again forced to hold only online classes next fall. The disappearance of 20,000 students from our community — not to mention the tens of thousands of other fans who show up here on football Saturdays — is what we need to most try to avoid.
Which is why Linda Cook, the chief of staff and director of community relations at Kansas State University, said at the same meeting, “We’re just as anxious to get things open also, but we don’t want a setback that could actually cripple us even more later on.”
In other words, go slower now so that we can go bigger later.
We understand and empathize with local businesses that are itching to open. This weekend would have been graduation, a boom time here. Businesses missed the entire spring season — well, most businesses. Not all. But our point is that we get it. People want to get back to work.
Will further delay be disastrous for Aggieville? Only time will tell.
What matters most for our community is what the situation will be by the middle of August. If a little more delay now can help that, then that’s what’s in our best interest.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the federal government’s top expert on the virus, was skeptical this past week about opening colleges in the fall. He said it was unlikely that there would be a vaccine, and so re-opening would depend on widespread testing, among other things.
In other words, the best thing for Aggieville — and for Manhattan — has everything to do with science, and support from the federal government for that science.
Meanwhile, all we can do here is to keep trying the best we can to keep from getting each other sick — both because that is the right thing to do and because it signals to decision-makers that we’re really capable of containing the pandemic.
It’s clear we’re making progress. That’s good. Hopefully, that progress will be enough to really make a difference next fall.
