Now a few of my observations on the COVID-19 pandemic. It goes without saying that the pandemic has caused a lot of changes in our society affecting a lot of people. Some of these changes are good but with others, only time will tell.

While working from home was common for a few occupations, it now includes persons in many fields for whom going to work once meant a commute. In my own family my eldest son who works for a Buffalo insurance company has not been to his office since mid-March and “might” go back in September. He likes working at home and doesn’t miss the nearly weekly flights to New York he used to make before the pandemic and he gets to play with his four-year-old son. His wife who is an attorney for a Buffalo hospital only spends a day or two in her office and the rest working from home where even when she is working, she is still available to the kids.

My younger son who works for an international company providing temporary offices and related services has also been working from home since March. Prior to the pandemic he was vice president for operations in New England, New York City and the surrounding area. In that position he traveled a lot but now as a sort “Global Troubleshooter.” He works from home and likes it.

Just a few months ago Zoom Video Communications Inc.. which provides teleconferencing and online chat services. was not well known to the general public. Now just about everyone knows that Zoom has nothing to do with “zooming through the sky” but everything to do with connecting people.

I have never used Zoom but a few months ago I did have a video appointment with one of my doctors. He was on his laptop computer and I was on my smart phone which I had perched on a stack of books on a tray table aimed at my chair in our living room. One slip and the doctor would have had a clear picture of the ceiling. It was interesting and, not unlike a regular office call except that he couldn’t pull out his stethoscope to listen to my heart and lungs and I had to take my own blood pressure and weigh myself. I guess my contributions to the visit didn’t count for much because the co-pay was the same.

The best thing about being retired is that in many ways pandemics, or at least this one, don’t alter your life all that much. Except for avoiding catching the virus life goes on.

My wife and I wear masks when we go out, avoid crowds and are careful in following social distancing guidelines. But we probably view the current pandemic differently than members of younger generations but not because we are in a “high risk” age group.

Being born at the end of World War II our view of disease was conditioned by growing up in time when getting childhood diseases was a rite of passage. Everyone got the chicken pox, rubella or German measles, mumps and regular measles.You couldn’t avoid them. Now vaccines have freed subsequent generations from that rite of passage and the complications that sometimes arose.

A serious childhood disease at the time was Polio. Not every child got it but those that did often faced paralysis, severe handicaps, long term confinement to an “Iron Lung” that assisted with breathing, and sometimes death. Summertime was a nervous time for our parents because that was when most cases occurred. When the Salk vaccine proved effective and safe in the mid 1950s a sigh of relief came from our parents.

Besides facing childhood diseases, my generation lived through both the Asian Flu Pandemic of 1957-58 and the Hong Kong Flu Pandemic of 1968.

Reflecting back on those pandemics neither my wife, myself, members of our families or friends seemed to realize that we were in the midst of a serious pandemic in those calmer days before cable news, with its insatiable hunger for the next big story came on the scene along with the development of the 24/7 news cycle. The stock market fell in those pandemics but schools, stores, businesses, and restaurants stayed open and few events were canceled. Life went on with few hiccups.

This time, in a world where we are constantly warned of things that could kill us or destroy civilization, did our leaders, the medical community and the public overreact to COVID-19? That’s something we probably won’t know for a number of years but when we do find out we should remember those lessons.

Finally, for me among all the political cartoons I’ve seen during the pandemic, the one that resonates with me is the picture of a doctor dressed in a white coat who says, “Calm down, we’re only doing fascism until we get a vaccine”

I find it chilling that so many Americans relinquished, without question, rights guaranteed in the Constitution because a governor or local official issued an edict that was unconstitutional. Remember that the Bill of Rights is meant to protect the rights of the individual against the overreach of government power.

Thomas Kirkpatrick Sr. is a Silver Creek resident. Send comments to editorial@observertoday.com