Over the last couple of days, we have seen the Palm Desert Mayor push to open everything up again without much of a safety plan or any testing (or even the approval of her city) because, well, something about the deaths from and risk of coronavirus are just like that of a car crashes (except it’s not at all, and I can’t believe I have to say that to the elected leader of a city). Anyway, seeing as how the Mayor seems to be really into opening things up, I’m wondering, perhaps she can focus on opening just one thing up for now that I think many of us agree is beyond essential during the COVID-19 pandemic?
We have been lucky, up until today, as temps in the Coachella Valley have been much cooler than normal. But, if you have ventured away from your couch today to the actual outdoors, you may have noticed, it’s starting to get freakin’ unbearably hot again. And, with many people stretched right now for money and others without any ability to cool their homes and nowhere like a community pool, the mall, communities centers, or libraries to cool off and literally survive the heat, this seems like a huge issue.
Now I am not an expert on pandemics or viruses, so I won’t even begin to try to offer up theories or practices on how to make cooling centers happen during the age of the coronavirus and social distancing. But, I do know there are qualified people out there who do know these things and, if the Mayor can find some time between blogging and TV appearances, perhaps she can reach out to them and try to work on some kind of plan for those in her city and beyond?
We all hear a lot of people talk about how “the cure can’t be worse than the disease” these days and, unless I have missed something, that seems to have been more about trying to open up Applebee’s again and not so much about trying to keep alive and well those in Palm Desert and the Coachella Valley who do not have access to air-conditioning during the pandemic.
Perhaps I am wrong and the Mayor does have have a plan to reopen the cooling centers. Hey, that would be great news! Just so long as she shares it with everyone before it gets much hotter out, that would be great.
Because, at the end of the day, heat-related deaths are a lot like car crashes: Terrible and, in many cases, preventable.
