Taking the Pulse

Except that really, what we’re doing right now is taking temperatures.

This morning, I gave a group of Spanish high schoolers a wide berth as I made my way down Calle Princesa. Some of them were masked, but half of them were not. Probably a fourth of the unmasked ones were smoking, which in some regions of Spain has been banned in the streets, due to its efficacy at spreading COVID. Of course I stepped into the street to get around them. They may be young — but I am old. They were cooling their heels, jostling and scuffling, waiting to be zapped with the thermometer raygun wielded by the school administrator at the top of the stairs to the colegio.

Right on schedule, the temperatures in Madrid fell this week. It feels like fall. The question du jour is: Will we or won’t we? Meaning, will we or won’t we be locked up again?

The official answer seems to be no — the theory is that now that more is understood about the virus, responses can be more targeted.

And the only sane response to that can be — Ojalá.