11: Hidden Figures

In early March 2019 I sat at a conference table at the central office of my district for a weekly teaching and learning (T&L) meeting. District directors and I were hearing more and more about COVID-19, but people were still uncertain if we should be concerned. As the meeting began someone asked if we thought COVID was going to develop into something we needed to worry about. I said yes and, in unison, everyone else said no. My yes response was based on watching the news and seeing the massive death toll in Wuhan, China followed by cruise ships full of people who were getting sick from the virus and denied the ability to dock. However, a common narrative at the time was that COVID was just like the flu. A lot of people get sick from the flu every year and some even die. So it was settled for them, worrying about COVID would be deferred to a later time.