Biosecurity

Today’s A1 Verse: Disney World and the coronavirus

By Thomas Gaulkin, July 13, 2020

Every so often, a story in the New York Times is so well written, meaningful, and appropriate to the Bulletin‘s concerns that small snippets of it, properly chosen and arranged, produce something more than journalism, something that approaches … poetry. That blessed coincidence occurred today, July 13, 2020.

We suspect it’ll occur again.

***

Disney World Opens Its Gates, With Virus Numbers Rising
(From the original by Brooks Barnes)

The Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique,
a Magic Kingdom hair salon,
closed.

Buzz Lightyear only from a distance,
parades and fireworks,
scratched.

15,000 new infections,
masks in the scorching Florida heat,
Disney World, tossing confetti again.

The Magic Kingdom,
the Animal Kingdom,
temperature-checked visitors.

Leaving your troubles behind,
a sunny outlook,
a breathtaking effort.

As the coronavirus crisis shows, we need science now more than ever.

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