I have had bitter arguments with people who are terrified of covid, trying to state what you have said so perfectly in your essay. It seems to me those in the performing arts are among the most afraid of getting sick! And the most hateful to me, since I am one of them, when I try to point out that performing arts will be among the last things that will be allowed to resume. Small music clubs? Gone forever I fear. Community theaters? Gone too, or allowed to operate at 25% capacity, which will mean the end of them. One director defended a post that said musicals might be able to be staged again, as long as the actors don't sing!!! Song song song, essentially outlawed everywhere. And, as you say, at a time when we NEED our artists, our thinkers, our challengers, our lovers and our champions, the most.

I have lost nearly all of my friends by saying that the costs of these measures are too dear, our societal losses too heavy, and the illness not even one that is all that bad. You rightly contrast covid to the terror of AIDS, that brought out the best in so many of us. Covid may do the same yet.

Thank you.