Frank and Theresa Dentremont had avoided contracting COVID by self-isolating in their cabin on Cedar Lake near Millinocket, Maine for the past four months. Theresa died of COVID two weeks after a wedding in East Millinocket, and Frank remains hospitalized, on oxygen.

The wedding, attended by 62 people, spread COVID to 123 people in a part of the state that was barely affected by the disease. Of the 228 cases recorded in the county, one-third were reported in the two weeks following the wedding.

The consequences have affected nearly every aspect of life: The Millinocket Regional Hospital has suspended all elective surgeries and postponed all appointments and procedures that can be safely pushed back. A local Elks lodge has closed and banks and credit unions have shut their lobbies. The Millinocket Town Hall is shuttered to the public. Even the schools have had to change their plans.

“How an intimate wedding in rural Maine led to the state’s largest COVID-19 outbreak,” by Hanna Krueger and Zoe Greenberg, The Boston Globe, 8/29/2020

To everyone who would say this is no different than a flu outbreak: Fuck you.

Fuck you if you believe COVID is like flu. It’s worse. That is a medical fact. Any grown adult human being should be able to understand the differences between influenza and COVID and to understand why a basic precaution like wearing a mask is not only helpful in preventing the spread of the disease but considerate of other people and a good example for others to follow. Any grown adult who can’t understand these simple things should hang their head forever in shame.

And fuck you if you think Theresa Dentremont probably would’ve died of flu because she was elderly or infirm or was close to death anyway for any reason. She was a person like you. She deserved your consideration, and her husband deserved to hold her hand on the front porch of their cabin until the end of their days, which should not have been decided by a careless idiot who went to a wedding with flu-like symptoms.

To everyone else: Sorry about all the f-bombs, but the delusional thinking I’ve seen in response to this pandemic has made me a tad bit testy.