If it hadn’t caused the pandemic the novel coronavirus would merely be an entry in scientific journals. Its properties would be listed, including the potential rate at which it could spread and estimates as to the damage it could do. Scientists, doctors and few others would be aware of it. But the coronavirus IS responsible for a pandemic, the likes of which haven’t been seen in more than a century.
In other words, if it hadn’t affected millions of people in so many different ways, we’d probably never even know about it. But it did, and we do. We know that over 274,000 Americans have died from the virus; Over 6,5000 of those deaths have been Louisianians. They were somebody’s family member, friend or neighbor. Those are numbers, statistics that speak nothing to who each person was or what they were like.
Similarly, we know the tourism and restaurant industries has been devastated by the pandemic. We see more numbers and more statistics about restaurants, hotels and unemployment claims, but that tells us nothing about the specific restaurants and people behind those numbers.
That came up during my conversation with Tommy Cvitanovich this morning. Tommy’s a long-time friend and the father of the char-broiled oyster. I was talking about how much he and his family did for the community although few people know about it. I’d barely spoken the words when Tommy interrupted to remind me it wasn’t about him but so many others in the industry, businesses big and small, who were always there for this or that charitable fundraiser. Those of you who’ve been involved in planning such events know how true those words are.
Please take a few minutes to listen to the son of the late Drago Cvitanovich and his thoughts on the pandemic’s effect on his industry. He also had some things to say about the cooperation between the public health and business sectors in the area that I found very interesting. I think you will too.
