Risky business

For whatever it’s worth, here’s how the TMA assesses our activities

The key words here are in the deck above “for whatever it’s worth.” This is a list put out by the Texas Medical Association (TMA) attempting to assess our chances of catching you-know-what from specific activities.

How anyone would prove any of it is up for debate. Also, this appears to be a “one size fits all” list for a very big, very diverse state.

For instance, we take very great exception to placing “going to a hair salon or barber shop” at Risk Level Seven. Getting snipped or styled is a far different experience in Rockdale than Dallas.

Also take note how different an “office building” (Risk Level Six) or a buffet (Risk Level Eight) is in Rockdale compared to Houston or Austin.

Not many religious services around here with crowds of 500 or more either (Risk Level Nine).

And “going to a bar,” (Risk Level Nine) conjures up an image of partying on Sixth Street in Austin, not quite the same thing as Saturday night in Rockdale.

So, take this compilation with a grain of salt (Risk Level Something for Something you can bet.)

Still, this list is interesting as an attempt to quantify just how our daily activities might affect our chances of coming down with COVID-19, or any other community spread disease for that matter—M.B.