I must give you an honest assessment of the numbers we have seen locally, state-wide and nationally on coronavirus infections and deaths – they are downright scary.   I won’t go over the numbers again here, I write about local stats about once a week.

That is not the point of this commentary.  I want us all to think about the people that work long, hard hours every work day to deal with this COVID crisis.  There are nurses, doctors and all the support staff doing everything possible to treat those contracting this virus.  There are people working in essential industries, such as grocery stores, putting food on the shelves and checking us out.

Nursing homes have been generally hard-hit with this virus, so let’s think about the staff and residents of those facilities.  There are also the families unable to visit the sick in the hospital or their relatives residing in a long-term care facility.

We have first responders in the police and fire departments that risk infection just in performing their everyday duties.  They take all possible precautions, but there are still risks they must take.

We have professionals throughout the Fishers community toiling in the fight against coronavirus.  I want to recognize someone that may surprise many of you and may be controversial in some circles, but I believe Fishers Mayor Scott Fadness deserves much credit.

Why?  Because he saw an immediate threat to the health, safety and economy of his city and acted quickly to do what the mayor believes to be the right thing to do.

When COVID was raging around us, Mayor Fadness knew the availability of testing would be key.  Because many people are asymptomatic, yet can transmit the virus to others when infected, testing would be a key component of preserving the health of Fishers residents.

After checking what was going on at the state and county level, he found no plan to quickly ramp-up a COVID testing program.  The only way for Fishers to establish a testing program was to create its own city health department.

That was a controversial move and the mayor was the recipient of many political attacks as a result.  Social media was mostly not kind to Scott Fadness on his decision to create the Fishers Health Department.  But he did it anyway.

As a result, more than 20,000 tests have been conducted on people with Fishers addresses.  Businesses paid a fee to have their employees tests, but all other tests were free of charge.  The city has saved citizens tested through the Fishers Health Department $2.5 million.  Some of that money has been reimbursed by the federal government, but when the testing program was ramped-up, there was no guarantee that would happen.

Creating a new city agency like a health department is a big decision and should be the focus of public debate.  But it has provided a way for people living in Fishers to know whether they are coronavirus positive.

Scott Fadness clearly understood that creating the city health department would provide his political enemies with fodder, but he didn’t care then and doesn’t care now.  He firmly believes in taking action to better the health of the citizens and businesses in this city.

Has the establishment of the Fishers Health Department gone totally smoothly?  Of course not, but putting something like this together on short notice will have ups and downs along the way.  We may not know the final verdict on this decision for a while, but for now the numbers speak for themselves.

The mayor and I have not always agreed on everything but my view is that he was willing to take a big risk to better the health of those living in Fishers, so I must give him credit for that.  Plus, a personal admission here…I am not totally objective on this subject.

I contracted the novel coronavirus in late October, with flu-like symptoms of fever, chest congestion and severe chills.  A test recommended by my physician revealed I was positive.

I have read many accounts, many by other journalists, detailing their personal experience with COVID.  All vary some, as did mine.

Once the flu symptoms went away, something much scarier happened.  The virus sucked all the energy from my body.  All I could do was sit in a chair all day long, falling asleep often and still sleeping all night.  I could also sense a lot of congestion in my upper respiratory system.

That was the point that concerned me.  I knew some people recovered, but others took a turn for the worse and could not breath properly.  I knew that at my age with an underlying health condition I was at very high risk of dying.

But I was one of the very lucky ones.  I still do not know what, if any, long-term health issues are possible but as of now, I am fully recovered.  I wake up every day and thank God for giving one more day on this earth.

Perhaps that’s why I admire Scott Fadness for taking the political risks of creating a health department and doing the best he could to help and protect the people residing in the City of Fishers.

But here is what all of us need to begin thinking about now.  Vaccines are being administered and will continue to roll-out over the coming months.  We do not know when, but there is going to be a time, how many months from now we do not know, but there will be a time when we can all congregate again.

When this happens, I would hope every resident of Fishers will pitch-in and have the biggest celebration this city has ever experienced.  We can recognize and bestow honor on the many people on the front lines dealing with COVID.   Also, we can all just celebrate the fact we can now have a party, invite everyone without fear of a pandemic.

Look, the numbers show we are still in a dark place as of this moment, and I strongly encourage everyone to follow the advice of public health experts….wear the mask, social distance and keep social gatherings small and distanced.  We need to do that for a while longer.

But also think about how to celebrate the end.  It is a good thought we can bound around in our minds when we begin to see the end of all this.