It’s hard to read braille with your fingers crossed,  but I find myself trying to do that these days as I read daily data updates showing the number of new confirmed and probable Coronavirus cases continuing to decline in our area and around Ohio. Fatalities and hospitalizations from the virus are on the decline too. Are the declines the result of vaccinations? Is the virus that triggered the 11-month long pandemic finally running out of people who can be easily infected? Are some people who think they have the virus failing to get tested because they  don’t want to have to deal with the restrictions they’d have to live with temporarily? Are the declines the result of those 3 and other factors? There’s no way to know but I know we all hope that the declining numbers will continue.  It’s obvious that unless that trend continues it will be some time before life will return to anything that looks and feels like normal. In the meantime, we can only collectively hold our breath and hope. That’s the way I see it.