So what's going on? It's not entirely clear. The San Francisco Department of Public Health hasn't issued any specific alerts about a novel respiratory strain, and COVID wastewater data hasn't shown a dramatic spike. But anecdotally, something is clearly circulating. Offices are half-empty (well, emptier than usual for a city that still hasn't figured out return-to-work). Friends are canceling plans. The guy at your local coffee shop sounds like he's auditioning for a tuberculosis documentary.

This is one of those moments where you'd love your local public health infrastructure to, you know, actually communicate with the public. San Francisco spends enormous sums on its health apparatus — the Department of Public Health's budget exceeds $3 billion annually — and yet when a noticeable wave of illness sweeps through the city, residents are left comparing symptoms with strangers on the internet rather than getting timely, useful information from the agencies their tax dollars fund.

We're not asking for pandemic-level hysteria. Nobody wants that again. But a simple public advisory — "Hey, there's a respiratory bug going around, here's what we're seeing, here's when to seek care" — would go a long way. That's basic government competence. That's the bare minimum return on a multi-billion-dollar investment.

In the meantime, wash your hands, stock up on DayQuil, and maybe don't share that communal office kombucha for a few weeks. Stay healthy out there, SF.