Baker: No End to Labor of Stopping Virus, No Quick Route to a Vaccine

The Labor Day weekend message from Gov. Charlie Baker was clear on Thursday: The work of containing COVID-19 continues.

iBerkshires .Com reports Baker used his now semi-daily encounters with the capital press corps to renew his call for vigilance around practices of hygiene, social distancing and face coverings that experts say will limit the spread of the novel coronavirus responsible for killing 8,800 Bay State residents and 185,000 Americans overall.

He also acknowledged that a life governed by those practices "stinks."

"We know that many of our residents are tired," said Revere Mayor Brian Arrigo, who joined Baker at the news conference. "They're tired of hearing from us. They're tired of restrictions and of the sacrifices that they continue to make to protect themselves and their loved ones.

"None of us were brought up anticipating that we would end up living a significant portion of our lives away from a lot of the people that we normally spend time with. I've said before, there is a group of about 10 people outside of work that represent the entire universe of people that I've spent time with and my wife has spent time with since March. The constant inability to hug people, to engage in any kind of traditional group gathering that we would normally do as a matter of course … is psychologically exhausting."