VALLEY — to a record number of active positive COVID-19 cases in Franklin County. At least some of them have been traced to Thanksgiving gatherings, and the timing is also right when a spike was predicted to come from Thanksgiving meals. While there may be other ways the coronavirus spread, we hope this serves as a lesson to those who defied warnings by everyone from the governor to local public health workers to not have multi-household gatherings this holiday. Twenty-three people have died of the virus in Franklin and Essex counties so far; we hope and pray that count doesn’t rise. Please do your part: Wear a mask, social distance, avoid gatherings, and wash your hands frequently.

MOUNTAIN — While 23 is too many, we are thankful the virus is not even more of a killer. Most people who test positive recover fairly easily. Many, of course, are not so lucky, but it could be worse. Its killing rate is significantly higher than flu but not as bad as some diseases. If, someday, we face a pandemic as sneakily contagious as this coronavirus but with the killing power of Ebola, for example, we will be in much deeper trouble. If that happens, we will be grateful we had this practice — although we certainly aren’t glad about it now.

MOUNTAIN — to Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his administration making nursing homes the state’s top priority for vaccine distribution. While there is much scientists don’t know about the coronavirus, we know beyond doubt that it is most deadly in nursing homes. Twenty-one of the 23 COVID-19 deaths in Franklin and Essex counties were nursing home residents. For Cuomo, especially, nursing homes must be even more of a priority, to atone for a mistake his administration made early in the pandemic, when it ordered nursing homes to accept COVID-19 patients from hospitals in anticipation of a shortage of hospital beds. That shortage didn’t quite happen, but thousands of nursing home residents died. (The actual number is unknown because the Cuomo administration is still blocking the statistics’ release.) Again, this was an early mistake at a time when little was known, and it’s too easy to snipe from the sidelines at the elected leader “in the arena,” as President Theodore Roosevelt famously said. But still, it is right to make nursing homes first priority.

MOUNTAIN — to all the wonderful volunteers who help every local family have a happy holiday season. The North Elba Christmas Fund and Holiday Helpers are two longtime ways of getting food, clothes and toys gifts to less-fortunate families. Thank you all.