Thomas J. Madden, Chairman and CEO, Transmedia Group

These strange, unsettling days I don’t know if I’m in public relations or pandemic relations at TransMedia Group, the firm I started back in the days when you caught something, most likely it was a cold.

How unnervingly different and dangerous today.

Take the other day when one of our bright, young college interns tells us he’s worried about coming down with COVID-19 as one of his fraternity brothers was not feeling well, so he had himself tested and it turned out positive.

This was a fraternity buddy our intern hung out with and partied with at their college nearby our office.  Now Frank was afraid and going for a test himself.  

Yes, for those of us running businesses during these sometimes scary, paralyzing pandemic times, we’re continually facing tense and awkward situations.  

Occasionally dilemmas. 

One of them is having to tell people who came to your office for a meeting that one of the people in the meeting just informed us that one of his fraternity buddies tested positive for the virus.  

Now worried about himself, our intern told us he’s going to have himself tested.   And we’ll let you know the test results soon as we know ourselves. 

Now fortunately we’re able to report that great news that Frank tested negative for COVID-19!

Since he was nervous about catching COVID from his fraternity brother, Frank had a rapid test done on himself right away and thankfully it came back negative.

The jury is still only half out, however, as he's still going for the more thorough CDC test at his college, but that first result sure was a good sign!  

And it gave us all some relief.   And hope! 

Now please, PLEASE HURRY UP with that vaccine so we can work without these dreadful distractions! 

Let’s not make this race for a vaccine a political football.  Yes, let’s be careful and scientific, but let’s also be quick as not only businesses, jobs and our economy is at stake, but people’s lives!  

Do it for Frank.