I think it’s wise of Jerry Scott to incorporate some reality into Baby Blues. This is a strip about parents and young children. The state of the world – school shootings, pandemics, etc – are elements that affect parents and their kids. Scott already has another (wonderful) comic strip that doesn’t reflect reality – so why not use this other platform to explore it? Plus, we don’t know that this is purely Scott’s decision – as much as Scott does the writing, it’s likely a joint agreement between him and Kirkman.
The only downside to the reality is that it kinda takes away from the passage of time in BB being 1/3 of real life. The pandemic, for example, sets things in 2020 and beyond. Thirty years since the strip began and Zoe is only 10… suggesting she should have been born in 2010 or thereabouts.
It was new up until last Sunday, Jan 15. The creators are possibly taking a holiday. Hopefully it’s not any sort of personal emergency.