So You Want Things To Get Back To Normal, Right?
I’m pretty sure everyone is getting tired of restrictions and COVID talk. There isn’t a single person out there that actually wants to wear a mask all the time, not be able to see friends/family, not go to events, etc.
But it’s been so infuriating reading and watching what’s happening in BC and Ontario, especially their inability to listen to science and history (both recent and from centuries ago) to curb the spread has led to thousands of people getting sick daily.
That increase in case counts means that we’re going to have these quasi-restrictions in place for longer. That means longer mask mandates, a longer time before you can go to a restaurant or do your favourite activity, a longer time period before you can go see loved ones, friends, and family, etc.
It also means more strain put on the hospital system which can cause people who need medical treatment for things like cancer, organ issues, heart attacks, etc., to miss out on crucial appointments to improve their life.
Additionally, as the case counts continue to increase, the longer it will take to bring them down once things get bad enough that we need to enter a full-on lockdown. That means the longer we wait to lockdown, the longer the lockdown will need to be in order to actually get case counts lower.
It’s incredibly frustrating seeing Atlantic Canada, Australia, and even the UK lately managing the pandemic effectively while BC and Ontario do nothing but performative actions to make it look like their doing something when they’re not.
Seriously, look at life in Australia right now. It’s practically back to normal and they’re averaging around 10 cases a day (most of which are people coming into the country). That’s because their government acted proactively. This involved locking down/shutting down non-essential things when community cases were increasing.
And yeah, it sucked in the short term for them, but long-term? They’ve been able to get back to a mostly normal life because they were able to get the case counts low and are proactive with aggressive, timely contact tracing notices because they aren’t overrun with cases. They have sporting events, theatre, etc., ongoing because of it.
Even if we look at the UK, where they had a terrible outbreak with a variant of COVID, they implemented a lockdown and, combined with vaccine deployment, are getting down to really low case numbers. They’ll be able to resume life normally sooner than we will because of these factors.
Being reactive to a virus, like BC and Ontario are doing, allows it to grow out of control. And when it grows out of control, that means we need things like mask mandates, restrictions, and non-essential closures to prevent people from dying and getting seriously ill.
And the longer you let the virus live, the more you let it spread, the more chances you give it to mutate. If we continue to let the virus spread and mutate, that means the longer we have to deal with things like restrictions, mask mandates, etc., and it makes it so that the vaccines, which are working extremely well right now against current strains, might not be as effective. That means that the pandemic will drag on for longer.
Really, what I’m trying to say here is that we all need to step up and do better. The government needs to step up and shutdown non-essential work, schools, and activities so we can get the spread down. They need to target essential workers with vaccines so they can continue to make sure we have things like food and water.
They need to implement paid sick days, so people who have symptoms or are in contact with someone who has them, can take the time off without risk of losing their house which will prevent the spread of COVID.
At the end of the day, the way life returns to normal is by us getting cases down to as close to zero as possible, keeping them low, and getting people vaccinated. The quicker we do this, the sooner we can get back to normal.
We are, in BC at least, around 2.5–3 months away from the majority of the population being vaccinated with vaccines that have been proven to be effective against preventing serious illness and research is starting to show that they’re effective at preventing the spread of COVID too. And once we’re vaccinated and the case counts are low enough, we’ll be able to get back to normal.
It’ll suck in the short-term, but a lockdown to get things back to a manageable level alongside our continued roll out of vaccines means that it’ll be quicker for us to get back to resuming life as it was pre-pandemic.
If we continue down the path of letting COVID breath and have life, it’s going to drag on for much, much longer. That’s something that both science and history have proven time and time again, and something that nobody wants.
PS: if you’re someone who thinks COVID isn’t real or it’s not that bad, go talk to people who have been affected by it. Go read about Jayson Tatum, a star NBA player who has to use an inhaler now to open up his lungs just so he can play basketball. Go read about how the Vancouver Canucks, who are all young, healthy, and physically fit individuals, got hit extremely hard with symptoms, including some players needing IVs. Better yet, listen to what hospital workers are saying, especially those that work in COVID units (and thank you to those who are).
It’s real. It sucks. I’ve been lucky enough to not get it yet, but have had close friends who unfortunately have gotten it and have been extremely sick. Some are still coughing harshly months after they’ve had it.
Anyways, stay safe and take care.
