The fall and winter months are looming with uncertainty, as the “second wave” of the COVID-19 pandemic seems to be approaching, and people are wondering if they have to undergo yet another lockdown.
Considering the deep impact of the lockdown this past spring, this is not something that anyone needs or wishes to see happen again.
The problem is, in the more populous provinces, a version of a lockdown has already been enacted, as the numbers of COVID infections has spiked high in both Quebec and Ontario, and there have been some high numbers in our neighbouring province of Alberta also.
Saskatchewan’s numbers remain among the lowest in Canada, but there have still been some new COVID cases being reported, with 48 added to the list on Monday. The number of recoveries has also been rising, but even this province is seeing the number of active cases on the rise.
Is it enough to kill our economy and to shut down yet more businesses and see more jobs lost? Can such drastic actions be justified, seeing the very real cost in human terms, from employment to mental health?
The hope is that health and government officials learned some lessons of what to do and not to do from the harsh lockdowns of this spring. There were many detrimental effects from that, with every family, business, organization and individual impacted in some way, and some impacts have caused irreparable damages that continue to this day.
The fear of COVID-19 has been blown up to the point that there is a near mass-hysteria in the public that is not helped by the recent reports of high numbers of infections in the eastern provinces.
There is a level of responsibility that each person needs to acknowledge, and we all know what we have to do. We need to monitor our own state of health, we need to wash our hands often, we need to be careful about our distance from people we don’t live with or who are outside of our “bubble” or sphere of influence, and we need to consider wearing a mask in those circumstances where we’re around other people outside of our bubble.
At this point in history, people have formed opinions about how real or how imminent the danger is from COVID-19, and whether they take the threat of the pandemic seriously or not. The bottom line is, everyone wants good health, and if they are in good health, they want that to continue.
For those people who have underlying health issues, like a compromised immune system or other health issues they are dealing with, the threat of a virus that can potentially kill you is a fearful thing. For most people, it is no more of a threat than the flu is — but we need to think about the vulnerable people in our lives and in the community, and adjust our lives accordingly.
