Right now, the hot topic everywhere we go is: COVID-19. The global pandemic that is caused by the novel coronavirus, has infected almost every nation to varying degrees of severity.
Over the last few decades, there have been several health-related epidemics, such as HIV/AIDS, SARS, and the “Asian Flu”. However, for a health issue to elevate from an “epidemic” to a “pandemic”, is the difference from only a few countries being affected, to globally everyone being affected in some way (thanks Google!). The last true pandemic was the “Spanish Flu” that lasted roughly from 1918-1920, and there are very few people alive in the world today that also lived through that pandemic. So, it’s safe to say this time around, it’s a very new reality we’re living in.
The advice given by the top doctor in Canada is to stay at home, and practice social distancing (or physical distancing as per the WHO). Thankfully, most of the population have been abiding by these guidelines, however there will always be those that don’t “believe it’s a big deal” or don’t want to “compromise their freedom”.
I’ll admit, at first when most of the cases of COVID-19 were in China, I was skeptical about social distancing. It seemed to me that this was an overreaction for just a flu. I also thought it wouldn’t spread very far and only those who were elderly or with weak immune systems would have to worry. But as we all know now, that is not the case and anyone is at risk to become infected, it’s just the elderly and immuno-compromised people are at a GREATER RISK. Not only is COVID-19 highly infectious, but someone may have it and not even show any symptoms during the time period when they are the most infectious.
As silly as this may sound, I only felt that this was becoming a serious issue on the morning of March 12th, when the NBA announced that the remainder of the season would be postponed. Then the NHL and all the other major sports leagues around the world followed suit. It made me (and I’m sure many others) realize that this was a bigger issue than we first imagined. Then all the schools and daycares in Ontario announced that they will be closed for at least 3 weeks or more. I remember being at work and all the top managers were called into an emergency crisis team meeting. That particular day was my turning point, and I went from slightly skeptical to full-blown CONCERNED.
With countries like Italy, Spain, China and India and states like New York and California imposing lockdowns, I wondered whether Canada would follow suit. And as of right now, we are not there yet, however It’s quite scary to think about. How long would a lockdown be needed? How would the lockdown affect our daily lives? What would it mean to our future generations, having to grow up in a locked-up state?
This new reality is not something I could have predicted, but I think that one day, this too will pass and hopefully when that day comes, we can all practice kindness and compassion for one another and realize that we are all human, no one is above another.