52 Ancestors to 52 Weeks
Week 50
Prompt – Witness To History
Reflections on COVID-19 in 2020.
I have always shown an interest in
pandemics. In 2001, Gina Kolata wrote a book called; Flu: The
Story Of The Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and The Search For The
Virus That Caused It. She wrote a story of the great lengths
that were taken to find the virus that caused the 1918 Pandemic which
killed more people than both World Wars together. By the end of
writing her book they still had not discovered the pathogen of The
1918 Pandemic. However in 2005 that they were able to discover that
it was an H1N1 Virus.
Although there is no reason to believe
pandemics happen every 100 years, we have heard rumblings of being
prepared for the next pandemic because it was 100 years since the
last mother of all pandemics occurred. In fact I believe that 1957,
1968 and the H1N1 of 2009 were all considered pandemics. None the
less, exactly 100 years later the pandemic starts when a patient in
Wuhan reports symptoms of a pneumonia like illness in December, 2019.
This individual would be considered Patient Zero. By Dec 19; four
cases were reported in an Hubei hospital as "pneumonia like
illnesses of unknown etiology.” Sometime in February it was named
Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID 19).
Although the World Health Organization
(WHO) warned that it had pandemic potential in mid February; it
wasn't until March 11
th that COVID was announced as a
pandemic. Astonishingly that is 3 months after Patient Zero. The
wheels of bureaucracy seemed to move ever so slowly even though the
disease did not. By this time close to 1000 people succumbed to
COVID and Europe was becoming the epicenter of the pandemic.
On 13 March 2020, Tedros Adhanom
Ghebreyesus, the Director of World Health Organization initiates a
campaign urging everyone to wash their hands regularly for 40 seconds
to keep themselves safe and prevent the transmission of disease.
Droplet spread became the way of transmission and mask were advised
but not mandated at that time. It was determined that fomites, such
as door knobs and counters could harbor the virus. Thus began the
run and virtual disappearance of hand sanitizers and Lysol like
wipes. But let us not forget of the first hoarding incident before
hand sanitizers and wipes; the toilet paper hoarding for god knows
what reason. I think it is the most iconic symbol of the 2020
Pandemic.
Also in the beginning their was also a
shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). We scrambled for
face masks and gowns to protect our overworked nurses and doctors.
March 18th, Canada went into
lockdown. It was an emergency measure to keep people inside their
own home mandated by government. Canada shut down its businesses,
schools, public spaces, restricted travel, closed its borders,
cancelled sports and concerts. The world went quiet. Only essential
businesses stayed open such as gas stations, some stores and grocery
stores. The gas prices dropped but then none of us had to fill up our
cars because we were staying home.
This was the beginning of many videos,
advertisements, posters of what we could do to stay safe. At times
it was contradictory and confusing. We quickly learned that COVID 19
instructions were changing as we learned more about its transmission
mode such as droplet transmission, Its incubation time – the length
of time from getting the virus to symptoms – which is anywhere from
2 to 14 days depending on who you read.
Hand hygiene, self-isolation, elbow
bumps and social distancing (which changed to physical distancing)
were coined early in the pandemic as new words brought about by the
Pandemic. We handled physical distancing by painting lines at
entrance ways to buildings and marking lines distanced 2 meters apart
on floors. Also some stores took this one step further by painting
directional arrows in the aisles turning them into one way aisles.
But did anyone really see them?
Then there was "Flattening The Curve"
which was the Holy Grail. We were asked to increase our vigilance in
hopes of holding the virus at bay. We knew we couldn't stop it, but
if we could decrease the number of cases per day and spread the
number of infections over a longer period; we could give the medical
system a chance to keep up. Essentially allow the medical staff and
hospitals to work within capacity and not over.
We self monitored ourselves for any
symptoms of COVID 19. We didn't want to be the person referred to as
a superspreader. The occurrence of symptoms or close contact to
those diagnosed with COVID meant we would be tested. Of course that
meant long line ups at COVID testing sites. Besides the fact that
there was a shortage of tests around the world, it resolved itself
and testing continued. Now we were doing drive by testing. Who knew
how efficient drive through testing could be. I still marvel at the
fact that they can test 20,000 people in a day in Alberta. I can't
conceive of how that is accomplished. Waiting for the results varied
and because symptomatic and close contact individuals were to self
isolate, most had to stay at home losing their wages.
The financial impact was immediate.
Unemployment was a big thing. Government of Canada seemed to make
daily announcements of financial bailouts and relief strategies
regarding rent, loans and businesses. As would be expected the
financial world responded with falling stocks etc. Not only were the
people worried about getting COVID, but now they had to figure out
how to pay the rent or mortgages, pay the bills and eat.
The Canadian Government introduced CERB
or Canadian Emergency Response Benefit. It was for those individuals
whose finances were affected by the pandemic. There were so many
programs that I lost track. All I could think about was how are we
ever going to pay back all of this.
The first wave petered out as spring
turned to summer. It didn't go away but it was in a state of the
flattened curve. We were introduced to the concept of bubbles, that
is increasing your circle of close contacts. Visiting my in city
family became easier. Happily we could do a backyard get-together and of
course physically distancing making the social gathering a thing to
be savored and enjoyed as if we never got together before. My niece
and her husband hosted many a weekend evening in their backyard
around the fire pit. I liked to call the gatherings our fireside
chats. Thank you Cathy and Darren. It will be an awesome memory of
the COVID summer of 2020.
August 28, 2020 - Backyard Fireside Chats!
Summer gave way to back to school and
work. More people were indoors but supposedly with physical
distancing. The second wave hit us like a tsunami. The government tried not to cause financial hardship to businesses by gradually
adding restrictions to try to flatten the curve. At this point, the protesting Covidiots came out of the
woodwork demanding the restrictions be lifted. I can't even deal with them without getting mad!
Gradual shutdown didn't work. In
December our provincial closed schools for grade 7 to 12 and kids
returned to on line schooling. It is my opinion that the cutoff at
Grade 7 began because most were 12 years of age and legally allowed
to stay home without adult supervision. Thus it did not cause any
disruptions to their parents who continued to work without scrambling
to find daycare. If employees could work from home (WFH) they were
advised to do so. Restaurants, bars, gyms, spas and hair salons were
shut down once again. Churches and Retail stores were not shutdown,
but their customer numbers were restricted to 15% of their fire code
number allowed. Our gatherings were restricted to the household
only. All this and more was to go on for one month.
Christmas is cancelled. No not really,
but restricted to our own households. It will be a different
Christmas celebration for many people. But then since March, what
has been the same?
Return to normal is really not expected;
but a new normal is.
At the time of this writing, Calgary
has seen it's first Pfizer vaccinations given to health care
workers in ICU's. A glimmer of hope is seen. The roll out will
continue in some fashion of order determined by government. It is
predicted that it will take until September, 2021 to get Albertans
vaccinated.
COVID is not yet historical but one day
we will look back on the pandemic of 2020 as a time history was made
and the world changed because of it.
Wendy.
These are two of my favorite COVID Jokes:
The World Health Organization announced that
dogs cannot contract COVID-19. Dogs previously held in quarantine can
now be released. To be clear, WHO let the dogs out.
What do you call panic-buying of sausage and cheese in Germany? The wurst-kase scenario.
