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).
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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