I friend and I were DMing on instagram today about the amount of people who we know who are flouting the rules set out by our health authorities to keep everyone safe and healthy during the pandemic.

She was wondering at what point do you CALL IN your loved ones or people you know for their behaviour and try to help them understand why, at this crucial point in the pandemic, finding loop holes or making decisions that could have devastating effects on others, is just not cool.

After our online convo, I went and did some research about the Spanish Flu and came across this information about the waves of that particular pandemic…

Our current Covid 19 Pandemic is behaving pretty much exactly along these lines - we are entering our third wave and many of those infected and being hospitalized at this point are in the under 60 age group. This is in sharp contrast to the first wave when we saw many hospitalizations and deaths in the 75+ age groups. And as cruel and heartless as this sounds, in countries and provinces (yes, I AM talking about Alberta here) that didn’t strive for a #COVIDZERO strategy, many governments and health officials, and thus the general public, were able to justify this because these folks had already lived long-ish enough lives. (I mean, I guess so, but as someone with parents and inlaws and friends in their 70’s - Ummm NO!)

But now? Now that we are in our third wave of THIS pandemic and the virus had gotten smarter and more virulent and transformed itself into the Varients of Concern, we are seeing more and more younger folks in hospital and ICUs. I don’t know what the stats are now, but in late 2020, the survival rates of Covid patients in ICU was about 60%. THAT IS NOT HARD MATH FOLKS. 4/10 PEOPLE ADMITTED TO ICU WITH COVID DIED.

We are currently in a race of vaccines versus variants and in some countries this is an easier win for the vaccines, and in others, the variants are lapping us and we are very unlikely to catch up before they wreak havoc on our health care systems (AGAIN) and our collective ability, mentally, physically and financially to “get through this together”.

In a society where people are valued over profit and it is understood that without people there would be no economy to profit off of, we would be protecting our citizens from any and all kinds of ruin. We would financially support businesses that needed to shut down for the greater good of the community, we would vaccinate those whom we rely on to help the rest of us fulfill our basic needs of food/shelter/education/health, and we would communicate clearly with everyone our GOAL to eradicate the virus, and until the goal was met (or we got as close as possible), restrictive measures would be maintained.

I think of restrictive measures/lockdowns and a Covid Zero strategy like this - Everyone is your teenage child and THE WIFI PASSWORD WILL BE WITHHELD UNTIL EVERYONE’S ROOMS ARE CLEANED AND ALL CHORES ARE DONE!

Unfortunately, we don’t live in that kind of society here in Alberta (and in other places in the world). We have NEVER had a lockdown in the real sense of the word and we are never going to have one according to our Premier, because, “freedoms” or something, something, charter rights, blah, blah, blah…

Jason Kenney openly admitted at the #COVID19 update this past week, that our province is RELYING ON THE SACRIFICES OF THE PEOPLE BEING COMPLIANT WITH THE RULES TO COMPENSATE FOR THOSE WHO ARE NOT. What he failed to add is many of the people who are not being compliant are the very people who voted for him and put him in the office he occupies. To publicly condemn them at this point is tantamount to political suicide.

And so here we are. In the third wave of this pandemic, NOT in a lockdown, with some restrictions to regular life for an indefinite amount of time, no substantial support for businesses having to shut down, and no REAL GOAL to collectively strive for.

I don’t know about you, but this multi-layer “hopeless on top of hopeless on top of more hopelessness” sandwich is the worst thing I’ve ever tasted!

Especially when we can look across the room (world) and see others (New Zealand, Vietnam, Taiwan) eating multi-course meals with all of their friends and families and enjoying a life we vaguely remember as “normal”.

~~~

Back to the conversation with my friend this morning. What can we do about this? How can we positively influence our immediate or extended spheres to help us ALL catch up to the variants in this foot race? We are in a situation where NO ONE in our government has the spine to stand up, be the GROWN UP in the room and actually turn off the WIFI and keep it off until everyone’s proverbial rooms are clean.

So it is up to us.

Up to us to stay home, stay masked, stay out of homes that are not our own and/or not have people over to our homes for gatherings, yes - even family. I haven’t stepped foot inside another person’s home in over a year. If for some reason someone does have to come into your home - for repairs or the like, everyone wears a mask and the windows are opened and extra hand sanitizer is on hand and at the ready.

Shop for the necessities, but be smart about it. Shopping is not a family affair anymore. Shop with a list and be strategic, and for god’s sake, FOLLOW THE DAMN ARROWS IN THE STORES. If you can, order online and do curbside pick-up for as much of your shopping as possible.

You don't want to cook? Fine. But there is no NEED to be eating or drinking at a restaurant, and yes, that means the patios too. Order your food and drinks from your favourite local restaurant and TAKE THEM HOME. Make your own patio/balcony the best it’s ever been and have a safe patio party with you and whomever lives with you (or your designated two people if you live alone).

Please consider the following chart if you are thinking about ignoring the restrictions and measures in place and are deciding that your need for something is greater than those of the community-at-large. This is what happens when folks don’t follow the public health measures in place.

I know everyone has different risk tolerance, different living/work/school/co-parenting situations, and an acceptance of a certain amount of personal risk within all of that and an understanding within co-horts. My line in the sand is when people are making decisions that can potentially impact a larger group fo people, many of whom don’t get a say in this level of risky behaviour.

I think of it like consent.

If I am going to get a haircut, there is consent between me and my hairstylist. We’ve both decided that this appointment is an acceptable risk and we agree to each take measures to mitigate the risk as much as possible. If my sister and her kids are going to come over for a backyard visit, then there is consent and an understanding between us that everyone will either keep the 6 foot distance from each other and/or wear a mask during the visit. There will be no food sharing and no one will be going into the house (*Unless for a quick pee and even then, everyone remains masked and gets hand sanitized before and after.) Everyone understands the rules and agrees to them and we can still have a nice visit.

Things get murky when there are groups of people and there is not the same level of understanding or consent between strangers. This is why larger gatherings are not allowed, even within families. This is why stores and churches have limited capacity numbers. When we do have to go out into this Pandemic World right now, we have to do so with this understanding of CONSENT between ourselves and the essential businesses we need to frequent. We need to consider our own health and wellbeing, as well as that of every single person we interact with in the greater community.

I thing everyone is getting tired of hearing the “we are all in this together” line from our political leaders. That line feels like it has lost all meaning at this point.

I think a better message is that WE ARE ALL CONNECTED. For good and for bad.

We are all connected and it’s because of these connections that we have community spread of this deadly infection. Our only option now is to severely limit our physical connections to each other for a time. We have to do this in order to actually take better care of each other. This is the right thing to do right now. This is the hard thing to do.

And we have to keep talking to ALL our people and our connections with love and compassion and bring them into the fold of doing what is necessary to keep everyone as safe and healthy as possible.

Because dammit, I want the FREAKING WIFI PASSWORD BACK!

N~