In Montreal, and in many cities in North America, apart from New York City, we are at a crossroads. I believe the first two weeks of April will dictate whether we follow the path of Italy, or the path China. The next two weeks will lead to a crisis in emergency if we don’t slow down the rapid spread. The cynic in me would say we don’t have the discipline to see terrible short-term pain for extraordinary long-term gain.
Initially, the Canadian cases were people who had traveled to Asia and Europe and brought it home. Those people were encouraged to contact airlines, and c0-workers, and restaurants. Were past all that. How can you capture the air from a burst balloon? Right now the spread is from community transmission. The stats indicate that 2% of those with symptoms need hospital care, a bed in ICU and a respirator. What is important to understand is that 2% of 5000 cases is a manageable number for our health care system, whereas 2% of 50,000 + cases is the Italy scenario. It brings the entire network to its knees. The burden on the doctors, nurses, PAB’s, ambulance drivers, funeral directors, not to mention psychologists and social workers is incalculable. For them, I actually can’t see an end date, especially in the Lombardy region.
I have been walking outside every day. I continue to see flaunting of the social distancing, but I have seen a positive shift. The buses are empty. The grocery stores are regulating numbers and hand washing stations at the entrance has become the norm. I hope that stays.
This is it…the week that will dictate our future. Imagine that you have the virus. Act as though you are a highly contagious part of a deadly plague. Don’t be an April fool.
From Albert Camus
“The evil in the world comes almost always from ignorance, and goodwill can cause as much damage as ill-will if it is not enlightened. People are more often good than bad, though in fact that is not the question. But they are more or less ignorant and this is what one calls vice or virtue, the most appalling vice being the ignorance that thinks it knows everything and which consequently authorizes itself to kill. The murderer's soul is blind, and there is no true goodness or fine love without the greatest possible degree of clear-sightedness.”
― The Plague