Government and health officials are walking a razor’s edge, trying to address the health concerns and safety of the public, while trying not to go too far into fear and mass hysteria.
The all-consuming worry for most people right now is the new coronavirus, dubbed Covid-19 by the World Health Organization.
The situation is literally changing and moving every single day, and things seemed to have descended into madness after WHO declared Covid-19 as a pandemic, and every group and organization began cancelling everything.
The image one could imagine are lemmings, jumping over a cliff, and leading every lemming after them over the edge as they mindlessly follow.
It may not quite be that bad, but some of the actions seems based more on fear and panic, cancelling events and gatherings simply because every one else is.
When the decision to shut down all schools was announced, the move contradicted the Chief Medical Health Officer’s own words. On Sunday, he said school closures would be based on a number of factors including evidence of sustained transmission within the community; rapid increase of local cases; and transmission without a known link to travel or confirmed cases.
He then said, while announcing school closures, “There continues to be no evidence that any of the above three criteria have been met.”
The actions taken can be justified in a few ways, as drastic as it seems. While there really aren’t that many cases of Covid-19 in Canada right now, consider that each of the hospitals and other health care facilities have limited space, with limited staff and equipment.
Out of a sense of caution and preparedness, the overall view would be to keep any possibility of the virus spreading as low as possible. If the numbers of people infected continue to rise, in spite of all the precautions and cancellations of almost everything connected to regular life, then those health care facilities are going to be needed to treat and care for the sick.
The people impacted the most at this point are those with compromised immune systems and the elderly, and if the virus continues spreading, they will need the most care in the hospitals.
The problem remains that a vaccine against this virus is at least a year away, and very little is known about how to stop it, other than just keeping people away from each other, as a “necessary evil”.
