Monday, June 22, 2020

Will Quarantine Fatigue Sabotage The Fight Against Covid-19?



It's great to be back in Toronto, where it feels like mid-summer already, and it's hard not to feel that the Covid nightmare is almost over, and that we can all start living again. 

Some shops are reopening, there are finally some boats in the bay, a lot more people are out enjoying the sun, and the company of others... 



But while most gatherings in my neighbourhood are Corona correct *groan* this party was definitely NOT. 

And that's a problem, because sadly, the nightmare isn't over... 




Covid-19 is still very much at large. It's exploding at an alarming rate all over the world, it could still kill thousands of Canadians, and finish off our economy.

So the last thing we need is quarantine fatigue.

If you've found you're no longer disinfecting your hands as often or becoming more lenient toward unnecessary trips outside, you're not alone. This unintentional phenomenon is "caution fatigue" — and you have your brain to blame.

Or complacency.

At 100 days, Canada has just passed a grim milestone – 100,000 cumulative cases. Worldwide, 8.5 million cases. The epicentre has shifted from Asia to Europe to the Americas. 

The first wave is just picking up steam, and second wave could hit even harder in the fall. 

Yet, we’ve moved from anxiety to complacency, without much reason to do so.

Especially since American states that have loosened their lockdowns have seen their cases soar, like Florida which has just recorded more than 3,000 new cases three days in a row, and more than 4,000 on Sunday. 

And as Dr Theresa Tam has warned, it may only take one new case of COVID-19 to start another outbreak in Canada.

As for me, I don't understand why anyone could be complacent when every day we learn something new and scary about the killer virus... 



Like how your blood type could determine whether you live or die.

Having Type A blood was linked to a 50 percent increase in the likelihood that a patient would need to get oxygen or to go on a ventilator, according to the new study.

Or how even if you survive Covid-19 you might never fully recover. 

“When they say ’recovered,’ they don’t tell you that that means you may need a lung transplant,” Antoinette wrote in a Twitter post. “Or that you may come back after discharge with a massive heart attack or stroke, because COVID makes your blood thick as hell. Or that you may have to be on oxygen for the rest of your life.”



But then the problem is most people have no idea what's going on in hospitals all over Canada and the world. Not a clue.

So they don't understand how hard medical workers have to struggle to control the beast, and stop it from killing even more people. 

Which is why I thought this BBC report might be helpful in that regard...



I wish everybody could hear what those doctors and nurses had to say, for it's what many healthcare workers in this country are also saying, as they risk their lives, and the lives of their families every day.

And this is the bottom line:

Unless Canadians can hold it together for a few more weeks, wear masks, respect social distancing guidelines, wash their hands etc, until the virus is truly flattened. And unless governments can increase testing and contact tracing, the pandemic will drag on and on.

Many of the country's medical staff will be too physically and mentally exhausted to continue.

And a lot of Canadians, mainly older ones, could be dead by Christmas...



Let's not let that happen, we're so close to victory let's not blow it now.

We need to help our frontline workers fight that merciless killer, not by clapping in the streets, but by doing our part to really flatten the curve.

And show that we really are, all in this together...

18 comments:

Gordie Canuk said...

Ontario brought in emergency measures because of computer modelled forecasts that said people were going to lined up 10 deep for a bed in our ICUs. Thanfully that never happened as I write this there are only 265 Covid patients in the province's roughly 500 hospitals.

We can be grateful that Covid is not a deadly disease for the overwehlming majority of the population, all the science coming out paints as pretty much benign for the young and healthy. There are younger people though who are Vitamin D deficient, which has been linked to the Cytokine storm that causes a person's immune system to over react and start attacking heathy cells and tissue.

By and large I think the message has been received loud and clear....the younger people gathing in huge numbers at Toronto beaches are not at risk, experts in infectous disease are saying they're at greater risk of dying or being seriously injured in a car accident than of being hospitalized due to covid.

We have to do all we can to keep this nasty bug away from those for whom it's serious and potentially faithful.....the lockdown protests didn't cause patient numbers to spike, nor did the massive gathering at Trinity Bellwoods, nor the massive BLM demonstrations....

I think people are paying attention and have gotten the message about who needs protecting and who doesn't.

The Disaffected Lib said...

Well put, Simon.

lagatta à montréal said...

I don't think its complacency - we are social animals like all the other great apes. Quarantine and self-confinement are essential, but also extremely hard on the psyche. You are right that attention to science is needed. The message is complex, as there is more hope now, but there is a very strong possibility of a second wave. The idiots in other American countries aren't helping matters, but it is also a matter of many people thinking we can return to normal very soon, which is not the case.

Jackie Blue said...

Welcome back, Simon, haven't seen you in awhile. Hope everything is going well. We're doing our damnedest to excise the Moronavirus from the hot spots in Tulsa and D.C.

I will say that Canada is doing a much better job than the live petri dish down here south of 49, but I worry that in and of itself might lead to a sense of false security for our northern neighbors: as long as it's not as bad as America, they might feel they can let down their guard. Which couldn't be further from the truth, because you live so close to the live petri dish downstairs.

I agree with Lagatta that the lockdown has been contradictory to (most) humans' inherent social nature, and that loneliness and cabin fever have a way of setting in. I think that the only way of getting around this and being able to break out of the cage for a little while in the nice summer months is to follow health protocols religiously. For that to happen, people need to be reminded at every turn that this is not over, and that they still need to keep up social distancing and wearing masks outdoors. Perhaps the latter especially needs to be added to the mandatory list.

I have an idea: PHO Canada should make a PSA of the Trudeau song. I'm only half kidding. I can't think of a better way to drill the message of how to prevent a contagious disease, than with a viral earworm. "Wash our hands, cough into our elbows. These are the things, the things we know."

Easy peasy, right? I remember the instructions now by heart!

Anonymous said...

Hi Simon, off topic but you need to see this regarding the Ottawa valley's version of the wicked witch Cheryl Gallant.
https://www.insideottawavalley.com/news-story/10039042-mp-cheryl-gallant-s-extreme-rhetoric-condemned-by-anti-hate-group-fellow-mp/
Hope you have the time to look into this some more. I've found nothing on this in the MSM. I guess a death threat against the PM and seemingly condoned by an MP doesn't rate a story anymore.
JD

Anonymous said...

Great post Simon and welcome back. More than ever we need to keep our distances and as you illustrated and as I've witnessed, some people are not doing it. Complacency or short attention spans may afflict some people but I believe most are just dumb or worse, dumb and a Trump supporter type individual. Those are the ones that will keep the spread going just as they're doing south of the border. It would be nice if these careless, inconsiderate morons were the only ones affected but sadly, it's not so. However, until there is a vaccine, the more we protect ourselves against the virus, the more we protect ourselves against them and the probable outcome will be that there will be much more of us and much less of them.
JD

Simon said...

Hi Gordie...Maybe I am being overly cautious, and it's true that being outdoors is better than gathering indoors. But social distancing is still a good idea, because as Theresa Tam has said, it only takes one new case to start an outbreak...

Simon said...

Hi Mound...Thank you. I have been absolutely gutted by what has happened in our long term care homes. I feel so ashamed that as a country we have failed to protect all those vulnerable seniors. So all I want to do now is help spread the message that if you give that nasty virus an inch, it will take a mile...

Simon said...

Hi lagatta....I don't know if complacency is the right word, and I don't want to be too harsh on people since we have all gone through the wringer. As I said in my post I think ignorance is probably a better word, but we do need to pull our socks up is we are going to get this pandemic under control. For almost everybody agrees that a second wave is bound to hit us, and if it arrives with together with a bad flu we could be in for a desperate time. I also want you to know that I was invited to that party at Cherry Beach. The parties there are regular summer events and are like the drums at the Cartier monument on the edge of Mount Royal. But although I jumped my bike to check it out, when I saw the number of people there, I beat a hasty retreat. So now can I get my halo? ;)

Simon said...

Hi JD...Nice to hear from you again. Yes, I have seen some people who should know better but seem to think they are invulnerable or just don't care. And as you point out, then there are the Trumpanzees who seem to take pride in not wearing a mask, and they drive me absolutely wild. As I'm sure you've seen on TV, they are not just ignorant some of them will react violently when challenged. I know I shouldn't but I can't help hoping that at least some of them become ill and infect their crazy Fuhrer. But most of all I wish that this nightmare will end soon. Stay safe....

Simon said...

Hi JD...Thanks for the link to the Gallant story. These days I'm willing to give people a break because I know that Covid has also caused a pandemic of mental illness. But there is no excuse for Gallant's disgusting behaviour. She has always been a bigot, and for hosting death threats she should be arrested. Hmmm...I have a pretty decent graphic I made of her being pursued by a lusty ham, and I may have to use it again...

Simon said...

Hi Jackie....nice to hear from you again. I'm sorry I wasn't able to blog for a while, and had only Twitter to show people that I was still alive. But now I'm back I intend to make up for lost time, as soon as I have settled in again. I hope that you are in a safe place because every time I read about how the fight against Covid is doing in your country I can't believe what I'm seeing, and hate Trump even more than I already did. And as you point out, as long as we can't suppress the pandemic everywhere in North America nobody will be safe. The only good news is that Covid has dealt the would be Fuhrer a mighty blow, and hopefully it has set the stage for his downfall in November. The lockdown better be over by then, because there is going to be one massive street party from California to the Arctic Circle...

lagatta à montréal said...

Yes Simon, I felt perfectly useless as I hesitated to take part in the Black Lives Matter protests here; I'm in fine health but I am over 60. I don't want to live if I am useless.

Gordie Canuk said...

Simon, under normal circumstances an abundance of caution is usually the wiser course. We could have done that at the start, Tam and our health officials could have required those coming to Canada from hotspots like Wuhan and Italy to isolate....but they got it wrong, the first of many tragic mistakes.

The problem now is that emergency measures are doing more harm than good. About 75% of Canada's deaths are in LTC facilities, places where people who arealready dying live....healthy people don't go into nursing homes. Most have underlying health conditions like cardiovascular and kidney diseases, cognitive impairment, they need help with simple ativities of daily living (ADLs) like toileting, dressing, bathing and eating.

I don't really care about a bunch of people gathering on Toronto's beaches...ban sporting events, and concerts....but let's get people back to work and off inadequate gov't welfare, and get kids back to the places that serve to protect them....schools, clubs and camps.

This isn't the Spanish flu, nor the Asian or Hong Kong flus....those outbreaks killed 1 million+ around the world back when the human population was less than half of what it is now. And we never brought in wholesale emergency measures during those pandemics, responses were handled locally.

But they didn't have the internet back then to try and scare everyone. Our media is reporting on this like they did when they wanted everyone gung ho for war against Iraq's weapons of mass destruction...it worked then and it's working now sadly because most people can be manipulated by fear.

Peace.

Steve said...

We are in a territory that is not only uncharted, its sci fi. Nobody expected the Spanish Inquisition. At least that torture was organized and sanctioned.

Look south, you will see belief and science class, and the flames of reality.

Sixth Estate said...

Gordie seems to have trouble comprehending germ theory.

Simon said...

Hi Gordie...I hear what you're saying, and I realize that the lockdowns have caused a lot of economic pain. But I still believe that an abundance of caution is the best way to go when dealing with a new coronavirus whose effects we still don't fully understand, and a population where about seventy to eighty per cent still have no immunity. Secondly, as I tried to explain in my post, Covid-19 is far worse than the flu, and although so far has caused high mortality in nursing homes, there is no reason it can't cause massive casualties in other places, and decimate people over sixty wherever they live. And thirdly, unless the coronavirus can be suppressed this summer, it could join forces in the fall with the flu bug, overwhelm our hospitals, and we could see a lot more people die. I guarantee you that if you spent just one day in an ICU full of Covid cases you wouldn't dismiss the disease so lightly. Again, as I said in my post, we are heading in the right direction, so let's not blow it now....

Steve said...

I am a liberal bording on Marxist, or as I like to call it a star trek economy.
The ruling on the black kid who lost his eye, makes that future all the more difficult.