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...
