First Month

It has only been a month since the social-isolation lockdown but it seems like it has been longer. It gets awkward when we walk our dog and spot another couple walking theirs a block away. Everyone crosses the street before getting too close to someone else. A month ago that would have felt weird, even rude. Today it seems the norm and I suspect it will feel weird to stop isolating when this whole thing is over. 

There is a lot of talk about rolling back restrictions and getting things back to normal. As a guy who knows how many ventilators there are in the province, I think ending the restrictions now would be a big mistake. There is a way to go before we can be assured that you will not have to win the ventilator lottery if you have a serious reaction to COVID-19. If we want to make sure we have enough ventilators for everyone who needs them, we are going to have to reduce the number of people who are getting infected at the same time.

We’ve had a long time to prepare for this pandemic, it has been coming for around twenty years. I’d hate to see our state if something like this were to catch us by surprise.

“There really is no middle ground, and it’s very tough to say to people, ‘Hey, keep going to restaurants, go buy new houses, ignore that pile of bodies over in the corner.’” - Bill Gates (b. 1955)