Staying the Course

People are feeling stressed and worried about what is happening, what will happen, what life will be like once the pandemic has swept through.

I would like to thank everyone who is helping, in whatever way they are helping.

If you have the means, stay home.  Do not go to the mall to hang out.  Do not go to the grocery store to 'browse'.  Go in, get what you came for, go home.  Do not go for group walks in the park.  Stay isolated physically.  Yes, go outside, get some needed fresh air, but don't stroll along with three neighbours chatting while you do so.  Canadians are using the length of a hockey stick as their gauge for how far to stay away from each other.

If you have friends or neighbours at risk, find out if they are ok.  Some communities are handing out coloured cards - green for 'ok', red for 'need some help' to post in their window.  Groups are forming to deliver essential items to people who cannot get out themselves.

Friends and family are calling everyone to make sure things are alright and provide a little social interaction.  Sometimes quite a lot of social interaction - Facetime and Skype chats are possible.

People staying home, not using masks that are needed by medical people are doing a service by not using up personal protection equipment.  People saying that they can go out if they wear masks are not helping.  Medical personnel change their masks/gowns after each patient.  If someone goes out on the town, confident their home made cloth mask or bandana will protect them?  Not so much.

Stay home.  If you need to go out, go do your essential errand, go home, wash your hands - with soap, wipe your packages off with a wipe.  If you have any symptoms, STAY HOME.

People wondering why this has gotten so bad so quickly?  It is spreading just like a virus does.

There is a reason we say a FB or Twitter post has gone viral.  It grows exponentially.  And if you don't know what that means, look at what is happening in the US.  For the people who think this is a hoax, that hospitals are empty?  Think again.  There are no visiting hours, regular health care has been shut down, while the medical professionals throw everything, all their resources, at trying to help those people who are sick enough to need hospital stays - including intubation.  There is a reason the hospital parking lots might be empty and it isn't because the pandemic is a hoax.  Do not be going into a hospital to 'prove' there is no crisis.  And frankly I am amazed anyone has to actually say this.  And yet, here we are.  (Yes, it's a thing - if you want to check out the hashtag filmyourhospital on Twitter.)

Chatting with friends (through messenger and emails) we are all agreed - the first order of priority is for us all to survive this.  Therefore, stay home.  Stay away from people as much as possible.  We have had one stealth delivery to the house with a care package.  A little gesture, but a reminder that we are a community.  We need to look out and care for each other.

We need to stay the course, self-isolating.  We are not 'stuck' at home.  We are SAFE at home.  Let's keep it that way.

I may be preaching to the choir.  If so, I apologize.  But it is so very important right now to recognize that this virus shows no mercy to the vulnerable amongst us and does not discriminate based on your political leanings.  Yes, people are beginning to recover.  But others have not.

Stay the course.  First we survive.  Then we figure out how to make it better for the next time.  If history teaches us anything, there will be a next time.  #flattenthecurve