I read a nice article yesterday titled What does it mean to say ‘COVID is over’?. And while the dire crisis of the pandemic is over, COVID will never be over. It was a really good op ed about the one side that COVID still kills (at least in Ontario) 20-ish people a day - which at that rate, sustained across a year, would put it in the running for one of the major contributors to overall mortality. On top of the deaths it is causing, it is also inflicting illness, including serious illness, that continues to exact a real toll on our health-care system, though the hospitalization metrics are improving at this time. Even beyond all of that, there are still social, emotional, and economic costs incurred by COVID-19 that are being felt widely across the population — and medically compromised or otherwise vulnerable individuals still must live their lives with extreme caution.
But there actually is a strong case that it *is* over, in a meaningful sense. Ontario just weathered a wave in which all indicators pointed to widespread infection. We can look at scientific indicators like wastewater, or we can look at the anecdotal ones. As Gary pointed out, so many households, including my own, have had a case of COVID-19 in the past couple of months. That was not the case in any previous wave. And yet we got through this wave, despite the obvious widespread infections, with virtually no public-health measures. Masking is not mandatory outside a few logical, niche environments. Schools stayed open. So did restaurants, bars, entertainment venues, sports complexes, and businesses of all kinds. There were no capacity limits. Hospital utilization certainly rose, but in the most critical metric — ICU occupancy — we never came close to the levels we have seen in previous waves.
I think the journalist summed it up perfectly - COVID-19 will always be with us, but maybe the pandemic is about as "over" as it’s ever going to be. It won’t get much better than this anytime soon. Are we at the point where this is what COVID-19 will be like going forward?
Ya know, after reading the article, it dawned on me that there is a very good chance the people I love will die of COVID-19. Again, as Gary recounted, as friends and loved ones get older and more medically vulnerable, it seems like a grim inevitability that, sooner or later, instead of falling victim to cancer or seasonal influenza, or some other illness or ailment, they may pick up COVID-19 and die from it. Depending entirely on when that happens, though, they may not be considered a victim of the pandemic.
Topic: Coronavirus Thread v.2 (Read 194647 times)
