Day 7 - 176 -- Crystal Ball Gazing

The heatwave continues and my day was spent indoors online with meetings and virtual conference sessions. Humidity is a bit higher than yesterday so it feels a bit stickier inside. The events of today had me reflecting on how daily routines have changed so much over the past 100 days when I officially began isolating. While we see communities "opening up" a bit more and people able to travel locally and meet in groups on occasion, I'm still wearing a mask when away from home but inside a building with other people I don't know. I still social distance and have to bite my tongue when others don't. I carry hand sanitizer and use it if a business hasn't put sanitizer by the door for people entering and leaving. The news of loosening guidelines a small bit and that no active cases exist in the province with no new cases in almost two weeks, may give an unintended message -- that this thing is over and we can just do 'normal' things again. Well, we can't. I don't want to see numbers increase locally, but do expect that this may occur sooner than later. <sigh>

Much of my career was in community and public health, so I have seen disease outbreaks and localized epidemics. This pandemic is global and the disease is less treatable and more virulent than other more common viral and bacterial outbreaks. No one alive has lived through a disease pandemic of this nature. My grandparents and great-grandparents lived through the 1918 flu epidemic, from which epidemiologists learned many things about how to curtail community spread. These have been working well and will need to continue until we have a vaccine with a good efficacy level. Once one is developed and enough produced to vaccinate the world, it will take time to get it all rolled out to people. Only then might we be able to be freer to a greater degree. What that will look like is nothing more than wishing, guessing and hoping. <smile> Until then, masks will be the new fashion accessory at my house.

A song I head when I ran an errand this morning seemed apropos for the many thoughts I've had about life today and tomorrow. The pandemic inspired the lyrics. Stay safe. Enjoy!

6 Feet Apart -- Luke Comes