Best to prepare for long COVID-19 haul

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/03/2020 (2188 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Pandemics are all about numbers.

The number of cases of positive and presumptive cases of COVID-19 in Manitoba (as of this writing, 20). The number of cases across Canada (as of this writing, 1,472). The number of days you should self-quarantine if you’ve travelled (14). The number of seconds we should wash our hands (20). The number of metres of distance we should keep in public to maintain social distancing (two). The number of weeks Manitoba kids will be out of school (three, for now).

Some of these numbers will be out of date by the time this is published. That’s another thing about pandemics: they move swiftly.

What’s difficult to pin a number on is how long, exactly, we have to live like this. The social distancing. The working from home while also trying to home-school the kids. The isolation from friends and family. The slowdown of society.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned that strict measures required to contain the virus could be in place for some time. “We’ve heard anything from weeks to months,” he said.

“We know this is a difficult and extraordinary time in which Canadians are taking difficult and extraordinary measures, and we will continue to do that until Canadians are safe.”

Weeks feel doable. Weeks are novel. It’s novel to set up one’s work-from-home space, or decide what YouTube fitness regimen to half-heartedly commit to, or what series to binge, or what colour-coded schedule one is going to implement for one’s kids. That’s why dieting works at first. It’s the novelty.

Months, however, seem more daunting. Months are not novel. To evoke the diet analogy once more: this is a lifestyle now.

Canadians should be prepared for months, not weeks.

While the directive is simple — “stay home” — it’s not always easy. It’s already been disruptive to our lives. Changing just one habit or routine is difficult at the best of times. Changing all of one’s habits and routines at the same time is a massive undertaking — and one that we’ve all found ourselves in the position of doing.

But if there’s a silver lining, it’s this: many people are, in fact, doing it. People are washing their hands like they’re scrubbing in for surgery. People are making heartbreaking decisions about closing their businesses, bars and restaurants. People are cancelling vacations and birthday parties. People are practising social distancing.

Our job right now, said Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, is to “plank” the curve. It’s encouraging that many people are taking the job very seriously.

And so, how long we have to live like this really depends on us. If we do our part now — which is to stay home and practise social distancing — the light at the end of a tunnel might come into view a bit sooner. In order to continue its spread, the virus needs people. We need to take ourselves out of the equation. These next few weeks are critical.

This is a marathon, not a sprint. Don’t panic — but don’t get careless, either. A little cabin fever is vastly preferable to the other kind. Take it week to week. Do it this week, and then do it again next week. And the week after that. Eventually, it will be spring — real spring, not just a calendar technicality — and then people will be able to socially distance in the great outdoors.

Almost everything is temporary. This, too, shall pass.