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Once, back in the very first months of the pandemic, when we were first navigating a world of restrictions and the disorienting surreality of the whole endeavour, a friend — I can’t remember who now, or I’d credit them — said something to me that I’ve never forgotten: “If you think it’s been hard getting in, wait until you see how hard it is to get out.”
I’ve thought about those words again and again over the last few weeks, especially. The getting out is indeed proving harder than the getting in.
The getting in was for the most part united, an outpouring of community spirit and we’re-in-this-together; the long, slow getting out has been fractured, frustrated, angry, costly, and incredibly divisive, though often along fault lines that have long existed, as Dan Lett explored.
Right now, as the province readies to drop most of its public health orders over the next month — which is a bitterly contested decision in itself — it seems that all we have are questions.
Ethan Brinkman, a grade 12 student at Sisler High School, said while the pandemic has allowed for more flexible learning options, he hopes cohorting and alternate-day attendance models will be left behind. (John Woods / Winnipeg Free Press)
How will schools navigate it? What will businesses decide, when it comes to whether or how to keep verifying vaccination?
Still, some bright news. A new drug to treat COVID-19 has a lot of promise, when taken in the early stages, and one Manitoban who benefited from that treatment shared her story. And Manitobans have stepped up to get their boosters, which, as Tom Brodbeck notes, remain the best way to keep the worst hospital impacts of the pandemic at bay. And we all needed this Eva Wasney piece about one local non-profit building warmth and community on one downtown corner.
Finally, the premier made her first visit to a First Nation this week, to show respect for a community mourning the death of three children in a devastating house fire. Tragedies like these wouldn’t have to happen, if the state of on-reserve housing was not so dire. I regret every year we keep telling that same story, without change.
Until next week, stay warm,
Melissa Martin, Reporter-at-large
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