A gloomy day here today and possibly rain. Rain is a good thing; it washes away the snow and weakens that four inches (10 centimetres) of ice that sits under the snow. But I find myself wondering what life will be like after COVID-19 has passed through. In theory, life will just pick up where it left off and move forward. I am hoping that life will change a little. Home industries will be created to support the fight against COVID-19 and I, for one, am hoping that these industries succeed and remain instead of being swallowed up by huge companies. Hopefully this will teach us the lesson that having needed supplies produced closer to home is always good. Supporting those industries even though they may look like they cost more is good policy. When times are bad they will still be producing and the products are readily available where they are needed. The regrowth of Canadian industries would be a marvelous gift of COVID-19 since there will be very few pluses on that side.
I can remember as a child visiting older relatives the discussion around the Spanish Flu. In the early 1950s it was just 30 years earlier and one of my great grandparents died in that time period. My mother thought he died of the Spanish Flu but his death registration did not list that as his cause of death. He was in a tent though on the property which was common apparently during those times of the Spanish Flu. She lived on a farm and he must have been brought there from his home in a village nearby. Even 30 years later people talked in hushed tones about the Spanish Flu. It must have been terrible at that time. Of course no electric ventilators to help people. The toll according to historical reference was 25 to 39 million as cited in 1991 and later in 2005 estimated at probably 50 million to 100 million which represented 3 to 5% of the population. But by 2018 the total was estimated at around 17 million (in the 50s I can vaguely recall 18 to 20 million being the numbers mentioned and that would have been closer to 1 to 2% of the population). It was thought to have infected 500 million people (1/3rd of the population) around the world.
But this is 2020 and all of the attributes of modern medicine are at our disposal. The death toll has now exceeded 30,000 and we are just really at the beginning of the pandemic. By smoothing the curve we save people (especially health care workers) because our hospitals will be able to manage a steady influx of patients but not a huge crest of patients. The numbers are a mystery; we have no idea where it will all end up.
The numbers today 677,622 worldwide cases (increase of 80,370 over the last 24 hour cycle), 31,750 deaths (increase of 4,385 over the last 24 hour cycle) and 141,698 recovered (increase of 8,335 over the last 24 hour cycle). Canada is number 15 on the World Health Organization list at 5,607 cases, 61 deaths and 479 recovered. We are the 39th most populous country in the world at 37,742,154 people. The reality though is this is the beginning of COVID-19 worldwide. Like all new diseases we either have to have the disease to have immunity or we need to be vaccinated. No vaccine yet so immunity is only gained by having the disease. It will take several waves to give immunity to most people in Canada unless a vaccine comes in between the first and second wave. That is where we are sitting at the moment.
I am optimistic though that in the end we will come out of this actually stronger than we went in. The growth of native born industries will help us to prosper once again and we need to keep those industries. We need to support those industries and not be led astray by larger companies promising cheaper prices. Where our essential facilities are concerned we need to be more cautious.
The loss of a portion of an entire generation of the elderly (and I am one of that group now) will be painful; you can see that in Italy. We tend, as a whole, to support local industry and spend a lot of money. We are in the stores every day spending money helping to support the local economy especially. But not all of us; too many go south and spend their money in the southern states for five months of the year. Perhaps that will end for a bit and the money will stay here and support Canada. I could scarce believe that 400,000 Canadians were in the south needing to come back. Add to that they were careless thinking they could stop and shop on their way back to their homes when they arrived in Canada. Quebec has paid the price dearly for that foolishness and hopefully we will not pay the price here in Ontario. We have gone to Florida for a week in the winter and it is fun but to spend so much money there when it could be spent here; that has always bothered me.
Yesterday we completed the puzzle; it is quite the beautiful scene. A lot of work went into it but we enjoy doing puzzles.
I also got started on Chromosome two and will continue working on that today.
Isolation Day 16 and I suspect we will not go anywhere other than home spots or a walk around the block until after Isolation Day 40.
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