Thank you. I was just wondering, I have a professional and more than a few personal interests in what's happening in Canada. We don't get a lot of Canadian news down here, and what we do is usually just the CBC news feed from Youtube. While I was there last week, the situation was just starting to jell with people. Here in the Southern US, there is no real recognition of the risk ... they're blissfully unconcerned and their biggest problem is the lack of toilet paper.
The main thing we're practicing now is Social Distancing. My entire industry for example has been put on leave.
The simple fact is that the destinies of Canada and the United States are intertwined. There's a lot of trade and personal relationships between the two countries. My partner herself is from Oregon. What I'm trying to say is that in the event of a pandemic like Covid19, we cannot keep out the disease if one side gets it. Right now the biggest problem both countries is facing is the lack of testing kits AND the lengthy delay in getting results. In the US there's a lack of testing kits
AND a lack in the political will to administer said tests. A certain Administration believes that if you stick your head in the sand, the problem will magically go away. They want to keep the official infection numbers low because it looks bad in an election year. I believe this is criminally irresponsible.
Consider these numbers:
Population of the United States = 330 million
Number of known Covid 19 cases = 2900
Population of Italy = 60.3 million
Number of known Covid19 cases = 21000
Just random numbers right? How did Italy get all that bad luck? The US is doing alright in this pandemic nonsense...nothing but fear mongering right? On the contrary, I'll argue that the US has infinitely more trade and personal relations with Asia. The number of Covid19 cases is low because it's not being reported. The reason why US cases are much lower per capita is that there is NO testing being done. This pandemic won't be felt in the US until Grandpa and Grandma mysteriously start keeling over while watching Hannity. I predict until proper testing is administered, you'll start to see a lot of deaths that will be attributed to the 'flu' or 'pneumonia'.
Panic buying and hoarding is ridiculous and irresponsible. Society isn't suddenly gonna collapse Walking Dead Style. No..fuck that shit, social distancing is what people should practice instead. Again I'll like to stress that this isn't to protect yourself (I assume most of us here are below 70 and in decent health), it's to do the right thing and protect the weakest in our society. It's to give our front line healthcare workers breathing room for the inevitable surge of patients. You can be a carrier without exhibiting ANY symptoms. It's terrific that you feel great but what about your unhealthy Uncle Jim? What with his lifelong smoking habit and respiratory problems? You can still pass it on to him and kill the poor bastard.
Lately I'm sure you've been hearing everyone talk about 'Flattening the Curve'....what does that mean? Graph and number mumbo jumbo aside, it basically means slowing the spread (even to healthy young people who will exhibit no symptoms) in order give our medical facilities a fighting chance. We can help flatten that curve just by practicing social distancing and washing our hands.
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