If the pandemic does not savage Canada, then surely the economic ravages that are the consequence of the attempt to halt it, will. Those who are sick or mortally threatened are absolutely our first concern. Lives count before all things else.
But this illness, this pandemic, is a double trauma. Upon the best advice of those who are in a position to offer the best advice, the medical professionals, and epidemiologists in particular, most of the countries of the industrial world have turned off their economies. Certainly here in Canada we have. I believe the consensus view of this extreme response is that, if it halts, or even measurably slows the rage of the pandemic, it is acceptable policy.
Which does not mean that people are comfortable with it.
There is the second trauma. Outside of the direct threat of COVID-19 itself, every single day the economy is on shutdown adds to the stockpile of worry, tensions and anxiety of hundreds of thousands of Canadians facing conditions they have not faced before, who are now given over to some very gloomy anticipation of — when the pandemic is defeated — how, or if, they can pick up their work or business as it was before.
The combination is not a minor affair. Our whole country is shut down and we are enduring the advance of a pandemic. In such a circumstance, sustaining the morale of the country constitutes an imperious priority.
The necessary self-isolation and social-distancing Canadians are experiencing comes with a limbo of empty hours during which the minds of many almost unavoidably are given over to worry and anxiety. (One can only watch so many reruns of The Bachelor or Foyle’s War — pick your placebo — for distraction, before even the most powerful mind says, “Sorry, I would much rather worry, than watch another episode.”)
[Interesting Read]
See Also:
(1) Ottawa’s plan for quarantining temporary foreign workers is more bizarre than comforting
(2) Alberta’s Bill 10 is an affront to the rule of law
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