This scanning electron microscope image shows SARS-CoV-2 - the virus that causes Covid-19) (round blue objects) emerging from the surface of cells cultured in the lab. Credit: NIAID (National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases.)
This week I saw an elderly man – he must’ve been at least 80 years old -- and a young man nearly come to blows over a stack of library books. That’s what life is like during a pandemic. Here’s what happened. Libraries have been gradually opening up since mid-May in B.C. At my local library, patrons can place holds on books and then come and pick them up during certain times. Returning books is a bit tricky – the return bins are locked once they are full and that usually happens by about 9:30 each morning. Really, in order to return books, you need to arrive very early.
The library also offers a “quick pick” bag of books, for people who may not know what they want to read. While I think this is a fantastic idea, the one time I said yes to the bag of random books, I had a hard time returning them because of the limited return space.
The difficulty with returns has not deterred my reading habits. I’ve picked up books probably five or six times in recent weeks and usually it all goes without a hitch. Today was the first time I’ve had to wait in line. There were about six people ahead of me, all standing on the sidewalk stickers arranged for social distancing. I waited about 10 minutes and picked up my books, then headed to my car.
Before I got there, I saw an elderly man driving into a parking space a bit erratically – he hit the curb. He then reversed and started to pull out when a younger man said to him, “You’re a jerk, you know.” Being conflict averse, I headed to my car, but I didn’t leave. The pair exchanged more words, then the younger man walked away, getting into the library lineup. The elderly man got out of his car, leaving it in the middle of the parking lot and started walking, I assumed, towards the younger man in the lineup. Before he got to the man, he picked up a bag of about 10 or 15 library books. It appears he left them at the foot of the lineup in frustration over the return bin being full. He went and stood in the lineup for a few seconds, then got fed up, barged his way to the front of the line, put the books down and stormed off in his car. Really? This is how a grown up handles a 10-minute lineup at the library? No wonder the younger man called him a jerk.
It’s no excuse, but after four months of pandemic living, we’re all a bit on edge. B.C. is still doing very well, with very low rates of cases and deaths from covid-19. But we know the virus is still out there and our daily cases are increasing as we open up society. A month ago, our average new cases every day was in the single digits. Now there are about 20 new cases every day. As Dr. Bonnie Henry said: “It was distressing to me to see (numbers above 20), especially 25. That's way above my comfort zone.”
We are enjoying summer, but wary of what could be to come in the fall. Meanwhile, the pace of change has not slowed.
Here’s my list of highlights for this week:
- In June, 175 people died from drug overdoses in June, the B.C. Coroners Service reported this week. That’s the most ever, after May, when 171 people died. Chief Coroner Lisa Lapointe urged drug users to not use alone and to have their drugs checked. “The drug supply in our province is highly toxic and the risk of using alone is too high. Buddying up could save your life,” Lapointe said. Extreme fentanyl concentrations were found in many of the cases. There have been 728 illicit drug deaths so far in 2020 in B.C.
- Less than one per cent of British Columbians was infected with the virus that causes covid-19 in random blood samples that were tested as part of a B.C. Centre for Disease Control study. Samples were tested from March and May – in May the prevalence was 0.55 per cent, which, if extrapolated to B.C.’s 5.071 million population, could mean as many as 28,000 British Columbians have had covid-19, rather than the official count of just over 3,000. Still if only 28,000 people have had it, that leaves more than five million British Columbians still vulnerable and that’s assuming there is any lasting immunity.
-The federal government announced $19 billion to help provinces recover from Covid-19. B.C. Premier John Horgan said there will also be a national sick leave program.
- Vancouver’s Park Board made it legal for homeless people to camp overnight in the city’s parks, as long as they pack up and leave by first thing in the morning. This happens after a homeless tent city at Oppenheimer Park was dismantled during the covid-19 lockdown earlier this year, to avoid an outbreak. Many of the people were given homes in hotel rooms, but some moved their camp to Strathcona Park.
- The province of B.C. may have a deficit of $12.5 billion this year, B.C. Finance Minister Carole James said in a fiscal update Tuesday. “This could be the worst downturn experienced by our province in recent history,” James said. About half of B.C.’s deficit can be attributed to losses of revenue from things like income tax, the property purchase tax, sales taxes and other revenues. The other half is due to increased expenses that have been used to provide supports to people and businesses, such as the increased climate tax credit.
- Disney World in Florida reopened, with lots of sanitizer stations and masks for everyone. Disneyland in California remains closed.
- The debate over whether to open schools is raging across North America. In the U.S. many school districts start up in August, whereas in Canada they start in September, so plans will be announced later. Los Angeles and San Diego school districts will be fully online for the fall, while New York will have students in class half time and online the other half.
- The debate over in-person learning is also brewing in universities. In B.C., it was announced in the spring that universities would be online, except in some exceptions where in-person learning is essential, like small lab classes. In the United States, decisions are all over the map, and it is becoming political, with the federal government threatening to revoke international student visas for students who are not studying in person and many universities suing the government. This week the government backed down.
- One of the Canadian government’s covid-19 financial packages was a $900-million program for volunteer students. The government awarded the contract to administer the project to WE Charity, but that decision has come back to haunt Prime Minister Trudeau, whose family has been paid for speaking engagements at WE events. Trudeau apologized for not recusing himself from discussions about awarding the contract to the WE Charity.
- Passengers on a flight from Kelowna to Vancouver on July 6 were warned by the B.C. Centre for Disease Control that they may have been exposed to covid-19. That flight is one of 16 listed on the BC CDC website for having covid-19 exposures. The CBC recommends that all passengers self-isolate and monitor for symptoms for 14 days.
- As cases surge in the United States, many American states have rolled back their reopening plans, closing bars and restaurants again.
- A group of super wealthy people wrote an open letter asking governments to raise their taxes to help lower income people survive the pandemic. They calling themselves “Millionaires for Humanity,” the group writes: “millionaires like us have a critical role to play in healing our world,” “most essential workers are grossly underpaid for the burden they carry,” and “we must rebalance our world before it is too late.”
- Several B.C. Indigenous nations are asking visitors to stay away during the pandemic, including the Haida Nation, the Globe and Mail reports.
- At least five vaccines have now reached phase three trials, which is the final step before becoming approved, the New York Times reports.
Maybe next week one of those vaccines will be shown effective or we will find a cure. Hope so.
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