Diary: Living with a pandemic 1 (Friday 13 March 2020)

I read and write a lot about events related to natural phenomena, those mainly caused by Mother Nature. She has taken on a real persona to me as I relate stories about ancestors and their battles over the past centuries regarding changes to their environment and habitat.

One of the major types of events that impacted people and communities in the past is disease. I have written several blog posts and articles that concern such things as the plague, cholera, phthisis (tuberculosis), influenza and others. I know some of my ancestors died of diseases they contracted, although I have not yet documented any that succumbed during a widespread epidemic.

These past few months, the world has been plunged into what is now a pandemic. We have seen only a few pandemics in our lifetime, the latest being the global outbreak of Swine Flu in 2009 (H1N1 virus). While it was exceedingly widespread, its consequences were not as severe as some earlier pandemics.

No one is left alive who lived through the Spanish Flu pandemic that began in 1918. The death toll for that one has been estimated at between 50 and 100 million people – possibly 10% of people who had been infected. I do not know of any family members or died of the disease, but I have read accounts written by relatives whose families experienced conditions then.

What came home to us this week was that the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) has now reached into every corner of the globe and affected almost all of us who are witnessing its spread, directly and indirectly. At this time, we don’t know whether it may ultimately rival the Spanish Flu in its global extent and death rate.

Last fall I accepted an invitation to present some talks at family history conference in London. The idea was exciting and, notwithstanding the cost involved to get there, I was excited at the opportunity to be involved. My daughter was to accompany me to the event, and we planned to spend a few days in Amsterdam where my son and his family live.

At the beginning of 2020 we started to hear about Covid-19, first from China where it began. As the weeks progressed, we saw cases multiply in unbelievable numbers in China and then spread to other parts of the world where it took serious footholds. In the last couple of weeks, I have been watching it daily. It did not take long before cases were being found in the Netherlands and Britain, the two places where we planned to visit. I started to worry a bit about whether this could interrupt our trip, maybe cause us to reconsider travelling altogether.

Yesterday, the situation developed to the point that we had to decide whether to go or to stay home. All around us, events were being cancelled, travel was being discouraged, cases were increasing in number, abroad and now at home. We decided not to take any chances and forgo the trip. My son indicated he would have recommended that course of action in view of what is going on in the Netherlands.

After talking with my daughter and son, I decided I would start a journal myself about what I have seen and read, what might transpire concerning this new pandemic and how it could impact our family or other people we know. We are very hopeful we will not experience it first-hand of course.

This is the first installment. Others will be posted in my blogs as well.

In the past week, the stock market collapsed, partly due to the Covid-19 scare and the political decisions being taken, but as well by other events happening around the world. For us it has been a disaster with our holdings reduced in value by 25%. That alone was enough reason to cancel our trip to Europe.

As I write this (Friday, March 13^th – 8:00 am), 132 countries now have reported 137, 674 cases. There have been 5,080 deaths (3.7%) and 79,437 people have recovered (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019%E2%80%9320_coronavirus_pandemic_by_country_and_territory). The countries most affected are China, Italy, Iran South Korea, Spain, Germany and France. We have 158 cases in Canada, an increase of 35% in the last day. One person had died. We are on the upward trajectory for infections. Even the Prime Minister’s wife has test positive, so it impacts every level of society.

Local to international health authorities have taken the leadership to provide guidance and advice to control the rate of spread of the disease. They all still expect it to grow significantly but the hope and plan is to ensure it does so slow enough to allow medical facilities to effectively treat the new cases.

All events with more than 250 people have been halted in Alberta where I live. Sports leagues from minor to professional have cancelled or paused their seasons. Entertainment and other meetings where large groups of people might attend have been cancelled. Schools are being closed in some parts of the country.

Those who think they may have symptoms of the disease, and/or may have come into contact with others that are infected are being told to self-isolate to begin with and request testing only if they develop the symptoms. People are being encouraged to practise “social distancing” and make all efforts to avoid groups and keep themselves and their surroundings clean.

The world is changing before our eyes. Be careful out there!

More to come….