Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry gives a briefing on COVID-19. (Image Credit: BC Government / Flickr)

By Mel Rothenburger

ARMCHAIR MAYOR

ROTHENBURGER: Are we leaving COVID behind, or just ignoring it?

Mar 12, 2022 | 6:41 AM

I’M NOT READY to leave home. Well, not like pre-COVID, at least. Sure, I’m OK sitting in a coffee shop or walking down the street but I’d still feel uncomfortable squeezed cheek by jowl with a crowd at a movie, in the Sagebrush or at a sports event.

Dr. Bonnie Henry says it’s now OK to go maskless in most public places.

“We are in a place where we can once again adjust our approach,” she says.

This week’s announcement, along with other recent comments, seems to be a declaration couched in nice words that the fight against COVID-19 has been lost and we’ll just have to live with it. Or die with it. Friday, the day the masks came off, three more COVID deaths were reported.

So, the mask mandate is basically gone. Restrictions on gatherings are gone. Vaccine passports will soon be gone.

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Most of the population has lost its fear of COVID. They want to “get back to normal” and wildly cheer Dr. Henry’s relaxation of anti-pandemic measures. It’s like opening the gates of a prison and letting everyone go free, despite the fact, in her words, “we still have reasonably high transmission in our communities.”

I’ve been listening to business owners practically jumping for joy the past couple of weeks at the news of this relaxation. You would think the pandemic itself has given up and left the building.

Some of us, though, have become so conditioned to life with COVID that we’re reluctant to join the happy throng. We know the pandemic has become just as much about politics as it is about “the science.” I don’t believe for a second it’s over. We’re still in mid-pandemic but pandemic fatigue is winning out over pandemic caution.

Remember the early days of two years ago when we patiently stood in line outside big box stores and we were allowed inside only a few at a time? We were told to stay home as much as we possibly could. We weren’t allowed to gather in crowds, even in church. We weren’t allowed to mourn the loss of friends or family — funerals were postponed or, more often, cancelled altogether. (A friend of mine died two years ago and there still hasn’t been a service.) We had to give up family dinners at Christmas. And there were those awful quarantines.

Zoom became a part of everyday life. And there was tracking, and all that testing. And all that toilet paper.

Granted, vaccines have changed things for the better. But we’ve become complacent. We’ve lost our fear of COVID; at least a lot of us have. Those are the ones who don’t think they’ll get it and, if they do, that it won’t be serious. They’ve forgotten that people still die from it.

They don’t get that, just because they’re sick and tired of it and want to get back to normal doesn’t mean we can brush it off and get it out of our lives.

It would be an exaggeration to say I’m among those who suffer from FOGO — fear of going outside. I’ve actually carried on in a relatively normal fashion except for taking appropriate precautions and avoiding big crowds.

Indeed, I now approach life with what may be too much caution. It’s not just that I’m in the age group that’s most vulnerable to COVID. It’s that I haven’t yet regained my trust of what’s out there.

Fear of taking off the mask is, apparently, a pretty common thing. For some, wearing a mask has become a habit. For others, it’s like a security blanket. It makes us feel safe; well, safer. Going into the supermarket isn’t as stressful when everybody in the store is wearing a mask.

I’ll still wear mine but I’m sure few others in the store will do the same.

Some folks, though, are afraid of any contact at all. Count the immunocompromised and the elderly among them.

No doubt, there’s a sense of regaining control among those willing to throw off the shackles of pandemic mandates. Maybe even a sense of….. shall I say it…. freedom. Maybe, though, we’ll regain some of our compassion and patience, too.

And, maybe, in this moment, we’re OK. But Dr. BH slid in a careful caveat this week — we could still run into a new surge of COVID. If and when that happens, will we have the strength to shut down again?

I have my doubts. In the meantime, I’ll continue wearing my mask even if others don’t.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and a retired newspaper editor. He is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.