Save Our Economy By Not Being An Idiot

Set aside your thoughts on the seriousness of the COVID-19 death rate or infection rate. Believe it, don’t believe it, serious, not serious – set that aside for a moment. This isn’t about that.

The economy is getting killed here. How will it recover? When tourism returns, when concerts and SPORTS venues re-open, and in general our normal lives return.

How do we get that to happen? Well, when the coronavirus is contained. That means that the amount of infected people is below the number that it was on, say (for example), March 10 and that easy and accessible testing methods are available everywhere. March 10 the infected in Canada was around 90. Today it is 180. Italy went from 10,000 to 17,000 in those four days.

Will it be contained sooner if 20,000 Canadians decide to hop on a plane when the government begs you not to? Will it be contained if an additional 100,000 Canadians decide to hit a bar or bring the kids to a playland for something to do on March Break? Probably not.

When 1000 people are infected (180 identified, probably 820 still not knowing it), it’s easier to contain if we all work together. When it’s 10,000 infected – that’s not so easy to contain. And this rotten economy (and NO HOCKEY!) continues for an extra few weeks. Yesterday, someone from Waterloo tested for COVID-19. Then they promptly hopped on a West Jet flight to head south. Later, the test came back positive. These are the decisions that take sports away from us until July at best…and TBH it is because of these decisions people make that I am certain hockey won’t return until October. This hits the economy. There are people not making a paycheck right now, and even a handful of people getting this “flu” means a handful more get it (which means a handful more…and a handful more). And that means that those not getting paychecks will miss one or two more checks as things remain shut down for just a little longer.

Please, it’s just a couple of weeks. Enjoy friends and family. If you don’t want to take this seriously because of your slim odds of catching it, or dying…then at least take this seriously because you want the economy to recover, and you want those others to get their paycheck sooner. Also, as a bonus, you’d get sports back.

All the best to the Vacationers

March Break is a big deal for families who are dying for a vacation. For obvious reasons, it’s the most well-traveled vacation time of the year in terms of heading south. It’s stupid to cancel the trip over a silly flu, right? After all, you lose some or all of your deposit. Hundreds of dollars wasted and possibly thousands.

And now that COVID-19 has the government practically begging Canadians not to leave the country, the prices on last-minute travel deals are as cheap as they will ever get. That’s pretty tempting, especially when you know that the countries down there have a low number of infections.

Have fun on your trip! Good luck getting back in!

If you didn’t see the writing on the wall before you left, then you deserve what’s coming to you. I’m sorry, some of you are my friends, I love you – but…come on. Shit was ramping up mighty quickly on Thursday and Friday, did you really think that would slow and then level out and then stop by the time you got back in a week? No way. It will get worse before it gets better. And I’m talking a week or two of getting worse, before it gets better.

Best-case scenario, Canada forces all of you to return early and actually brings you back at no further cost to you. Followed by heavy screening and 14-day self-quarantine. But at worst, they just ban all international flights and you’re just stuck there for a few weeks.

The answer will be somewhere in between. I think you’ll get back as scheduled, possibly not to the same airport you left from (depending on which one you left from). Lineups will be chaos (and painful). There will be testing done on each of you, possibly put in a room for 10 or 12 hours or more. And a 14-day self-quarantine ordered. That’s not fun, but if that’s all it is then that one day of suffering may even be worth the seven days of relaxation you enjoyed. I wouldn’t go through that for a four-day trip though. But for reasons I stated at the top, I would not have gone at all. The government could be doing something else with those medical testers – something progressive in this containment effort – as opposed to wasting time testing vacationers who wouldn’t listen to the pleas.

Small Businesses, I feel for you

Disney has closed.  Major Sports have closed. Minor sports held out an extra day, hoping for a loophole that would allow them to still make money as they scrape by…but in the end they closed. City Recreational Centers, same thing. They hoped to stay running, but they closed. The Science Center in Toronto held out until Friday evening, but they closed. Smaller playlands have started closing, but the truly small and independent ones remain open. Same goes for bars and nightclubs. Closing now would mean closing for what could be seven weeks or more. That would bankrupt some! So they’re holding out. But that is the very decision that extends this situation…for all of us, including them. Unfortunately, you have to cut the cord. Close up shop. Because some people are incapable of helping themselves. They’ll still go.

Do your part. Rip the Band-Aid off. We’re all in this.