Tag: covid-19

Schrodinger COVID

On By kyndarisLeave a comment

Trying to keep one step ahead of COVID-19 is like trying to frenetically duck and weave in a boxing match with Muhammad Ali. My home state of New South Wales saw numbers peak in January even though testing sites were fewer and there were plenty of people that were still desperately trying to go on holiday. It came as no surprise then that leaders tried to ease the panic that had seized the population by advocating for the results from RATs (rapid antigen testing) and to discourage testing from individuals that displayed no symptoms after a possible casual encounter.

As fatigue set in, many have given up. What’s the point of trying to keep yourself safe when it seems like all your friends have somehow contracted the virus? When will we ever return to normal and actually start earning a living? Apathy, more than anything else, has finally led to people conceding in the war of attrition against the virus. 

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, though, being informed that you may have been a contact felt just as soul-crushing as a cancer diagnosis. I remember the call I received from a manager at work to tell me that there was a positive case at my workplace. There I was, sitting on my couch at home. Gaming. When my phone rings.

Initially, I thought it was a scam call. Or a telemarketer. These days, they seem to be favouring some place in Craigieburn, Victoria, or they ghost someone’s mobile number.

As one can imagine, I was hesitant at answering the call. It was about 8PM. I’d just settled in to either finish the story or complete some of the sidequests in an epic sprawling adventure. And then…the dreaded phone call.

So, when I picked up, I kept silent. If it was a scam or a telemarketer, I knew they’d hang up on me after a few seconds. Instead, I heard my manager’s voice. She was there to inform me that a courier that had visited the office building at the start of the week had tested positive. He had been wearing a mask at the time and the risk was low. They’d also checked the security feeds and she was positive that the courier hadn’t stopped on our floor. Nor had we interacted with him in any way.

Still, given that this was the Delta variant, that it was airborne and that it was highly transmissible, it meant that I needed to keep an eye out for any symptoms and go to get tested if I was feeling unwell (I was fine, of course – given that I was informed at the end of the week and had been sheltering in place for as long as I’ve been alive. Ah, the joys of introversion. Who needs to chat with people anyways?).

But that first blow, of being told that I might have encountered someone that had been positive and that I could possibly be carrying the virus was kind of shattering. I remember sitting down on the stairs of my house – trying to compute what I was being told and how that might impact me and my family. If I had the virus, what would it mean for my elderly grandmother? At that stage, none of us were vaccinated. I feared the worst. 

Still, I thought about it rationally. If I did have the virus, I had no power to go back in time to reverse what had happened. After all, not all of us are Max Caulfield and it wasn’t as if I was living in Arcadia Bay. Sitting there, grappling with the news that I might have been exposed, I accepted that if I had caught the dastardly virus, I’d simply have to deal with it the only way we know how. Go and get tested if I was displaying symptoms and maybe head to hospital if I suddenly found I couldn’t breathe. 

What else was I supposed to do, anyways?

The call ended with me waxing philosophical on how things are never quite as predictable as humanity would like. And that there are some things that cannot be changed no matter how much we may wish it. What’s the sense of raging against one’s fate if it was meant to be? The only thing I could do then was mitigate whatever damage.

Long story short, I never developed symptoms. And as such, never went to go get tested. During the Delta outbreak in Sydney, my mother had numerous scares but we’d been lucky enough to dodge the dreaded text messages from NSW Health identifying us as possible close contacts to the virus. The days went by in a blur and before we knew it, all of us had been vaccinated and Australia was finally opening up.

Nowadays, I don’t even blink twice when I see a COVID-19 alert. Given how pervasive it’s been during and after Christmas, it seems like everyone has caught COVID-19. And maybe it’s time to just get it over and done with.  At least, that’s what I’d like to say. 

Everyday I’m on public transport, mingling with people in the office. Everyday I’m risking contagion during lunch time when we all have our masks removed. I mean, I went and watched Six with a few work colleagues and a few friends. And I’m not letting COVID-19 ruin all my future plans to actually go to the theatre or to buy my video games.

I may be an introvert, but there’s still some merit in the occasional socialising. Maybe. Possibly? Oh, who am I kidding? Chatting with people is draining. Why are humans social creatures? Let me just escape into the world of Nadezra so I can be the fly on the wall as I watch and wait for Grey and Ren to fall for each other.

Keeping On

On By kyndarisLeave a comment

With soaring COVID-19 numbers in my home state, I find myself turning to a debate I had with a couple of my friends several months ago about governmental versus personal responsibility. At time of writing, it feels particularly apt. What with many politicians trying to foist the pandemic response on the public rather than actually imposing restrictions or mandates to help ease the burden on hospitals and soothing fears. Sound familiar to many situations across the globe?

But when it was first raised, it was during the extensive lockdown from June 2021 to October 2021. And all of that misery was sparked by a limo driver shuttling air crew from the airport. 

Many people on social media, and even traditional news outlets, had pinned the blame squarely on the shoulders of the unfortunate man. Particularly as they had not been vaccinated and had not properly practiced COVID safety measures such as mask wearing and completing the necessary checks. My friends, however, actually lay the blame on the government. They said that if there had been stricter requirements and controls systems in place, perhaps disaster would have been averted.

Another shining example has also been the father and son duo that spread COVID-19 into rural New South Wales because of the ‘need to inspect property.’ A lie, no doubt. But who is responsible? Some might say the government for not explicitly stating that during a lockdown, such activities should be limited. Others pin the fault on the individuals for trying to find a loophole through the restrictions: of trying to have their cake and eating it as well.

While there’s an argument for both sides, it does put into sharp contrast the way that so many governments around the world, as well as individuals that live in particular countries have reacted and responded to the necessary measures to combat the virus. Recent endeavours have seen many of the restrictions that were put in place to stop the Delta outbreak have seen cases jump astronomically high. The popular political refrain has been that it is now up to everyone’s ‘personal responsibility’ to keep cases down.

As 2020 and 2021 have showed us, however, humans are intent on their own destruction. Without government mandates or public health orders, we are revealed for the self-centred hedonistic creatures that we are. You can’t breathe with a mask but you want to seem like you care that there’s a raging pandemic? Slap a mask on your face but keep it below your nose. Feeling stifled about a government that is trying to look after the vulnerable in the community? Call them out for being a tyrannical and oppressing force, or bandying about words such as segregation and apartheid. As if the choice to get vaccinated was something you’re born with.

Spoiler alert: It’s not. And right-wing extremists don’t get to use such charged words considering the horrors people have endured because they weren’t the right skin colour. 

Sure, you might not be open to getting jabbed in the arm with something experimental, but that’s your choice. Just as it is your choice to put yourself in harm’s way and not reap the benefits of a protected public. After all, how can you visit friends or work in a high-risk field if you’re on a ventilator? I mean, just look at seatbelts. Sure, you can not wear it, get caught and be fined. That’s your choice. But what if you were actually involved in an accident? 

Do death and severe injury not frighten you? Psh. Of course not. You only live once, after all. 

Thank you for culling the herd of humans by crashing through the windscreen and becoming a smear of human paste on the road.

You’re doing your ancestors proud. 

At the very least the gene pool doesn’t have to deal with passing on your stupidity to the next generation. 

Oh wait. 

It probably still will because there are idiots that manage to luckily survive. Or perhaps the world will all come to a catastrophic end when someone pushes the big red button that says ‘Don’t.’ I’m putting my money on that.

Over and over again, we have seen people (and governments) look towards short term gains rather than the long term picture. Why else would humans be at two minutes to midnight and still dawdle on the subject of climate change?

Beyond that, we’ve had to deal with several years of misinformation and conspiracy theories. COVID-19 has always been the flu. The pandemic is a worldwide conspiracy hatched by the elite. Vaccines are actually a way for global governments to insert tracking devices into humans (as if that’s needed. If you have a mobile phone, they could have been tracking you ever since you got it).

Now, while I understand being vaccine hesitant – I, too, was concerned about possibly getting an AstraZeneca jab after the Delta outbreak in Sydney and with Pfizer so limited. The possibility of developing a blood clot had me paralysed. Thankfully, one of my work colleagues was quick to disabuse me of how special I was. 

Yet, in the end, there was a shipment from Poland and I, a twenty-something-year-old and supposedly a person in the age group that is mixing and mingling with others and totally getting COVID-19 and spreading it to others in my household, was finally able to feel a modicum of safety. It’s still a while to go before I’m eligible for a booster, but already I feel the weight of judgement despite my very introverted ways and hatred for the outside world.

On the other hand, we are not mindless drones. The social contract we share means that there are also several freedoms that we, as democratic countries, get to enjoy. And while many governments have seen the challenges that COVID has brought, they’ve also tried to place some trust in those that they govern. Masks. Public service announcements to wash one’s hands properly. To wear a mask in high-risk environments such as on public transport. Staff to be vaccinated, particularly if they work in hospitals or aged-care facilities.

But even reasonable requests have been looked at with ire. Just look at the protests all around Australia. Look even overseas to the United States of America and Europe. 

However, I ask you this. How willing would you be to attend a hospital if the leading surgeon was known to believe that blood transfusions was the work of the devil and that cancer was God’s way of testing you? Would you feel safe in the hands of nurses that were coughing and spluttering, unprotected, as you were wheeled into ER after a horrific car crash? Would there be such a focus on the ‘economy’ if there were brain-eating zombies roaming the streets?

It isn’t as if Western governments have shot people for breaking curfew. There are no checkpoints or armed defence personnel patrolling the streets. The secret police haven’t kidnapped anyone and tortured them to reveal other anti-vaxx sympathisers.

Beyond that, and in the example of the father and son duo, governments are not as omniscient as we all believe. They are fallible. Like humans. And there will be the occasional hole in the measures that they’ve put in place that individuals will take advantage of. Is that a responsibility of the government to come up with incredibly stringent rules and mandates or does part of the blame also lie in the individual for trying to bend them? 

Nothing is ever clear cut.

As the saying goes: where there’s a will, there’s a way.

People will constantly be trying to test boundaries. Perhaps governments should have been more specific about exemptions, or perhaps they shouldn’t. There’s also something to be said about personal responsibility. Western countries have always elevated the individual over the community, but maybe it’s time to flip that script and time to put some emphasis on why individuals should prize the whole over the one.

After all, it should be noted that masks are better served in protecting those around us, should that individual be carrying the virus, than the other way round.

I know this may be heavy stuff to read, but it’s been something that’s been sitting on my mind for a while now. 2022 is now here and I’m afraid that so many of us have not learnt the lessons that the previous years have taught us. Here’s hoping for some actual light at the end of the tunnel.

How to Deal with a Pandemic 101

On By kyndarisLeave a comment

When this post goes live, it’ll have been nearly a year since I went to Taiwan, my first and last trip overseas in 2020. It’s strange, going back over my initial thoughts on COVID-19. Never once did I think it would become a global pandemic that consumed the world with over two million deaths and nearly one hundred million infections (as of time of writing). In those early days, I thought that the virus would fizzle and die like many before it. Notably ones that come to mind were swine flu and bird flu. Nor did I think mask-wearing would become the norm in so many countries.

I remember thinking that the citizens of Taiwan were making a mountain out of a mole hill with how many masks I saw in early February 2020, the hand sanitisers at every entrance and staff rushing to do temperature checks everywhere you went. Fast forward to February 2021, and now firmly back in Australia, I often feel like many businesses – such as shopping centres, restaurants and government entities haven’t done nearly enough. 

After all, the state I live in, only made masks mandatory on public transport and in certain indoor settings as the world brought in the New Year. Granted, Australia has been incredibly lucky, in keeping COVID-19 numbers low. The call for hotel quarantine rather than self-isolation, the lockdowns, the support to people that have lost their jobs, our faith in science and obeisance to the law has meant that we haven’t suffered as catastrophically as other nations. And while tennis players complain, they need to know that the lives of the many outweigh the discomfort of a few. 

That said, there are many things that could have been done better. Like regular testing of hotel quarantine staff and other workers in high-risk areas. Ensuring people that are flying into Australia have returned a negative COVID-19 test before allowing them to board a plane. And if people are averse to hotel quarantine because they ‘need fresh air,’ another viable option might be the construction of quarantine facilities in locations that separate them from the rest of society. Reusing the detention centres on Christmas Island, perhaps, or putting them on other small islands/ peninsulas and allowing them to enjoy the summer camp experience of yesteryear.

Tired of being stuck in your rooms? Then hop on outside and do some rock climbing, abseiling or high ropes? Physical activity not your thing? Just stay in your rooms and watch Netflix.

Other activities of interest include: fencing, trust exercises with your family, orienteering and eating shitty camp food.

I digress.

Just today, I was reading the local news headlines and was glad to see US President Joe Biden enact quarantine for all travellers. The signing of executive orders to make masks mandatory on public transport and in Federal property were also good ideas. Yet while I commend him for actually taking a step forward in fighting a pandemic that has seen nearly half a million Americans dead, I also feel like it’s a little too late. These were actions that should have been taken at the very start – when COVID-19 was still struggling to lay down roots in countries other than China.

Perhaps governments were simply too optimistic. Or maybe they were too pessimistic – deeming extermination, or even suppression, an impossible task. And so, instead of going hard and fast, they were too slow to implement measures as they sent mixed messages to their citizens. To make matters worse, many reopened too early after their lockdowns. Without enough information to say if COVID-19 would spread more easily during the summer, Europe thought it best to keep the golden goose of tourism alive. 

Cue their rising numbers in September, October, November and December.

And after one lockdown, many were and still are reluctant to endure another. But, my friends, how can an economy sustain itself if the people that go out and spend money are sick. How can places of business remain open if half of their workers are dead or dying?

Also, who in their right mind thought herd immunity was a good idea WITHOUT a vaccine? Did you think that it would only be a few people in the vulnerable category would die? That the rest of society would just get the sniffles and bounce back stronger than ever?

For this humble blogger, living in Australia, it boggles my mind that so many countries reopened their economies when they only had a ‘few hundred’ cases each day. A few hundred IS A LOT! And it means that those ‘few hundred’ can very easily spread it to a ‘few thousand.’

So, when Melbourne hit 700 cases a day back in July, I watched on in trepidation. Why? Because it reached those numbers very quickly from low double-digit figures. 

Just one person can unknowingly give it to so many others. Particularly when the mask they’re wearing doesn’t cover their nose. Or they pull it down to sneeze.

Even with the vaccine rolling out across the globe, it shouldn’t make us complacent. Hand-washing, staying at least one and a half metres away, wearing a mask…these are all ways to help stop the spread. To repeat something that was shared for the first few months of the pandemic: FLATTEN THE CURVE!

Now, let’s hope that people are also taking a hard look at other ways to help stop the spread such as proper air ventilation in buildings, planes and public transport. 

Research also needs to be done on long-haulers and the lasting effects of COVID-19. Because even though the world might pick itself up after the pandemic, there’s still so much that is unknown about the disease and whether nations will see a rise in other deaths that could be sourced back to 2020: the year that could have been.