People are getting antsy.
The delicate balance between maintaining patience to prevent the spread of COVID-19 versus the urgency and anxiousness most are feeling about wanting to reopen the economy is reaching its peak.
People who’ve been complying with stay-at-home orders - and a lot aren’t - are growing restless about how long this could go on. The time since this all started in our part of the world in mid-March until now already seems like an eternity.
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We’re seeing an alarming lack of following regulations in the United States which has more cases than anywhere else in the world. Just what happens there might very well dictate the extent of devastation from the deadly virus.
Protests have been springing up around the U.S. about keeping businesses closed and the complete destruction of peoples’ livelihoods in a very short period of time. Many want to salvage what they can now and take their chances with the impacts of COVID-19.
At the same time, counter protests have emerged about the protests with people urging others to stay the course and not go back to normal yet or else the consequences will be severe, they maintain.
In Canada, there’s generally been a calmer approach so far but protests are also starting to emerge. No one’s happy the economy is in a shambles because of this, but Canadians seem more accepting of a short-term pain for a long-term gain than our American friends.
COVID is still a completely unfamiliar animal and we don’t know what the long-term effects will be. Will it suddenly fizzle out or continue to infect countless people around the world via our lack of social distancing habits?
No matter what you believe about the virus, the toll it’s taking is unprecedented. Trying to recover from all this is going to take incredible acts of courage from all levels of government right down to individuals and their families.
Hopefully, we can salvage something of our previous lives. It’s still not clear, though, what things are going to look like on the other side of the pandemic.