One careless person can ruin pandemic buffer

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/08/2020 (2100 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If there is anything we have learned about COVID-19, it is that one act of wanton disregard can imperil an entire community.

This week, public health officials determined that a single person travelling back to Manitoba from Eastern Canada was responsible for a cluster of 18 cases of COVID-19 in Brandon.

Dr. Brent Roussin, Manitoba’s chief public health officer, said the individual did not follow 14-day quarantine guidelines “perfectly.” He said little else, other than to suggest vaguely the person may have stayed home but did not isolate from others he or she lives with.

This is a cautionary tale for Manitoba, an indication of just how vulnerable we are to COVID-19, particularly when it only takes a single person to ignore public health requirements. Lamentably, this single person is not alone.

Recently, staff at the Fort Gibraltar historic site in St. Boniface were forced to turn away a couple from Quebec after it was determined they had not quarantined for 14 days after arriving in Manitoba.

Staff claimed the couple were “very surprised” and “angry” to find out they were not eligible to tour the site. The couple also said they had learned their lesson and would lie next time someone asks if they had isolated for the required period.

We’ve also had tales of brazen disregard being demonstrated by some Winnipeg restaurant and bar owners, who have allowed their patios to fill up despite clear guidelines requiring them to enforce social distancing.

After photos of his teeming patio were published on social media, Shea Ritchie, the owner of Chaise Corydon, claimed his patio tables were two metres apart, but that groups of patrons who were seated together began to mingle with other groups. Despite clear evidence to the contrary, Ritchie claimed it was not his responsibility to “police” patrons who were not social distancing.

The failure by the single traveller who visited Eastern Canada, the couple from Quebec and Ritchie’s short-sighted rationalizations are proof that far too many people, including many political leaders, continue to misjudge our predicament.

Far too many of us consider widespread and aggressive testing, non-medical masks and social distancing as unbearable impositions. And we celebrate the lifting of these measures as some type of victory in the war against the virus.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

COVID-19 is still active in Manitoba and until there is a vaccine, or at the very least better treatments, we can only hold the virus in check. That means all those things we can do to avoid a complete lockdown — increases in the quantity, accessibility and pace of testing, the use of non-medical masks, occupancy limits to allow for social distancing — are actually the tools of our liberation.

The more we adhere to social distancing, the more businesses and attractions can reopen, albeit in limited fashion. The more we wear non-medical masks, the more places can stay open and more people can be allowed into them. The more diligence we demonstrate in self-isolating following travel, the more likely it is that we’ll be able to travel.

As has been shown in the United States, the consequences of raging against the rules of the new normal are quite clear: spikes in infections and the strong likelihood that a total social and economic lockdown will need to be revived. And with the fall coming, there is a whole new range of scenarios that could derail our pandemic response.

Consider the province’s decision to allow children to return to in-class education. The province did not deliver a single, comprehensive public health plan for the return to school; instead, it provided a range of options that individual divisions and schools can pick from.

The province could have taken a more draconian approach, required everyone to be masked and set limits on the number of children in any one building, not just in any one classroom. But it didn’t, largely because the Tory government is politically and philosophically committed to “reopening” and resuming normal life.

But one child, who comes from a family where someone flouted quarantine rules after travelling or who spent an evening on a packed bar patio, or lies about having come into contact with a known case of COVID-19, can derail our reopening plans and plunge us back into severe restrictions.

As we learn more about the pervasive and insidious nature of COVID-19, it makes you wonder why we aren’t less focused on getting back to pre-pandemic normal, and working hard to establish a new, post-pandemic normal.

There are very few people travelling by air to and from Manitoba these days. Would it be so ridiculous to require every arriving passenger to get a COVID-19 test and provide details on where they are isolating? Is it outside the realm of possibility to have contact tracers keep in touch with all travellers to remind them of their isolation responsibilities?

Given that so many of our most recent cases are related to travel, it’s at least worth considering.

It may seem extreme to some, especially those living under the misconception that somehow, through sheer will and optimism, we’re going to claw our way back to pre-pandemic normal.

Pre-pandemic normal is gone for the time being. Maybe for good. Better to start embracing the normal we have now.

dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca