Feeling Isolated

Day 6 of mandatory isolation. Although, really, what does it matter. Pretty much everything is shut down. And I suspect more restrictions are on the way.

The news is very depressing and I really should stop looking at it.

The Globe and Mail, Canada’s national “newspaper” just published the following helpful article: Canadians urged to plan ahead for end-of-life decisions as toll from COVID-19 builds.

As the death toll of the coronavirus pandemic mounts, some doctors are encouraging Canadians to plan for serious illness and possible death now, rather than leaving family and medical staff to make those difficult decisions once they become ill.

Whoever engineered this shutdown, you win.

Retirement assets pummelled. A deliberate demolition of an economy that will take a generation to mend. Life on hold with many living in fear, uncertainty and doubt.

I surrender.

Hope?

Nothing yet from those in government that lead us.

We must conquer the bug.

At all costs.

Being isolated this way isn’t helping my outlook on the global pandemic. We are parked in the private campground of a closed for business Motorhome dealership.

It is cold.

It is wet.

It is overcast.

Rather depressing really.

We are alone.

No one to infect if we carry the virus.

No one to infect us if they carry the virus.

When I thought about being isolated for a couple of weeks, it didn’t seem that bad. But could this go on for a long, long time?

Is it possible to live this way for a long, long time?

And what will life look like on the other side?

I see indications of a new breed of pundit, the coronavirus denier. This fellow sent me a note with the following perspective:

I feel like this pandemic has now taken on a whole psychological life of its own, most citizens comply with the official story and are scared by the media, but in truth the reaction is way out of proportion to the evidence, and the ensuing damage to humanity will be staggeringly worse.

There are many on the right that have embraced conspiracy theories pushing a view that the coronavirus is a hoax even going as far as to video hospital activities:

On Saturday, a video taken outside the Brooklyn Hospital Center in New York went viral, showing a quiet scene in an attempt to counter the idea that the coronavirus pandemic has strained some hospitals.

The video, taken by former Fox News commentator Todd Starnes, jump-started a conspiracy theory that resulted in a trending hashtag and millions of video views — all of which pushed the idea that the pandemic has been overblown by public health organizations and the media.

A day later, a different video of the same hospital went viral on Facebook and Twitter. It showed bodies being loaded onto an 18-wheeler outside the same hospital. The video, which was retweeted by a member of the New York City Council, was later confirmed as legitimate by the hospital.

The two videos illustrate the stark disparity in how the coronavirus outbreak is being portrayed on different parts of the internet, with many people on the far right going so far as to allege that overworked health care professionals are not telling the real story.

Give this pandemic a few more weeks and we might see the horrific unfolding of a savage and lethal virus. The coronavirus is in the wild and it is spreading quickly.

Will our actions slow it down?

Will social unrest become an issue?

Will governments become more authoritarian?