This term has been referred to regularly on many news updates. There seems to be an implication that it marks the ending of this pandemic. That is completely incorrect. What it basically means is that there is a slowing down of new cases. People are still getting sick and some are still dying, but the number is decreasing. Slowly.
We all want this to be over as soon as possible and get back to “normal” but it is simply going to take many months for this to occur, if ever. The Harvard Schoole of Public Health predicts that we would need to continue social distancing into 2022! What will the new “normal” be? No more hand shaking? Occupancy restrictions? Wearing masks? Social distancing as a rule rather than the exception? Sad to think about since humans are such social creatures. I’m not sure it will be that long but many people much, much smarter than me have been wrong about predictions and recommendations with this pandemic over the last couple of months.
Flattening the curve however is still a good thing because what it also means is that because there are fewer new cases, hospitals are not being overwhelmed with Covid patients and running out of medications, protective equipment and ventilators. As a result, fewer people will die because the resources will be available to treat them as effectively as possible.
Some people unfortunately think that the faster people get sick, the faster we will get over all this. Kind of like when we were kids, people would have “chicken pox parties”. The thought was that if one kid in a class or group got sick, may as well get them all sick and get it over with. The younger you are when you get it, the easier the disease is to get over. Although this is true, chicken pox is still not fun, nor is getting shingles when you are older since the virus NEVER leaves your body and comes back to haunt you later.
Although there is some rationale with this thought process, the bottom line, is that getting over it faster also means that more people will die unnecessarily.
At what point will we start to come out of our isolation? This is very hard to predict. We do know that even in places held up as models of how to control the disease, as soon as restrictions were lifted, new cases started to rise. Hong Kong, Singapour and even Japan seemed to be doing everything right. Closing the borders, closing all non-essential business and socially isolating. Despite the incredibly dense population, Hong Kong apparently only had a few thousand cases and very few deaths. The same was seen in Singapore. Draconian measures yes, but they worked. But even in those places, even the slightest loosening led to the number of new cases rising.
There is a lot we don;t know other than new cases are still developing and that in some parts of the US and the world, the peak has not yet even hit.
We just need to be patient and realistic. This may be a long haul.
Stay safe and be well.
AC 😎✌️🌱❤🐖🏃🏻🧘🏻♂️🌎