As Ontario and most provinces in Canada begin to remove or eliminate health restrictions I am sure many of us are wondering, is COVID really over? What will life be like when the restrictions we have lived with for two years are gone? Will there be a backlash against businesses and individuals that decide to follow some of the now lifted restrictions (asking for proof of vaccination or wearing masks).
I am fully vaccinated with three shots. As a family we followed the many health guidelines that were announced over the last two years. We cancelled family dinners, restricted attendance at special occasions and limited our exposure generally. At the beginning of the pandemic many of these restrictions seemed necessary and logical given how the disease was spreading and how little governments and health experts knew about the virus. As time went on and we understood more about the disease many of the restrictions made less and less sense. Were small businesses where the number of people in a store/location could be easily managed so dangerous that they needed to be closed while Costco stayed open? Were restaurants with limited capacity to allow for distancing so unsafe they needed to be closed? Despite restrictions that over time seemed to be more guided by politics (Jason Kennedy I am talking about you!) than science we continued to support and follow the government announcements.
I have consistently said that on spectrum of the pandemic’s tragedy we have been largely unscathed. Teresa and I are retired so we did not have a job to lose. We did not contract COVID and were able to get our vaccinations early in the cycle each time. Our children also kept all their jobs or school positions and with the exception of one all avoided COVID (Patrick and Monica who did contract COVID prior to any vaccination described it as the most ill they have ever felt but they did not require hospitalization and seem to have completely recovered). All our children are fully vaccinated.
However, we did miss things. Our youngest son had planned their wedding and reception in June 2020 and it was cancelled because of capacity restrictions. They were married in our backyard with only five us able to attend instead of the roughly 100 family and friends they had planned on. (We live-streamed the wedding for friends and family). We missed family get togethers for birthdays and special occasions. We missed annual events at our cottage. Friends we normally would have spent time with were missed.
When Teresa and I travelled to California and Hawaii in October/November 2021 I felt one of the things that made the travel easier and made us feel safer was the fact that the COVID health restrictions in both those states were virtually the same as Ontario at the time (in fact Hawaii was slightly stricter). Not only did we feel safe, we were in an environment we were used to. Although we decided to take a ski vacation close to home this winter we did briefly discuss the idea of travelling to Arizona for a golf vacation. We decided that we were not ready to visit a place where there were no health guidelines and the state government seemed to not want to acknowledge that COVID was a health risk.
As we got into February and Omicron seemed to be easing up we decided that we would visit Brendan and Candace in West Virginia. They had moved there in June 2020 after their backyard wedding. Because of the border restrictions we had not been able to visit them since they moved. So we arranged a time that worked for Brendan and Candace and took a trip to Wheeling, West Virginia (we are still here and Teresa and I have planned a few days in Nashville before a short return visit to Wheeling and then back home).
As a baseline I thought it might be worth reviewing a few statistics about West Virginia in comparison to Ontario.
At 16.6M Ontario’s population is roughly 8 times West Virginia’s 1.8M people
As of March 2 the 7 day average for COVID deaths in West Virginia was 19. For the same period Ontario’s 7 day average was 25. Normalizing for population I think that would put West Virginia at 152 (I don’t know if it is mathematically accurate to just multiple by the population difference but for the purposes of this post it is what you get)
Total deaths from COVID recorded in West Virginia are 6,381. In Ontario that number is 36,726. Using the same population adjustment that would put West Virginia at 51,048
53.7% of the population of West Virginia is double vaccinated while that number for Ontario is 80.9%
One last stat. West Virginia has the highest percentage of voters who vote Republican of all 50 states. Yes we have Doug Ford. But to be clear, in West Virginia Doug Ford would be considered a socialist (smile).
So with that as background we arrived in Wheeling last week. What is it like? It is like COVID does not exist. It is a flashback to March 2019. There are no vaccine or masking mandates. I have not been following local news (I like to follow Canadian news while I am travelling) but I am guessing there is very little discussion of COVID. In Wheeling it is very (read very very) unusual to see anyone wearing a mask. Some staff in grocery stores and a few customers (less than 5%) are wearing a mask. When we went to the Trader Joe’s in Pittsburgh I would say maybe 10% of the people in the store where wearing a mask (the store was very crowded). There are some billboards in Pittsburgh encouraging people to wear masks. We went to the Penguins hockey game last Saturday (which was lots of fun). The stadium was full and I cannot remember seeing anyone wearing a mask. After the game we went to a crowded (and delicious) Mexican restaurant were we waited in a very crowded bar for 45 minutes for our table. Again, no one in the bar or restaurant with a mask on (I think our server was wearing a mask).
So I think this is what it is going to be like when Ontario fully lifts all COVID restrictions. I think in Ontario we may see a higher percentage of people continue to wear masks after the mask mandate is finally dropped (I know I am considering continuing to wear a mask in places like public transit). Some restaurants and places of business may still require proof of vaccination although I think this will fall away quickly. I hope the divisions that COVID restrictions caused in families, friends, businesses and society in general heal. I hope the frustration level I felt with people not just with the pandemic and the restrictions but in general begin to evaporate.
How does it feel in West Virginia? It all feels pretty normal. It is important to note that with the exception of the hockey game and the Mexican restaurant we have not really been anywhere crowded. I have gone to the gym every morning, it is always empty. Teresa and I have hiked most days, seeing very few people. We have been shopping during the day so the stores have not been crowded. But despite what I said about how safe we felt in California and Hawaii because of the restrictions and how we did not see ourselves in Arizona in February I would say all is good here. We are certainly not walking around worrying about COVID, in fact we rarely think or talk about it.
Hopefully this is the direction that we will see in Ontario and around the world (Teresa and I are hoping to travel more again soon). Also, we very much want the elimination of capacity restrictions to stay in place, we are planning the wedding reception for Brendan and Candace at the end of May.
As always let me know any comments or thoughts. You can reach me at thethirdperiod.ca@gmail.com
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