Tag Archives: social distancing

Making history

We are living through one of the biggest social experiments in history. We are getting thousands of data points all over the world that show us what the Delta variant is doing…

In Florida:


And in India:

In comparison to Iceland and the UK:

The difference in deaths is directly related to the number of people in less and more vaccinated areas.

And in Mississippi and Louisiana:


Want to guess what the death rate will look like in these highly unvaccinated areas?

Where does the social experiment come in? India didn’t have ready access to vaccines, Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana all did. Meanwhile, the Florida Governor has an order against mask mandates in schools. Over the coming months we get to see large scale data sets on how decisions like this affect the lives and deaths of people in different places. We get to see what happens when people put themselves before their communities, and what fear can do to undermine society.

Decades from now there will be case studies in textbooks that will discuss the differences in preventable deaths. There will be questions about how to prevent this in a future pandemic. There will be models to show how devastating this kind of response would be if the same pandemic response happened with a virus that is 3, 10, or 20 times more contagious and/or deadly.

The Delta variant, which is affecting younger people more indiscriminately than the original variant, is quickly becoming the great un-equalizer. It is quickly revealing how a good response to the pandemic fairs so much better than a bad response. The sad part is that it’s doing this with hospitalization and deaths.

Equally as sad is that many younger kids and immune compromised people that do not have a choice to get a vaccine will suffer because of people who are able to take an available vaccine and choose not to. The unvaccinated, that are so by choice, are creating a giant social experiment where they are playing with people’s lives, and the data that’s coming out is proving this.

The worse part is that they are basing this choice on fear and misinformation. And as a PSA, the vaccine makes us safer, not safe.

Wear a mask. Practice social distancing. Stay safe.

Safer, not safe

There is no shortage of videos and social media posts sharing data that clearly demonstrates that the vaccine is saving lives. These include posts sharing that hospitals are being inundated with unvaccinated covid patients in areas where double-vaccinated populations are low. Today I saw a post of a teary-eyed man who thanked a doctor for his amazing videos because his mom finally got vaccinated after seeing several of the doctor’s videos that her son shared with her. With FDA approval for the Pfizer vaccine coming this week, I think even more people will chose to get vaccinated. That’s great news. It’s sad that so many people are still willing to remain unvaccinated, and it seems as though no amount of data, or scientific evidence will change their minds.

But there are concerns that I have for those that are already vaccinated. These concerns are social rather than medical. The Delta variant is far more contagious than the original covid strain. There are many more breakthrough cases (double vaccinated people catching and spreading covid) happening with Delta, and while the risk of hospitalization and death are very low compared to unvaccinated people, vaccinated people can still spread Delta.

So, to all the double-vaccinated people out there, please don’t be under the illusion that the vaccines have made you safe. You are safer, not safe. Still wear a mask in public places. Still pay attention to social distancing protocols. Still be part of the solution rather than adding to the problem. This isn’t just so that we protect ourselves, it is so that we protect our loved ones and our community. In heavily vaccinated places like Canada, if the vast majority of vaccinated people complied with mask and social distancing safety protocols, we can hopefully turn the current increase in cases into a small blip as opposed to a full on next wave.

It’s not lost on me that I’m asking the very people who have done the most to do more. But this is the population more likely to comply, and wearing masks and socially distancing is so much better than lockdowns and dangerously full hospitals.

First guests

Yesterday my wife and I went to a family member’s house for lunch. The family has immunocompromised members and have taken the lockdowns and social distancing very seriously. We were the first guests in their house in almost a year and a half. At one point, one of them said, “I’m having a moment, this is the most normal thing I’ve done in a long time!”

Although we are double vaccinated, we still wear masks in public places, and practice social distancing, and when we had friends over a couple weekends ago, we still held the gathering in our back yard. We are being thoughtful about how we move forward. But yesterday that quote kind of struck me. Yes, it was also our first time invited into someone’s house for lunch in quite some time, as well as their first time receiving guests… It was a first step towards normal.

Sharing meals is a special thing that brings us together, and being freer to do so now is wonderful. While caution is still needed, and being double vaccinated does not give us 100% immunity, we are on a path to ‘normal’. I fear that large pockets of unvaccinated people will prolong the need for caution, and we are not moving fully towards pre-covid normal any time soon, but this moment of being first guests was pretty special.

I’m not sure what the new normal will be, but at least we are moving in the right direction, and I think we will have a few more ‘firsts’ in the coming months.

Connecting digitally

I had a chat with a friend a couple days ago and he said, “I’m just looking forward to joining you in a pub for some chicken wings and beers.”

I was thinking of this last night when I reflected on our friendship over the last 30+ years. We’ve actually had conversations before where we said, ‘The next time we get together, we actually need to do something besides sit and have a drink together.’

It’s a small thing but it puts what we are going through in perspective. We are social beings and we want to connect in any way that we can right now.

I had a dinner meeting last night. We all left our different work locations, independently picked up food, went to our own homes, and turned on Zoom to be together digitally for the meeting. We played a game of Kahoot to start, and then we went through the agenda. No, it wasn’t as good as being together, but it was still good. It was wonderful to ‘see’ people that I haven’t seen in a while. There were a few laughs, and it was definitely worthwhile to plan it as a dinner meeting, even if we were sitting separately in different houses.

This is a time when we need to stay connected while respectfully staying apart. And this isn’t just a 2020 thing… we will be doing this very well into 2021 if not starting this way in 2022 as well. That’s a long time to be socially isolated. But if this happened 20 years ago we would not be able to stream a video meeting with over 30 people sharing video. We would only have been able to share voices.

Now it’s easy to connect both ‘face-to-face’ while also keeping your distance via digital tools. The easiest of which is your phone. Last night I had a FaceTime conversation with my daughter. It was our longest chat since she last come to see us. Interestingly enough, I think it was as long of a conversation as I had with her while she was here.

I don’t know why, but the lyrics from Billy Joel’s song Piano Man just came to mind, “We are sharing a drink called loneliness, which is better than drinking alone.” I guess we are substituting physically connecting with digitally connecting, and while it’s not the same as meeting in person, it is better than being even more isolated.

We don’t need to feel alone, if we make the effort to connect… from a distance.

How hard is it to be considerate?

I love Starbucks pumpkin scones. Since they are seasonal and I haven’t had enough of them yet this year, I talked my wife into picking up Starbucks on the way to our walk this afternoon… it doesn’t take much convincing:)

We walked into the store and lined up behind just a couple people. Then the person behind us came in without a mask. A server said to him, “Excuse me sir, we have a mask policy in the store.”

He responded, “I have a breathing condition, I can’t wear masks.”

I’ll be honest, I rolled my eyes at this. Then another customer spoke up and called him an ‘@$$hole’. I thought that was uncalled for. It’s one thing to be upset, still another to just attack the person.

When my wife was ordering, I saw an employee giving the mask-less customer a $4 gift card, and apologizing to him, saying that he shouldn’t have to hear that in the store. A very thoughtful gesture, and the customer responded that it was ok, and that he doesn’t let comments like that bother him.

Then this unmasked customer’s masked wife or girlfriend joined him in line and later while we were waiting for our drinks, I noticed two things that the unmasked customer did that I thought were quite inconsiderate. First, he waited inside, while his masked partner went outside to wait. Second, he leaned around the plexiglass separating the employees from the customers and made a couple different requests (for a glass of water and something else I didn’t hear).

I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he is one of the rare people that can’t actually wear a mask for less than 7 minutes to order a coffee. Sure, he can have that. But what about wearing a visor? What about respecting the protective plexiglass that was put there to separate employees from customers? What about having your partner line up for the drink and staying out of the store? Or what about having her wait inside while you wait outside after the order?

I didn’t say anything to him. Maybe I should have, but he’d already had a rude interaction with another customer and it’s not in my nature to escalate conflict. But I think the mask-less customer could have been more considerate towards everyone in the store.  And I think it’s just a matter of courtesy that the rude customer didn’t need to be such an @$$ himself.

I commend the Starbucks employee for doing something good… something considerate. I just wish others could do the same.
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More posts on wearing a mask:

I’d rather be a sheep than a lemming

Wear a mask

I don’t agree to disagree

When bad ideas go viral

Smile with your eyes

Digital bubble

Just a quick reminder that while our social circles are very small right now, we can still connect with others online. Make that phone call a video call. Make that video call a 3-way or 4-way conversation.

We need to be thoughtful about how many people we meet face to face with, but that doesn’t limit us from connecting with family and friends online.

Who haven’t you seen in a while that you miss? Well, you can still see them on a screen. You don’t have to tidy the house or add an extra cleaning to the bathroom, just pick up your laptop or phone and make a call. (Ok, maybe comb your hair first 😜.)

We live in an incredibly connected world and we can make distance and time zones disappear with the click of a few buttons. So, who are you missing right now? It’s time to open up your digital bubble!

We do not know

In a number of different places I’ve already said that COVID-19 has humbled me in that my thoughts and predictions have been way off. I’m not the only one.

Here is an interesting but worrisome article from Vox: My patient caught Covid-19 twice. So long to herd immunity hopes?

“We do not know how much immunity to expect once someone is infected with the virus, we do not know how long that immunity may last, and we do not know how many antibodies are needed to mount an effective response.”

There is still so much we need to learn about this virus that has changed the social and economic habits of humankind on a massive scale. So much we don’t know.

Here’s one thing I believe, (while admittedly not truly knowing):

We are going to be dealing with COVID-19 social restrictions and economic repercussions well into 2022.

I want to be wrong. I hope I’m wrong. I doubt that I’m wrong.

I tend to be optimistic, and this doesn’t sound very optimistic. Not at all. But I think accepting that from now and right through 2021, we will be navigating a defensive response to COVID-19 will help us stay positive. We can plan the best possible path forward facing a very challenging scenario, and be pleasantly surprised if I’m wrong. This is better than hoping for the best and continually being disappointed.

If we prepare for a long response, adhering to the required social distancing and social norms recommended to us, we will make things better, faster.

The path forward won’t be easy, but maybe we’ll learn some valuable lessons along the way. On the path, we need to be patient with each other. Tolerant. Forgiving. Kind.

We aren’t designed to live our lives in a constant state of anxiety or stress, and it’s hard to constantly adapt to change. But the rules for social interaction are going to be fluid for a while, sometimes loosening restrictions and opening public and social spaces, sometimes closing them down again. We need to be fluid too. Responsive. Adaptable.

We may not know what the future holds, but we will be more prepared for that future if we prepare for a prolonged and bumpy ride. Let’s work together and make it as smooth as possible.

Wanting to connect

This is one of the headlines that came across my news feed several times yesterday, “Ontario to maintain group size restrictions amid rising COVID-19 cases, crowded parks”

It seems that many people wanted to take advantage of the great weather and social distancing took a back seat to social gathering, despite an uptick of COVID-19 cases in southern Ontario.

This isn’t unusual behaviour, with similar things happening in parks and on beaches across North America. It isn’t something that bodes well when considering that economies are opening up and people are beginning to be exposed to more interactions with others. Social distancing needs to be something that we continue while things open up. So, why are people behaving like this?

We have a natural affinity to want to spend time with people and to be social… well, most people do, definitely not everyone. This is the typical overreaction we see with teenagers, when they get new freedoms and want to push the line. How many times have you heard a phrase like, “Give them an inch and they’ll take a mile.” Well, seems like this is as true for adults as it is for kids.

People want to connect. They want to congregate, they want to celebrate.

I know many people that have had to cancel travel plans. My own summer plans with my wife and two other couples is no longer going to happen. I know of two cancelled weddings, one was a local celebration and one was a destination wedding. These are big events to change! These are celebrated gatherings that will not happen for a while yet. This is tough to miss out on.

But it’s not as tough as not being able to visit another country to say goodbye to a loved one who is dying, it’s not as tough as knowing you are the one that spread a virus to someone that didn’t recover like you did. It’s not as tough as shutting down the economy a second time, when the curve isn’t flattened enough and there is a fear of hospitals being overwhelmed.

The economy has to be opened up. We need to be returning to some sense of normalcy, we need to create opportunities to connect with others in our communities, to work along side each other, and to do things that are more social than they have been. But we need to do so in recommended and respectful ways.

We need to accept some risk, but not be risky. We need to connect, and not crowd each other. We can’t wait for a vaccine, and we can’t stay shuttered in place indefinitely. We need to connect responsibly, and in ways recommend by experts. We can’t ignore the need to engage in our society, but we also can’t be reckless.

Social distance in schools

A couple days ago our premier made a major announcement about the reopening of the economy in BC. The timing of our March break gave us a huge advantage over other provinces, and the residents of BC have done a very good job of social distancing.

As part of the plan in BC, continuing to practice social distancing is key:

So what does that really look like in schools?

Students used to be put in rows, and worked mostly independently, but that has changed quite a bit in the past few decades. Things like collaboration, group work, and peer support are all part of what a typical class looked like in 2019… What will this look like for the rest of 2020?

How do we integrate the lessons we have learned teaching from a distance, to reduce the physical distance challenges we will now face in classrooms? If we aren’t thinking about this, it will be easier to revert to more individualized learning than it would be to try to foster the same (or similar) collaborative experiences that have made schools more engaging for students in recent years.

How do we provide rich learning experiences in schools, while also adhering to social distancing etiquette and expectations?

What will it look like?

A few days ago I wrote a post This is not the ‘new normal’, and I said,

“This is not the ‘New Normal’, this is a pandemic that will come to an end. This is temporary.”

This morning I ‘met’ Dave Sands on Zoom and we recorded a podcast. We spent about an hour online together and it was great to ‘see’ him. The fact that this was not face-to-face didn’t matter that much. In fact, I’ve ‘seen’ Dave much more in the last few weeks than I have in months. The reason for this is that we’ve connected almost daily on Microsoft Teams for work, since the March break ended 3 weeks ago. But I would have loved to have Dave over to do the recording. To sit and have coffee and enjoy his company along with the conversation.

This afternoon my wife and I joined another couple in their back yard. We sat apart, respecting ‘social distancing’ norms. We brought our own cups and drinks, and left after only touching the chairs we sat on. No handshakes, no hugs, no communal snacks or drinks. This was our first social gathering like this in about 2 months. It was wonderful to connect.

This is not the new normal, but I wonder what the new normal will look like? Will we be less likely to greet people with hugs and handshakes? Yesterday I saw a girl and her dad at a crosswalk. The young girl looked like she was about 4 years old. She got off her bike and ran to press the crosswalk button… with her elbow. Will we ever look at things like elevator buttons, public handrails, and door handles the same way?

Part of me thinks that things will eventually return to a normal that resembled what it looked like in 2019, but part of me wonders about social norms and practices, and how these will change? Will we bow to greet someone rather than shake their hands, hug, or fist bump? Will restaurant workers preparing our food all wear masks? Will we carry hand sanitizer everywhere we go and use it constantly?

We are months and months away from any kind of normal, but when that normal arrives, how many norms and social practices will have changed as a result of Covid-19 pandemic.