I’ve always been one to keep up on the news. As a child, current events was one my favourite subjects. We received a daily newspaper at my house and I would voraciously read it while eating my cereal each morning. Now days, I’ve forgone the newspaper, but I still typically start my day going online looking at the headlines and top stories. I start skimming articles out of Ireland before moving onto world news, then finish up with the US news.

The one consistent thing in the news the past few months, at least for me as a current events junkie and public health scientist, has been Coronavirus. Working in the public health field, and having worked on outbreaks of infectious disease (albeit nothing on such a grand scale like coronavirus) I always tend to keep an eye out for that sort of thing. With both a morbid fascination and a scientific curiosity, I’ve watched the three stages China went through with coronavirus. First a cover-up with a denial, then it progressed to inadequate prevention measures akin to plugging a leaky dam with your finger, and finally the realization of what the true scale of the situation really was and a mobilization of the entire government/country. I watched and I read. Read about the infections and deaths and what China did to attempt to curtail the spread.

It seems many other countries did the same as I did. Watched. Watched as as time passed and the virus spread. Except it’s my job to watch and their job to plan and act. The virus spread to Japan, Korea and moved west to Iran, and then Italy. Finally the shit hit the fan. People seemed to pay a bit more attention as the infections, hospitalizations, and then deaths there started to uptick. Like something out of a movie, the governments (ours especially) saw it coming and have seemed to drag their feet. I was all for the president downplaying the situation, as he should have, as any leader should have, as a parent does when explaining something like a life lesson with a child…downplay and project confidence. But a good leader projects confidence, surrounds them self with experts, and acts in the background. That parent might see the death of a grandparent coming and project confidence to their child all the while prepping for the inevitable.

I’m disappointed. In the preparations by the government and by the actions of the general public. We’ve about 2-3 weeks (maybe) before shit really hits the fan. We are short hospitals (a few years ago they were being closed or merged where I live), short of staff (medical laboratory scientists and nurses are severely underpaid & people choose other fields), short on equipment (ventilators), fucking stupid (I see people use the bathroom everyday without washing their hands), and somehow we think suggesting social distancing and washing hands will make that much of an impact. Action need to be taken. NOW. China managed 2 hospitals built in three weeks from the ground up. And if it all turns out OK, well It’s always better to be over prepared then under prepared.

We may not have realized it but when we woke up on March 8th, 2020, it was a different world then when we went to bed on March 7th. It’s a different world now than it was yesterday. Tomorrow will bring more changes. It remains to be seen if we can handle what's going to be thrown at us. Today’s kids have never had to deal with anything like this, and probably have only read about such events in books. We will get through this, it won’t be easy, as it wasn’t for our parents or grandparents but we will. Until then our public health workers will be making sacrifices, our hospital staff will be making sacrifices and the public will have to make sacrifices too. Everyone needs to a bit less selfish and pull together.