Post-Covid clinic to be created
Covid is still partly a black box. Some people hardly experience any symptoms while others get very sick and don’t shake it off so easily, and we don’t yet know why. These long Covid patients will be studied at a new clinic to open soon in town.
The Gazette has a photo essay on things that have been changed by the pandemic.
I was chatting with a friend (on the phone) this week, and found we’d both been thinking the same thing: the hundred-year span from the end of Spanish flu to the beginning of Covid was a fortunate bubble. We grew up in a time when we didn’t have to think much about contagion, but that hasn’t been the usual human experience, and it no longer is. The Gazette calls this “the new normal” in its headline above, but it’s more like a return to the old status quo.
(Yes I know: the 1918 flu wasn’t Spanish, and people had concerns about tuberculosis, polio, AIDS and Ebola, among others, during that century, but there wasn’t anything forcing the whole world into masks.)
dmdiem 11:41 on 2020-11-14 Permalink
I recommend Dr. John Campbells youtube channel for all things covid. He provides daily, fact based, no nonsense updates. While he is UK based, he does present global info and has talked about “long covid” a few times.
https://www.youtube.com/c/Campbellteaching
Woh K. Upphalen 12:33 on 2020-11-14 Permalink
One question that must never be asked:
Are the 1% “robbing the till” during the onset of a depression and using a “pandemic” as a distraction?
Don’t ask this, and you’ll come out fine.
Bill Binns 12:48 on 2020-11-14 Permalink
There are little clues here and there that this situation may be permanent, vaccine or not. I was in the Berri metro the other day and noticed a new vending machine selling masks and other PPE. The machine itself looks like it cost 40k or more. Somebody is betting a lot of cash that this thing isn’t going to be all wrapped up by summer.
As a mild germaphobe I welcome the new normal with open arms. It’s kind of a dream come true to be able to wear a mask in public and not attract attention. I have been following COVID guidelines in the metro (stay as far away from people as possible and try not to touch anything) since 2003 without even knowing how heroic I was being.
DeWolf 12:59 on 2020-11-14 Permalink
Masks will be here to stay. Not universally and not in every situation, but I think we’ll become more like places in Asia where if you have a cold or the sniffles, you’re encouraged or even expected to wear a mask in public places. Mask use is also widespread in Japan due to seasonal allergies and I’ll bet you some people here will adopt that practice next spring.
I also can’t help but think of Hong Kong post-SARS. During the epidemic, everybody wore masks, there were hand sanitizer dispensers installed all over the place and elevator buttons were covered in sheets of plastic with signs saying they were disinfected every hour. After the epidemic ended, so did universal mask wearing, and gradually, as the years went by and SARS receded from memory, those hand sanitizer dispensers never seemed to be refilled and the elevator plastic was not cleaned very frequently. People grew relatively lax about hygiene.
But the memory of SARS was still there, so as soon as Covid happened people reacted very quickly and picked up their old habits. Now that we have this experience here in Quebec, we’ll also be able to react more productively—at least on an individual level—the next time there’s some kind of epidemic.
Kevin 13:08 on 2020-11-14 Permalink
Woh K. Upphalen
Who is stopping anybody from asking that question?
It’s pretty obvious that local companies are suffering. there have been countless news reports about this in countries around the world.
We are seeing a shift in society because of a terrible disease.