Will a second wave cause another panic?

Before I get rolling with this post I want to provide some persepctive.  Putting a situation in its proper context is not covering up the truth, it is the truth.  These are the top 10 causes of death as per Statistics Canada for the year 2018, the most recent year for which numbers are available:

1. Cancer - 79,536 deaths
2. Heart Disease - 53,134
3. Stroke - 13,480
4. Unintentionl Accidents - 13,290
5. Chronic lower respitory diseases - 12,998
6. Influenza and Pneumonia - 8,511
7. Diabetes - 6,794
8. Alzheimers - 6,429
9. Self Harm Suicide - 3,811
10. Kidney related disease - 3,615

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1310039401

Over 287,000 Canadians died in 2018, in 2017 the number was over 282,000 and in 2016 over 274,000 people died.  Without going into detailed statistical analysis I think it's fairly safe to say that over 290,000 people were likely to die in Canada during the year 2020 before the pandemic.

That's a lot of death, but it is something Canadians have accepted year after year.  Could we do something to mitigate this loss of human life?  Certainly, banning smoking would undoubtedly reduce numbers 1 and 2 and likely impact number 5.  Banning the sale of deep fried food and putting a strong focus on healthy living and exercise would likely reduce many of the other categories as well.  

But we've never even seriously discussed banning smoking in this country.  Canadians have always accepted the fact that people die.  Even if some deaths could be prevented, nothing much has ever been done about it.  We certainly never turned our entire world upside down.  Until Covid-19 came along of course, a disease that has claimed the lives of almost 8,800 Canadians so far and climbing, putting it just ahead of deaths from flu/inluenza in 2018.  

Did SARS-Cov-2 cause most to panic?  In my opinion, unquestionably.  And for many the panic has never ceased.  

Tossing millions of Canadians out of work, cancelling life saving procedures like cardiac surgery and cancer screenings, shuttering schools forcing young children to isolate at home with out of work anxious parents, all while declaring the sale of booze essential.  I don't think you need a PHD in the social sciences to know that this is a recipe for a tsunami of health problems, especially when so many support networks were also shut down. 

I have to wonder how Covid is going to affect the numbers when it comes to death from other causes for 2020.  Given that so many of the top 10 causes of death in this country are listed as contributing factors to Covid being serious and potentially fatal, I will not be surprised if deaths from: cancer, heart disease, strokes, lower respitory illness, flu/pneumonia, diabetes, alzheimers and kidney dieseas dips lower for 2020.  Toronto's health department has publicly declared that a heart disease patient who dies after a heart attack is listed as a Covid death if there's a positive test for SARS-Cov-2.   

With around 80% of our deaths coming from Long Term Care Type facilities it makes sense that death from other diseases/conditions will likely drop when you consider the health of people in these nursing home establishments.  Ontario's Long Term Care Association provides a snapshot of the overall health of residents from the year 2019 and it is not a pretty picture.  

• 90% have some form of cognitive impairment
• 86% of residents need extensive help with daily activities such as getting out of bed, eating, or toileting
• 80% have neurological diseases
• 76% have heart/circulation diseases
• 64% have a diagnosis of dementia
• 62% have musculoskeletal diseases such as arthritis and osteoporosis
• 61% take 10 or more prescription medications
• 40% need monitoring for an acute medical condition
• 21% have experienced a stroke

I can't say I really blame people for being hyper concerned about Covid, even more than we worry about death from accidents despite accidents killing far more Canadians than Covid has.  We'd need over 4,000 more Covid deaths to reach a year's worth of accidental deaths in this country.  And who knows, maybe Covid will prove to be as deadly as accidents typically are in any given year.  

The reason I don't blame people is because we've never seen this kind of laser like focus from government and media on one disease ever before.  Imagine if every news broadcast led off with a report of over 200 people dying of cancer, and another 150 dying of heart disease in one single day.  A lot of Canadians would probably be scared into pursuing healthier lifestyles.

I know I am farting into a hurricane here.  It reminds me very much of the Iraq war when so many of my friends and acquaintances were all in on the need to eliminate Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction: "Are you an intelligence expert?  I'm smart and listen to what they say".  I wasn't, I joined the small minority of people outside the U.S. consulate in Toronto and protested.  And lest you think Canada didn't support that war, do some reading about the number of Canadian military personnel who were sent over to assist.  

Death sucks, everyone is against it.  But someone dying of Covid-19 is not more dead than someone who is killed in a car accident, or from conditions like cancer or heart disease or anything else.  The emergency measures employed have enormous health consequences as well.  Just because the news isn't giving a daily suicide report doesn't mean it isn't happening.  If you know someone in law enforcement ask them what they're seeing.  

Some are losing their minds at the prospect of schools opening back up in September, but these same regrettable virtue signallers have never said a word about shutting down Amazon fulfillment centres, Wal-Marts and grocery stores, or about having hydro workers and ISP techincians stay home instead of maintaining the grid and internet connectivity.  So long as "THEIR" needs are being met to heck with young children, just suck it up little ones.  

Bottom line is that we are the government, we are not ruled...people are the rulers in a democratic society.  And for now we've abdicated that role, scared into submission by one branch of science, elected politicians and their media moutpieces.  Epidemiolgits and infectious disease experts don't study the causes of depression and suicide, they're not schooled in the horrors of spousal and child abuse, they have ideas and theories about how to slow the spread of a virus, not about the impact of cancelling life saving hosptial procedures like bypass surgery.  

Canada needs Captain Kirk at the helm, not Dr. Mckoy.  Those who like living in the kind of country Canada is turning into should pack up and move to China or North Korea, they would feel right at home.