Hopes for brave new/old world

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/01/2021 (1732 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Ringing in a new year comes annual resolutions, and predictions for the months ahead.

Admit it: we failed in the prediction department as the clock struck midnight Dec. 31, 2019.

Few foresaw months of social distancing, restrictions to daily lives, code reds, tens of millions of people getting sick and more than 1.8 million deaths around the world, face masks and anti-mask protests.

As we prepare to toast to 2021, we’ll also be able to say — finally — 2020 is toast.

The new year already has one thing going for it: the first vaccines to help in the fight against COVID-19 are being distributed and injected into the arms of an ever-increasing number.

Whether you are a senior, a health-care worker, a business owner or a politician, you have thoughts and predictions about the new year. Let’s ask them…

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They are two women living in the type of residence — anywhere across the country — where COVID-19 is particularly ruthless.

Margaret Ward, 82, and Betty Lake, 93, have faced months of being shut away in their rooms for long periods at the Convalescent Home of Winnipeg. Not being able to visit family in person, seeing friends get sick or worse, and not being able to take part in longed-for activities.

What are they most looking forward to when the needle has been jabbed and a relative all-clear sign is given?

“Get my hair done,” chimed both Ward and Lake.

“Go for a car ride — anywhere,” Ward said. “It has been very hard to just stay inside. I haven’t been anywhere for nine months. And, of course: see my family.”

Lake said she wants “to hug and be hugged in return — especially by family… (And) get outside. but maybe not in January.”

It is human contact that has been missed most during the pandemic, and Lake hopes that changes for the better during the new year.

“Seeing my family, and even seeing the people around here, you miss seeing each other,” she said. “It has also been hard not knowing how my family is. They worry about me, but I worry about them.”

Ward is one of the lucky ones: she tested positive for the novel coronavirus but has since recovered.

“It was very scary, at first,” she said. “In particular, when asked to make a decision about my care: did I want to stay at the Home or go to hospital?

“It brought a lot of fears to the surface, facing your own mortality. It was also a bit spiritual. When it was late at night and the only sound was the oxygen (concentrator), I got to think a lot about life.”

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Manitoba’s Indigenous community — in urban centres and on reserves — has been hit hard by the pandemic. Its people, young and old, have filled a higher percentage of hospital beds than the rest of the population.

Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Grand Chief Garrison Settee and Dr. Barry Lavallee, head of Keewatinohk Inniniw Minoayawin health organization, are looking forward to the anticipated changes to come with the vaccines.

Based on the super-cold temperatures the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has to be kept at, Settee knows which needle will likely be the one getting to remote Indigenous communities across the province.

“Moderna’s vaccine is probably the best match for northern communities,” he said. “It is easier to transport. We’re very optimistic about it, but we’re not out of the woods yet.”

Far from it, and as such, Lavallee said: “Our leadership wants First Nations prioritized.”

“We have 30 per cent of the population who are hospitalized and (occupy) 40 to 45 per cent of ICU beds… The guidelines from public health are to give the initial vaccines to people 80 years of age and over, but our (Indigenous) life expectancy is 10 or 11 years younger in Manitoba.”

Settee said those in remote communities are hopeful the new year will be a time when they can travel to large centres once more, without fear of contracting the virus.

He is also hopeful in 2021, and years ahead, the pandemic causes a shift in how Indigenous people get medical care.

“Our people have been the most vulnerable because of the lack of infrastructure and the lack of health facilities,” Settee said.

“We want to transform the health situation of the North. This is just the beginning. Until we do that, we’re just treating the symptoms of a larger problem.”

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Mitch Bourbonniere looms large in the lower socio-economic areas of the city. He has been an educator and community activist for years, being a founding member of the original Bear Clan Patrol, volunteering with the Mama Bear Clan and Drag the Red, and helping families. For this, and more, he was honoured last year with the Order of Manitoba.

Bourbonniere knows, for the people who already faced it tough in life, not only was 2020 worse for them, it was capped off by what may have been the worst Christmas.

“I thought, at the beginning, the pandemic would be the great equalizer,” he said. “But, really, it has made the differences more pronounced.

“The middle and upper class, who have credit cards so they can shop online, had presents under the tree. But all the folks I dealt with had nothing under the trees. The toys I was able to get and give, I had moms crying with relief.”

Bourbonniere hopes it changes later this year, with the vaccine, but he’s thinking some things that began in 2020 will be staying, in some form.

“People will continue to use Zoom and do more things online,” he said. “Curb-side shopping will continue.”

Bourbonniere believes something else that began in 2020 will, unfortunately, be the case for 2021: no in-person high school graduation.

“There will be two Grade 12 years profoundly affected,” he said. “They’ve been profoundly impacted.”

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Coun. Sherri Rollins (Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry) went from attending numerous city council and committee meetings in person, to having to sit in front of a computer screen for hours to attend. The pandemic also changed the way she connects with constituents.

Rollins is hoping, after widespread deployment of the vaccine, she can again meet in person with people.

“A vaccine means relief, but not right away,” she said. “It will be slow and methodical. And it feels especially slow when so many of us are concerned with family and friends and community members.

“Before the first time we shut down, I contacted 600 people, in-person, a week — whether in a large group in an auditorium or smaller… there is a strong sense of community,” Rollins said.

“We changed it from social to physical distancing. We still need social… I really pray we can get back to the 600.”

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Jason Kindrachuk, an assistant professor at the University of Manitoba and the Canada Research Chair in emerging viruses, said while he is looking forward to the vaccine, it’s a different story for the new strain of the virus which has popped up in recent days.

“We’re all fearing this new variant,” Kindrachuk said. “The problem is with its transmissibility. It’s spreading a lot faster. That’s concerning to us.

“If there’s more transmissibility, more people will get it, so more will end up in hospital.”

Kindrachuk said it is good news there are multiple approved vaccines rolling-out with high success rates, which were developed in under a year.

“But we can’t rest on our laurels. We still have to focus on the basics: masking, distancing, no large gatherings of people, hygiene. We have our work cut out for us,” he said.

“We have to be very much reliant on each of us making the right decisions.”

As to when, as a virus expert, Kindrachuk believes life can get back to somewhat normal: “Late summer, early fall is my hope. I’m hopeful things will begin getting better with enough vaccinations.”

However, things never change completely back after such global incidents, whether it was the 1918-20 Spanish flu or HIV/AIDS in the 1980s.

“We learn from our mistakes,” he said. “Infection-control measures in grocery stores and department stores, some might not change. We’re not used to, in North America, to wear a mask when we are sick — maybe that will change now.”

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While businesses followed provincial restrictions, while also bringing in options including curb-side pickup and delivery, they suffered losses, with far fewer dollars coming in.

Lori Baker, co-owner of McNally Robinson Booksellers, said if it wasn’t for the second federal rent program, and a helpful landlord, they might have had to close the book on the longtime Winnipeg business.

Now they are looking towards their next chapter. When asked, she had only one word at first about what she is hoping for in 2021: “Opening.”

Baker is also hoping restrictions can finally be lifted on restaurants, to allow all tables to be filled, sometime this year.

“We had (Prairie Ink) open during the summer at 50 per cent capacity,” she said. “We can’t do any more than 50 per cent because of the six-foot restrictions and partitions were going to be too expensive.”

Even when the doors are eventually open for customers, and authors to give readings, curb-side pickup will continue. “There are people just not comfortable with coming in.”

During the pandemic McNally has had its internet sales bump up but, “We’re not Amazon. Right now, it is twice the work for half the revenue.”

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Nurses, whether in a hospital emergency room or at a personal care home, have been the foot soldiers on the front lines of the pandemic.

It seems fitting the health-care workers who first see the effects of COVID-19 get the last word. Those the Free Press spoke with were willing to give their thoughts, but not their names for fear of workplace conflict.

“The vaccine is like a light at the end of the tunnel,” said a nurse who works at Winnipeg’s Health Sciences Centre, the busiest ER in the province.

“There’s so much hope people won’t get sick. I’m getting very excited. I’m hoping by this summer we will get a real break — even before the pandemic, we were already at capacity.”

One PCH nurse said they’re happy with news of the vaccine but “I’d like to see the roll-out a little bit sooner.”

“I need to have my residents protected; also my colleagues who look after the residents. There is a lot at stake here. I’d like to see my residents come out, come downstairs, see their families, and have recreation programs. They are missing out now.”

Once that is done, the PCH nurse hopes everyone decides to get vaccinated.

“If we don’t, we won’t be moving forward.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca