Did health officials overreact to COVID?

Dear Editor:

To say the least, I was shocked by the recent breakdown of B.C. COVID-19 numbers in the South Okanagan by community ( Herald, Page A4, Aug. 27).

Since lockdown, Summerland had two, Penticton five and Oliver to Osoyoos had six. That’s in the last six months. With the exception of a recent blip in the Central Okanagan, most areas outside the Lower Mainland had similar low numbers.

So why am I shocked? Apparently we did well. We watched Dr. Bonnie Henry almost daily. Bought into her “be safe, be calm, be kind” message. We social distanced and wore masks. We accepted that we couldn’t get together with our friends in person or visit and hug our elderly parents in care homes. We accepted that our surgeries and medical tests and procedures were cancelled and lived with our pain and anxiety of not knowing what those test would bring.

Would they ease our minds or would they show something serious and life altering that must be dealt with quickly? Yes, we banged on pots and cheered on our local health workers as heroes as they bravely risked their lives in overcrowded emergency rooms — except that hospitals and clinics remained almost empty.

The risk turned out not to be to the health workers, but to those people who’s surgeries and tests were cancelled. The risk was also to those who should have visited a doctor or gone into emergency, but were afraid to do so.

We saw our jobs disappear and the economy falter. We panicked when there was a spike in daily cases. We watch minority federal and provincial governments politicize the virus and incur debt that will take generations to repay.

We fell prey to government and mediafueled hysteria as had never been experienced before, which encouraged hypochondriac behaviour amongst even the most analytical of us.

I encourage everyone to look at the local numbers, plus numbers from B.C., Canada and worldwide. Look at the number of confirmed cases with the understanding the case numbers are much larger as there were huge numbers who had mild or no symptoms and never got tested. Take your calculator out and do the math regarding the percentage of deaths from the virus.

Ask yourself if treating this virus as any different from a virulent seasonal flu was justified. We need to do this as there will be another virus coming soon. The way this was handled by both our political and healthcare leaders and media must be scrutinized because if anyone thinks we can react the same way every time a new virus appears, they are delusional.

Andy Richards

Summerland