Virus loves the deluded, self-absorbed

Here’s the thing: the virus doesn’t care.

It doesn’t care if it’s Christmas and we want to have parties and gatherings with family and friends, as we have always done, even in times of war.

It doesn’t give two hoots if we’ve spent hundreds of years developing democracies, constitutions and human rights to cover this and that.

It has no regard for the economy, sports, tourism or Aunt Harriett’s 90th birthday. It just doesn’t.

Of course, assigning human characteristics to the virus doesn’t exactly sit well with the sciences of virology or epidemiology. But the vast majority of us aren’t virologists or epidemiologists, so it’s useful to create a metaphor that helps us understand what we are up against.

And the best one I can come up with is a person who just doesn’t care whom they hurt.

Once we understand this, we are in a better position to assume our collective roles as warriors against the virus.

People are being asked to sacrifice things that we hold dear to our hearts: the ability to gather and move around freely, and fundamental needs like human contact, democratic rights and freedoms.

When those directives are ultimately coming from people who are not elected — the scientists — we are in new territory.

Some of us stick together and swallow the medicine because we have faith in science and we value our communities.

This seems to be the case here in Atlantic Canada, where restrictions have been imposed and rules followed, for the most part.

We put a bubble around ourselves to guard against the possibility of an incoming virus. And in the second wave, our bubble didn’t burst, as it has been characterized. It multiplied into smaller provincial bubbles.

And here in Nova Scotia, there was — I think — a master stroke with the rollout of voluntary asymptomatic testing.

Not only did this initiative identify COVID cases and offer data samples of positives per thousand, but more importantly, it created an opportunity for people to band together as a community and fight against the virus.

As I mentioned in last week’s column, I was part of this. I witnessed first-hand a community come out in droves, standing in long lines in the cold to participate in the collective fight against the virus.

This quickly corrected the previous mistake of pointing fingers at one group. When public health officials started identifying and blaming the 18-35 age group for spreading the virus, I thought that was the end of our precious bubble.

Activating people to value the collective over their own individual rights is key to our success in managing the second wave.

We see what is happening elsewhere, where different value systems have taken priority and divisions have fractured communities, leaving them vulnerable to a virus that doesn’t care about democratic rights.

In places like Alberta and parts of the United States, people haven’t been so willing just to give up rights in order to follow draconian restrictions devised to stop the virus. Politicians, hearing those voices, haven’t invoked rapid and strict lockdowns.

Then there is the antiscience bias that has infected some people who just don’t believe what the doctors and public health officials are saying. Many public health officials are receiving death threats from angry trolls.

There are anti-mask protests and skirmishes in stores and other public places.

And the virus loves this because it can infiltrate through the cracks, and leave puddles of positives, like water in a leaky basement. Once it takes hold, the sick will exceed hospitals’ capacity to admit them and health-care systems will be swamped.

Of course, there’s been sacrifice and grumbling about restrictions here in Atlantic Canada, but people haven’t taken to the streets to protest the suspension of their rights. Masks are, for the most part, being worn. Businesses shut down voluntarily. And gathering in large groups has been the exception, not the rule.

Our sense of community is our most potent weapon against a virus that doesn’t care.