Rising numbers: It doesn’t have to be this way

The infuriating thing about watching Niagara’s COVID-19 numbers go up and up is that it doesn’t have to be this way.

Twenty new cases Monday. Twenty-six Sunday, 28 on Saturday.

Seventy-four new cases in three days. It wasn’t long ago, over Thanksgiving weekend, when 40 cases reported over three days seemed like a lot.

In a pandemic that’s in its second wave, with cold weather setting in and kids back in school there will be more cases. That’s a given, for now, but if that’s all there was then the numbers wouldn’t be nearly so high. What’s maddening is to hear the news reported here yesterday that Niagara Region public health is aware of a group of roughly 30 people, in their 20s, who have not followed protocols and have been spreading the coronavirus for nearly a month.

This cluster of 20-somethings have attended parties and gatherings at bars — spreading the virus there and also apparently at least one long-term-care home they visited or where they were employed. Thanks to their actions, the lives of vulnerable residents at affected long-term-care homes, are at risk.

“There is some household transmission, but there are also parties they have been holding and we are finding they are also spreading the virus at gatherings in bars,” said Dr. Mustafa Hirji, the Region’s acting medical officer of health.

Data collected through contact-tracing bears that out: More than 48 per cent of Niagara’s October COVID-19 cases involved people in the 20 to 39 age group. Most of those, Hirji said, turned out to involve people in their 20s who attended gatherings but did not wear a mask or maintain social distancing.

With so much at stake, it’s mind-boggling that people continue to flout protocols and laws designed to keep all of us safe.

No one can claim they are not aware wearing a mask protects the people around you, or keeping a safe distance from people and avoiding large crowds is important for your own safety. We’ve been hearing that message for months now. Everyone knows.

What’s really disheartening is that young people in that 20 to 39 age demographic are the most infected in Niagara.

Who do they think will lose their jobs first if Niagara is put back into some sort of Stage 2 economic lockdown?

If bars and gyms are ordered closed again, and restaurant dining rooms are temporarily shut down, who gets laid off?

To a large extent, young workers in that age group would be the first to lose their employment or get fewer shifts if businesses are forced to reduce service.

They are already the hardest-hit demographic, even as the region’s economy continues to recover during the pandemic.

According to the latest figures, 25 per cent of young people in that age group are without employment, actively looking for work but unable to find it.

Any sort of economic backward step Niagara might be forced to take if we can’t control the growth of COVID-19 would make a terrible situation for that demographic even worse.

And sadly, it would drag a lot of other people down with it.

There is no point at which this virus will “magically disappear,” as U.S. President Donald Trump once foolishly claimed. Viruses don’t operate that way.

Until a vaccine is ready, you have two choices: You starve it, by doing what it takes to stop its spread. Or you do nothing and let it thrive.

Remembrance Day is coming up. You think wearing a mask and staying away from crowds is a sacrifice? Tell that to the people who survived a world war.