Have we opened a Pandora’s box by shutting down the economy?

So, if we’ve overreacted to the dangers of COVID-19, that’s fine and dandy.

There’s nothing wrong with doing everything in our power preparing for the onslaught of an unknown killer. Doing otherwise would be an atrocious dereliction of duty by politicians and health experts.

So if, when this dust settles and the victim count is tallied, it transpires the modelling prior to the virus’s arrival was too pessimistic, then there are no grounds for recriminations.

But people are loath to admit they were wrong, even in the most forgiving of circumstances. Therefore, there’s a real possibility we’re constructing a rod for our collective backs that’ll reverberate for decades.

Of course, this virus has yet to run its course and perhaps there’s a second, third or fourth wave waiting in some future wing. But, for now, we can examine four months of global statistics as the curves flatten and the daily tolls decline.

The worldwide scorecard, by last Thursday, stood at 3.25 million cases with 230,000 deaths. In Canada, the corresponding numbers are 51,600 and 3,000.

Some countries’ stats may be dubious and some deaths may have been missed. However, to balance that, there’ll be deaths laid at COVID-19’S door that would have happened anyway, due to pre-existing conditions. (Incidentally, what happened to those regular, annual flu totals? Are they being lumped in with COVID-19 numbers?)

Our prime minister recently described this as the worst health emergency Canada’s ever faced. Not surprisingly, he’s wrong.

The current toll compared to the Spanish flu of 1919 is significantly less.

About 50,000 Canadians died a century ago from a population of eight million. A comparable per capita number today would see 230,000 dead. In Calgary, 384 folks succumbed from a population of about 65,000. An equal toll today would be 7,500. So far we’ve lost 59 fellow citizens, overwhelmingly from long-term care homes.

Yes, our public health system is much better but, apples to apples, the crisis to those Canadians back then was far worse, no matter what Justin Trudeau says.

That’s not all. The Spanish flu took many in their 20s, 30s and 40s. In fact, folks over 60 were less likely to die. Experts believe they’d built immunity surviving the 1890 Russian flu outbreak; something the younger generations didn’t possess.

But of today’s 3,000 Canadian fatalities, fewer than 160 are under 65. So is this actually the worst health crisis our nation’s known?

Of course, the Catch-22 answer to such ponderings is the toll would be higher if we hadn’t quarantined folk, instigated social distancing, closed down theatres and restaurants, while advising people to wear masks. But Calgary did much of that in 1919 — back then masks were mandatory.

Still, if it’s an overreaction that’s fine.

But what happens in eight months when there’s another outbreak — perhaps not even COVID-19 but a regular, yet still deadly, flu strain?

What will Trudeau or Jason Kenney do then? Once the precedent’s set, it’s hard to ignore. So, if nine people die in a couple of Calgary nursing homes next February, do we close the city down? And if we don’t, do lawsuits fly from relatives of those succumbing to this latest virus?

The same with local businesses: if they tell employees to work and those folk subsequently get sick, will they also be in the legal firing line?

Hey, easier to simply shut it down once again. The health-care honchos will approve and someone, somewhere might send us all a cheque.

It’ll take a brave person to stand and declare such annual deaths are part of life and we must now look to the needs of the living.

So yes, there’s no blame due for the measures we’re enduring. It’s common sense in the face of the unknown. But our future is another matter.

We opened Pandora’s box in good conscience. Closing it again? Well, that’ll take guts. So it might be wise looking for a 10-year supply of those face masks.