Echoes of Christmas 2020

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and not in the “candy canes and silver lanes that glow” sort of way.

The current state of the pandemic has echoes of Christmas 2020.

In 2020, the headlines of this paper talked about COVID-19 cases at in workplaces. Today, there are five outbreaks, including three in schools.

In 2020, we were glued to our devices to find out when and where we could get the first vaccines. Today, parents are lining up to get their kids protected against the virus.

In 2020, as people celebrated Christmas, they also prepared for a province-wide lockdown. Today, the scientist advising the government warned without further measures, hospital ICUs will again be filled with COVID patients.

In 2020, the number of cases of COVID-19 were rising rapidly with nearly 2,300 people getting ill a day. Today, the number of cases are rising, however so far, Ontario is reporting around 1,000 cases per day. Of course we have the added joy of a new variant, Omicron. No one really knows what that will mean for our journey through this pandemic. And frankly, in a world weary of COVID-19, it’s not a welcome guest this Christmas.

But, there is one major difference in 2021; vaccines. Looking back at what happened in 2020, we see far more people ill and on Dec. 19, the province recorded more than 100 people dying from the virus. It was horrific. Today, sadly there are still deaths, but because of science and vaccines, the numbers are not as stark. Monday, three families lost loved ones.

This Christmas doesn’t have to be a repeat of 2020. We have a way to deal with COVID-19 to get life back to normal in 2022 - vaccines; not just in Lambton but around the globe to stop the mutations of variants which could keep us in a perpetual state of wondering what’s next.

We urge you to get vaccinated and to urge our government to share the vaccine with the world for a better 2022.

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