In This Post:
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Cautious Optimism
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Critically Important That We Take COVID-19 Seriously, Act Accordingly!
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George R. R. Martin at Work During Pandemic!
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Things to do While in Quarantine
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A Light at the End of the Tunnel!
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Cautious Optimism
As each day brings dire news of increases in the numbers of people infected by, or having succumbed to COVID-19 in Quebec, the rest of Canada, the neighbouring U.S., and overseas, local authorities seem cautiously optimistic about the developing situation. The “stay-at-home!” directive, “social distancing,” and the thorough and frequent hand-washing practice urged by public health officials in order to mitigate the rapid spread of the virus appear to be having the desired effect. We are told the coming few weeks will tell.
Our collective fingers are crossed!
However, we are cautioned that things will get worse before they get better. This trajectory is anticipated and should not cause undue alarm. It is vitally important that we all continue to follow stringently the public health guidelines outlined, even though it may seem at the outset that they are having no appreciable effect. Our collective action could, in the end, reduce by half the number of Canadians ultimately infected!
Should the virus spread through our population too quickly and widely, our health-care system is at risk of becoming overwhelmed by the sheer number of people who would be showing up at hospitals abruptly requiring treatment. Hospital beds and vital equipment like testing kits, respirators and protective face masks would suddenly be at a premium. Better that the number of sick persons expected in the weeks ahead be distributed in lesser numbers per day or week over a period of time, than in one massive grouping all at once certain to overload the system.
That’s why we’ve been asked to do our part by self-isolating, practicing social distancing—also referred to as “physical distancing,” that being the maintenance of a minimum two-metre separation between ourselves and others when we positively must go outside—and washing our hands often.
Our governments, for their part, are mobilizing resources, restricting unnecessary travel, implementing financial assistance programs for both employees and businesses affected by the curtailment of commerce—which is pretty much every business, and everyone!—updating the population with daily status reports, securing supplies of needed medical equipment, and tasking industry to ramp up manufacturing of same.
All fine and good, but!…
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Critically Important That We Take COVID-19 Seriously, Act Accordingly!
There are still too many instances of citizens ignoring the above-mentioned public health recommendations! Medical professionals and government officials continue to emphatically emphasize the gravity of the crisis, and remind us that we must all take the situation very seriously. Excepting for brief and focused excursions to buy groceries, medication, or other essential supplies, we absolutely have to all remain isolated in our homes in order to significantly slow the person-to-person transmission of this virus.
Even if you are exhibiting only mild symptoms, or none at all, you may be carrying the virus, and thus infecting others with whom you come in contact. Keep in mind that while you may well recover without need of treatment, some of those that you inadvertently infect may not! COVID-19 can and will result in acute illness for a sizable percentage of the population, and for some of these unfortunate folk, death! There is much about the behaviour of this coronavirus that we do not yet know, and every day seems to bring new and unsettling discoveries. So take note, younger cohort: you are not immune! There are more cases reported every day of young people contracting the disease and becoming dreadfully sick as a result, some of them fatally!
So let’s not be blasé about all this—follow the specified instructions! One of the lives you are helping to save just might be your own!
And anyway, if you venture outside your front door, where are you going to go, and what are you going to do? Everything is shut down! The restaurants, coffee shops, fast-food outlets, bars, movie theatres, and other entertainment venues are all closed. So are the museums, libraries, community centres, public parks and playgrounds, malls and large retail stores. Major and minor sporting events are all cancelled or indefinitely postponed. Industry has largely shut down, and most employers are instructing their people to either stay home or, if possible, work from home. Schools from kindergarten to university are all closed for the foreseeable future. Inter-provincial, and even inter-regional travel is now strongly discouraged. The aim of authorities is first, to deter people from venturing far from home and potentially spreading the virus around the province and country, and second, from gathering in large groups or small, and possibly contracting the virus or infecting others. Most recently, law enforcement has been authorized to intervene in cases of individuals skirting safety protocols.
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George R. R. Martin at Work During Pandemic!
Now on a more positive note, the Habs haven’t lost a game in almost three weeks, and fans of George R. R. Martin have fresh smiles on their faces. The author of the Song of Ice and Fire cycle is spending his time during this pandemic holed up in an isolated location at work on completing the long-awaited final book in the series, Winds of Winter. Yay! A Song of Ice and Fire was adapted for television as the popular, long-running HBO series Game of Thrones. Haven’t seen it? There’s a quarantine on; now’s your chance to binge the series!
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Things to do While in Quarantine
How are you passing the time in quarantine?
We imagine many of you have a queue of sci-fi television shows and movies as yet unwatched. Now is your opportunity to binge them. Same with that stack of unread genre books. Those of you who purchased bags and boxes of hardcovers and paperbacks back in November at the club’s used book sale will certainly have more than enough material to peruse.
Maybe you have a genre story idea rolling around in your head. If so, get to writing it! Make it a work of fanfic, or a conventional short story. We hope this quarantine doesn’t last so long as to allow enough time to pen a novel! When you’ve completed your story, submit it to Warp, the club’s fanzine.
If you’re looking for inspiration, try spinning a tale from one of the brief taglines/synopses immediately below, randomly selected. Your fellow MonSFFen came up with these during one of our sessions of BluF/SF, the parlour game we play on occasion at our meetings in which players try to bluff each other with fake summaries of actual published fantasy or science fiction stories:
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Aliens threaten humanity with death, until they are made to understand love.
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A Satanic couple take up competitive boxing!
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Hikers are put upon by a Sasquatch!
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The Bearded Lady has new competition at the freak show, which has just introduced androids!
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A unicorn composes classical music!
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Sulfur mining on the moons of Jupiter goes horribly wrong!
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A walrus floats on radioactive waste in Miami Beach!
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A sentient octopus wants to roller-skate!
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British go-go dancers take over London!
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Society invents a way to publish minds, but there are privacy concerns!
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In a futuristic world, aliens charged with reading the minds of humans mysteriously begin committing suicide!
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The last man on Earth dies of the flu!
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Or, you may wish to get started on that cool costume idea you recently came up with, or that scale-model spaceship kit you’ve been meaning to build. Or maybe get out your art supplies and render as a pen-and-ink drawing or full-colour painting that futuristic vision you’ve been picturing in your mind for a while, now. Maybe you’ll even scan your finished piece and submit it to Warp as potential cover art!
By all means, exercise your creativity while in isolation—good for you, keeps the mind sharp. And listen to your favourite sci-fi soundtracks or podcasts while you work.
In general, reach out to folk by telephone or online. Keep in touch with family and friends—also good for you. Drop the club an e-mail and let us know how you are doing, and what you are doing to pass the time. And keep well!
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A Light at the End of the Tunnel!
Finally, encouraging news comes out of Wuhan, the Chinese city that experienced the initial outbreak of the virus. Wuhan went into lock-down two months ago and is only now beginning to slowly return to some semblance of normalcy. Reports are that the city has not in the last five days reported any new cases of COVID-19! This is, perhaps, the light at the end of the tunnel for Wuhan, and the rest of world.
Further, the use of chloroquine, an existing drug used to treat malaria, has apparently shown some promise in application against the COVID-19 virus. Clinical trials are now underway to determine if this antimalarial could be an effective cure, but it’s too soon to draw any conclusions, so for now, we’ll just, again, cross our fingers.
