This might be TLDR for some but I am going to rant anyway….
According to the news today, doctors say the new restrictions announced in many parts of Canada might not be enough at this stage in the pandemic – and even if they do work, we won’t know until two weeks from now. Maybe, just maybe, if EVERYONE had been wearing a mask from the get go we wouldn’t be in this dire position.
We knew this was going to get worse for months. We were told the basics of how to prevent mass contagion: wear masks, keep your distance, and don’t be inside with large groups of people. Too many people have a very poor attitude – a me first attitude. How freaking hard is it to wear a mask when you go out in public? How hard is for people to understand there is a worldwide pandemic happening?
The term “covidiot” was first uploaded to the online slang decoder Urban Dictionary on March 16th and was defined as: “Someone who ignores the warnings regarding public health or safety.” By March 22nd the word went viral across the internet.
Who deserves to be scorned for their negligence?
For starters: The government. The offense – not mandating a national mask law. The Federal Government passed it off to the Provincial Governments and they in turned passed it off to the Mayors. Seriously people, can you all not just think for yourselves and realise it’s up to each individual to do their part. I started wearing a mask before anyone I know, or didn’t know, was wearing one. Why? Because I knew what the word ‘pandemic’ meant. Never before has the phrase “better safe than sorry” been more meaningful.
The next group that needs to be scorned: the Indoor Diners. The offense – they’re eating in restaurants with no masks! Just this week someone I know very well went to eat a restaurant with their family. WTF!!! Numbers are rising, so are hospitalizations, and you just feel it necessary to eat in a restaurant, like you’re somehow immune?
Should they be shamed? YES. We’ve fracked up the restaurant part of this so, so badly. What we should have done is shut down every restaurant while simultaneously bailing them out. Instead, we waited until near every restaurant was bankrupt and then let them reopen (forced them, really — what other choice did owners have if they wanted to stay afloat?) with restrictions that were destined to be ignored.
So yeah, I reserve the right to be both disgusted and horrified when the mouth-breathers converge on The Keg (or insert restaurant of choice) to drink crappy beer and over priced wine and exhale all over one another. Get some takeout and tip generously instead. Covidiots.
There are other groups of people that need to be scorned, like the shoppers not wearing masks. The people having home get-togethers. Covidiots.
Covid does indeed discriminate. It infects those without care and without a plan. It infects those who are either dependent upon or too trusting of the irresponsible. It infects those who think this is a hoax or a panic or a danger worth blowing off just to eat at a fracking East Side Mario’s. It seeks out those without shame and quickly works its way into them, knowing it can thrive in such wanton obliviousness.
I am so repulsed with some people. The people that are just going on their merry way during this pandemic without a care in the world. This is a new virus that hasn’t even been in the population for a year yet. No one, and I mean NO ONE, knows what the long-term effects of being infected with covid-19 will do to the body.
Back at the start of this many people were saying, “if you’re so afraid, stay home.” I say NO!!! If you cannot conform to social standards during a pandemic by wearing a mask, then you stay home. I don’t want your germs, neither does anyone else.
Canadian Girl in a Crazy World 
I’m not sure its a straight forward as all that Lisa. Lack of transparency, consistency and efficacy in information from sources we are supposed to be able to trust has made some people very sceptical. One could argue that this was the first pandemic since Spanish Flu a century ago, but society has changed immeasurably since then and everyone, governments included, have access to information that was unheard of until a couple of decades ago. I agree that the damage has been done and further damage has to be limited. All lockdowns have achieved is the ruin of the economy from local to global levels. Infection rates simply go back up within weeks of lockdown being lifted. Some Asian countries dictated masking from the start (some have also had more experience with this sort of thing than the West) and have achieved good results. I wonder if perhaps its the fact that change doesn’t always come easily. And you will agree, this has kick started many changes. Some where on the horizon anyway, but regardless, we are nearly eight months into COVID and the virus doesn’t appear to be going anywhere any time soon. To achieve any semblance of “normal” again, I think masking outside of one’s own home, will need to be a part of the new normal until either herd immunity or vaccination can overtake the virus.
Thankfully it appears a vaccine is on the horizon. Hopefully next at this time, everything will be back to normal. I think the virus will have many people more conscientious of hand hygiene.
I feel sorry for those in the USA. It appears Trump has secretly decided to go the herd immunity route and the virus is spreading out of control across the USA