I had another blog in mind for this month, although with the focus on the novel Coronavirus, it seems tone deaf to pretend we can carry on as we would normally. We’re living through interesting times to say the least. The stock market has plunged more than at any other time in history, the Saudis and Russians are in embroiled in a stand-off about oil production, schools are suspended for three weeks (now), all entertainment venues closed and professional sporting teams cancelling their seasons. Many people are stocking piling toilet paper, cleaning supplies and other essentials in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
I am confident that we will come through this stronger and more resilient. Even as the New York stock exchange continues to drop, the current index is at 19,428, which is over double the 9,000-share volume on January 2, 2009. Many of the innovations that we’ve come to adopt including Uber, Airbnb, Instagram, were founded by entrepreneurs because of the last financial crisis. Had that 2008 “Great Recession” not occurred, some of the extremely bright individuals could have gone to work for multi-national investment banks or large consulting firms. We will survive this situation but there will be major shifts in public sentiment and consumption patterns. Such when we went to from when we went to Blockbuster to rent DVDs and now stream video off platforms such as Netflix or Amazon.
In the meantime, many people are frightened and are worried about the immediate implications to their families and businesses. This concern is especially prevalent with contract or “gig” workers and many small businesses that rely on a steady flow of daily transactions to generate their revenue and provide their means to buy products and services. This is the wonder of a modern economy that one person’s income is directly linked to what other people sell. What makes this situation so different is that the complete shut-down of business happened so quickly and we don’t know when the closures will end. are in this together and until we “flatten the curve” and things return to relative normalcy, we must be patient, generous and compassionate with our fellow citizens.
Why did the outbreak start?
The probable cause of this coronavirus outbreak was a wild game market and is also known as a “wet market” where local people shop for supplies of meat and fresh vegetables. Tightly packed, live animal markets combined with the illegal wildlife trade provide the right conditions for viruses to cross-over from animal hosts into the human population.
In the case of SARS and Covid-19, bats were the original hosts, which host to a wide range of zoonotic viruses including Ebola, HIV and H1N1 strains of coronaviruses. The live bats infected other animals, which then through in-host mutation are then transmitting the disease to humans. The market where this current outbreak started, Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, was closed on January 1st, 2020.
One of the things that exacerbated the infectious disease spread is that Wuhan has over 11 million inhabitants and an International airport with direct flights to over 30 destinations. Given the impact and spread of Covid-19, China has instituted a permanent, National ban on the buying, selling and transportation of wild animals in markets, restaurants and online marketplaces across the country.
How does Covid-19 compare to past epidemics?
Although there have been other deadly respiratory viruses, the 1918 Spanish Influenza, or the H1N1 virus remains the most devastating flu pandemic in modern history. The infectious disease swept around the globe and is estimated to have caused between 50 and 100 million deaths. A version of the same virus was also the culprit in the 2009 swine flu outbreak, which is estimated to have killed as many as 575,000 souls.
Early evidence indicates that Covid-19 is far more contagious than many coronaviruses even though the mortality rate is one tenth that of SARS (10% comorbidity rate). SARS was transmissible but from people who were sick. Covid-19 appears to be transmissible from people who have minor illnesses and the incubation period can be up to two weeks before any symptoms appear.
As we’ve witnessed in Italy, 99% of the deaths occurred in people with pre-existing and the severity of their situation was exacerbated by the fact that Italy has the oldest population in the European Union. Although it’s widely reported that healthy people under the age of 60 have limited risk, that’s what we see now. This is a rapidly evolving situation and the coronavirus will mutate as it passes through individuals.
What we can do to mitigate the spread?
Many people feel that the response to this pandemic is overblown. Only time will tell if the mitigation plans of social distancing and isolation of the greater population will prevent wide-spread infection. Covid-19 is transmitted by airborne droplets of moisture that occur when a person sneezes or coughs. Infection is also spread through contact with contaminated surfaces and touching your mouth, nose or eyes with your hands.
One of the few upsides of this virus is that it has an oil-based enzyme shell, which serves as its protective barrier. This outer coating is easily destroyed with common, everyday soap and warm water. The first line of defense for Covid-19 is to wash your hands for at least 20 seconds every time you’ve been around groups of people or been exposed to potentially contaminated surfaces. If soap and water are not readily available, then using a hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol will also kill the virus.
The other place we don’t think to sanitize is our phones. That’s the thing we likely touch more than anything else we own. Other coronaviruses are known to live on glass for up to four days. Make a concerted effort to wipe it down at least once a day. If that’s not possible then try not to touch your phone after you’ve touched potentially viral surfaces and don’t touch your face after you’ve used your phone without washing your hands. It bears repeating that you are more likely to catch the virus by touching something that someone else touched than by direct exposure to an infected person.
The thing we need to focus on is “flattening the curve” so we don’t overwhelm our healthcare systems. Hospitals can quickly become overwhelmed when trying to handle a large intake of sick people. If that happens, hard choices will need to be made about who gets treatment. Although people think that the flu has a similar mortality rate, it’s important to bear in mind that we have vaccines and herd immunity to most existing strains of influenza virus.
What are we doing?
K.I.D. Truck & Trailer Service has clients in essential services such as waste management, infrastructure support and food industries. Therefore, we are open for business and committed to supporting our customers so they can keep their trucks on the road. Most of our employees are technicians who have minimal exposure to the public and we are maintaining a safe distance of six feet when we need to have face-to-face conversations.
One of our core values is a commitment to safety and we understand that our actions have a direct impact on the communities we live in. We typically think of this with respect to the safety of the trucks that drive on our roads. This pandemic was unexpected, although we believe it gives us the opportunity to step-up and demonstrate our values in all that we do.
We’ll get through this together and we need to remember to be generous, patient and compassionate with our fellow citizens. There are people who will experience real hardship during this challenging time. No matter how worried you are, there are people who are more worried. Collectively, this is an opportunity for us to demonstrate our shared Canadian values and see other people as allies in this “unique moment of uncertainty”. But it does suck that Hockey season was cancelled.
Photo Credit: X/Covid Panic
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