Happy New Year! We start this New Year with hope after the darkness of 2020

We just saw the end of one of the darkest and most horrendous years in history. The COVIC-19 virus pandemic destroyed many lives, affected many families and devastated the global economy for many. We would like to forget everything about 2020 because of these losses, but we need to make sure that we grasp all lessons learned before we fully close the door on 2020. Compiling lessons learned is not glamorous and comfortable, but it is crucial for the immediate and future generations. In some ways, it is like seeking light on a dark and gloomy night.

Remembering Those Who Passed On

We need to remember those who died and those who still fight for their last breath. During 2020, we lost thousands of people daily. Unfortunately, will hospitalizations still increasing, these numbers will not go down soon enough. We should honour them by remembering their positive impact on their community and family. We need to ensure that their suffering was not in vain.

Lesson Learned: Be kind to each other and spend as much quality time that we can

Lessons from Another Pandemic

In 1818, some politicians and media outlets ignored the Spanish Flu to prioritize continued support for World War 1. The result was three waves for that pandemic (Martini, Gazzaniga, Bragazzi, & Barberis, 2019). Also, in 1918 scientists and health officials recommended that the public wear masks as one of the strategies to handle the pandemic (Franchini et al., 2020).

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

In 2020, some politicians and media outlets downplayed the pandemic to preserve their economies. Similar to today, many people did not want to wear masks during the Spanish Flu pandemic (Scerri & Grech, 2020). This non-compliant behaviour makes our daily death curve much worse than during the previous pandemic (Funke & Sanders, 2020).

Source: Our World in Data

Lessons Learned: Wear masks (protect others), physically distance (reduce transmission) and wash your hands (protect ourselves). We will get through better together

Keep Strong in the Battle Against Systemic Racism

George Floyd's murder video reminded us that systemic racism still exists (New York Times). In another video, a Black Female doctor, Dr. Susan Moore, in the US, documented her mistreatment shortly before the passed due to COVID (New York Times). In a Quebec hospital, Joyce Echaquan, a 37-year-old Atikamekw (Indigenous) woman, captured a video of her mistreatment by a staff member as she passed (CBC). Several countries globally documented the disproportional number of deaths if the COVID data include race information. These countries included the US and the UK, where the disparities became noticeable in the data collected (APM Research Lab; Financial Times; Sefa Dei & Lewis, 2020) 

Source: APM Research Lab

Source: National Health Service (NHS), Financial Times (FT)

Similarly, countries like Sweden, Finland and Norway also observed disparities in COVID deaths based on race and ethnicities (Financial Times; Masri, 2020). For improved health equity, It would be good practice for Canadian health officials to consistently collect race-based data, especially for situations such as a pandemic (Annett, 2020).

Lesson Learned: Recognize and appreciate those political and corporate leaders who acknowledge systemic racism and take action to address it

Vaccination Not Magic Bullet

 We need to note that the vaccines are not 100% effective. We need to be mindful that not everyone can get the vaccine. There are some people who will experience adverse reactions to the vaccine and may die (CDC).  

Source: British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

It will take most or 2021 to get most of the world vaccinated. However, we will still have vulnerable people among us. Even at 95% efficacy, we need to consider the 5% with less hope. How do we address the protection of children below the age of 16 years old? See where your country's status on vaccinations here: https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations. At this rate, do you believe we will get to the fundamental level of vaccinations by the end of 2021?

Source: Our World in Data

Lesson learned: Even with the best plans developed will require time and will not be 100% effective

Working from Home

Many businesses benefited during the COVID pandemic because they could pivot using technology like Zoom (Arora, 2020). Unfortunately, not all businesses were able to benefit from working remotely and experience more financial risks than others (Dua, Ellingrud, Mahajan, & Silberg, 2020).

Source: McKinsey & Company

Many workers were able to transition to working remotely, but it was challenging for people with young and school-age children (NYU Langone; Vu, 2020). People of racialized communities experienced even more challenges because they experienced disproportionate impacts during the COVID pandemic (James, 2020). Thankfully, some governments assisted families (Skrzypinski, 2020). In some cases, people found the additional family time beneficial. Still, we are mindful of the increase in domestic violence and mental health deterioration (Yamamura & Tsutsui, 2020).

We hope that our political leader learned that Wall St. is not the same as Main St. People gained the appreciation for the K-shape curve. Hopefully, the K-Shaped Recovery knowledge will lead to better policies to protect vulnerable small businesses and those more impoverished society members (Bheemaiah, Esposito, & Tse, 2020).

Source: WeForum

Lesson learned: Some businesses and people adapted well to the new remote reality while others did not adapt as well and require the relevant support 

Let us resolve to make 2021 a better year than in 2020 but let us not forget 2020. In the year 2020, we learned much about ourselves and others. We learned to adapt to a new reality for those of us who survived. Let us keep learn and keep growing together.