Good News Top 5.

Ok, with the pandemic kicking into high gear, again, and all sorts of bad news pumping through our media venues, it’s time to look on the bright side. So here are the top 5 things in the good news department.

1) A vaccine is here (and, a whole host of them coming), and let’s be clear on this, we did it FAST!!!!

Ok, the ‘we’ part kinda hints that I had something to do with it – and perhaps I did by shouting ‘where’s the vaccine?’ at the TV a lot but I doubt I’ll get any credit.

Anyway, the vaccines will hit the US and UK quickly, but being typically Canadian and somewhat disorganized at the best of times, we’re looking at dribbling our doses out – so it looks like the whole population won’t be inoculated until September. Still, the faster the world recovers, the less it’ll spread, the faster our economy will recover, and the less lives will be lost. Good news, me thinks. Good news, indeed.

2) There is a whole mash-up of new words to use in daily conversations.

I can totally verbize Covid now. “Lots of coviding out there, yesterday.” Meaning people partying without masks or social distancing., Then there’s ‘maskhole,’ or ‘covidiot,’ which basically means the same thing. Or look at ‘Quaranteam’. Super clever.

But my personal favourite is ‘doomscrolling’, that horrible habit of looking at CNN, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter to find super bad news like an addict getting a daily fix of despair, fear, and anger. (And if you want a reason they’re pumping the bad stuff, look here.)

3) Testing is now easy to access.

Oh, I know this for a fact as I had to go get tested, and, ok, sure, it feels like a plumber snaking out a huge clump of hair from your nose, but this fun experience can be yours by simply going online, booking a time, and driving to a drive-thru test site, (where, sadly, they do not serve coffee or donuts and didn’t laugh once when I suggested they do).

It can all get done in about 5 min (plus waiting time, which for me was another 15 min), which is awesome, and it’s good to know the resources are there for testing. I hear that somewhere they use a mouthwash, but not in Langley where we still do driving tests in flinstone mobiles.

4) We’ve made great strides in treating infected people. I know this doesn’t get a lot of play on the news, but there are a lot more treatment options, more drugs that work, and a better ability to recognize a covid patient in the first place. More here.

5) Locally, we seem to be trying really, really hard. Masking-up in our Save-On (last time I was there) was 100%. Plus, there is a decent amount of evidence showing that masking-up and social distancing works.

I know it’s confusing (mask, no mask, hydroxychloroquine good, hydroxychloroquine bad), and it seems like the health officials are fumbling around like 2-year-olds trying to figure out how to open the child-proof gates, but hey, they’re trying to learn what works (and what doesn’t) as fast as possible.

So, yes, super good news. I mean, look at the Black Death. It killed 200+ million people and lasted for 4 years.

But let’s not forget the best news. Most of us have survived this. We adapted. Overcame. Improvised.

Gunny Highway would be proud of us.

So, be safe, be healthy, and respect this new world.