By: Papa Minnow

It’s been a year since the outbreak of COVID-19 and we’re few months shy of the official lockdown that made 2020 a year to remember. Now that we’ve entered the new year, and everyone has reflected on the previous one, I’ve been thinking about how 2021 can be different or if it will essentially be more of the same.

My hope is that we will move towards getting back to the lives we used to have, but I don’t think that will be possible for at least the first 6 months of the year. A lot of the issues from 2020 still remain and need to be dealt with.

I don’t know what the future holds, but I do think it will take us longer to get back to normal life than people expect. Cases in Ontario continue to rise and while the government has placed us under lockdown, people have grown tired of abiding by the rules.

It doesn’t help that government officials themselves are breaking the rules, and the country continues to let people in and out of the country via the border or chartered flights.

However, the main issue stems from the deployment of the COVID-19 vaccine. The total number of vaccines administered per 100 people in Canada was 0.3 (as of January 2nd, 2021), according to OurWorldInData.org.

In order to get back to life as we once knew, there are a few things that we as a country need to settle in the next few months.

*Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional or COVID-19 expert and do not claim to be. Please seek professional guidance for anything COVID-19 related.*

1. Treat It Like The Flu

Now that a vaccine has been administered, another option could be to treat COVID-19 like the flu. Every year we get a new strain of the flu, and every year we receive new flu shots to protect us from those strains.

There’s already been a new mutation in the coronavirus and that could mean that those who feel the need to get vaccinated can do so and those who are less at risk may choose not to.

This option would also make it easier for health officials to administer the vaccine faster as it wouldn’t require the entire population to get vaccinated.

2. Full Lockdown

This option is what some Canadians are going through, however, the Canadian border is still open to people exiting and re-entering the country. One of the most prominent ways of transmission is through travel between Canada and the United States.

A full lockdown would require closing the borders entirely and isolating the population within the country to lower the cases to 0. This is a tricky situation as Canada has already undergone a first lockdown which has hurt a lot of livelihoods, but since the country opened up too quickly cases began to spike again.

If a second full lockdown can occur, it’s possible that Canada can return back to normalcy.

3. Full Vaccine/Enforcement

A full vaccination option would take some time, but would result in immunity amongst the population and restore our regular living. This option is the least likely however, for several reasons. The main reason being the lack of trust from the population.

Vaccines generally take years for approval through rigorous and long term testing to reach several safety stages in order to be delivered to the masses. With the COVID vaccine that process was expedited for the general public in hopes of a faster return.

But many are still skeptical of the side effects and there is a large portion of the population that believes in the wide spread conspiracy rumors that have circulated across the internet. As a result, a full enforcement of the vaccine would be viewed as a draconian government plan and an infringement on citizen’s rights, and I doubt that this would be a viable means in today’s information age.

Only the future knows what method will take place, but eventually we will need to make a decision in order for the country to get back on its feet.

Featured Image Via: Labmanager.com