Pre Plan Shut-Downs and Save Lives and Buisness

[Ken Gigliotti]

Something to think about. Planning lock downs to coincide with the business cycle and around Covid spreader dates. Hindsight is always 20/20.
So we had restrictions on business activity announce just before Halloween mostly because of Thanksgiving being a spreader event.
Like most people we were holding off on buying treats. There was a lot of uncertainty from government right up to that weekend. Halloween wasn't canceled but the mayor of Winnipeg expressed his concern on the Friday one day before, effectively canceling the trick or treating, more like tricking. We had no kids as did most people. I ate most the candy myself,good deal for me.
He business community orders product for all the social statutory holidays and I guess they got a break,but saving Halloween meant canceling Christmas.

The shutdowns are meant to flatten the curve and save space for health care and ICU beds. So it may have  caused the second wave because Covid was well established and any letting down of guards turned the Flu back on. The thinking was flawed. There is no way the second wave (more like a continuation of the first wave) should have been so severe. The nursing homes, come on!

 Last year Easter was canceled.
This year with the prospect of churches losing last Easter and this Christmas there was some major major push-back from some of the for-profit churches and big fines even for outdoor services. The traditional churches have bit their lips but these are big days for churches most of which struggle at the best of times. The uncertainty around ordering product for stores and restaurants causes much anxiety because they get such short notice  for shut-downs based on numbers and science. The things we know are these big days cause the spread. The stores and restaurant and every business to barbershops have taken legitimate steps to keep people safe. The mask orders still came late but are now common place.

The Covid Flu is going to be  with us  through the next year even with a vaccine. The things we know should save lives and businesses at the same time.

So why not plan shutdowns a before or after  stat holidays in the slow parts of the year and open up for the busy with a shutdown in January-Feb, the summer or early fall  or October. It seems like every statutory holiday is now a major shopping day. Either sacrifice the small ones to save the big ones or a hard shutdown & quarantines for two or more weeks after the major days. The shutdowns are bleak, people just go shopping for something to do. During the the shutdowns the streets are bare no one moves because there is no where to go. If the spreader event with precautions is mitigated by a planned hard shutdown especially among the killer spreader demographic, bars and not restaurants things might help the situation both medical and business. opinion ken gigliotti