A COVID-19 LETTER FROM A RETIRED COUPLE I WON’T SOON FORGET
Last night I received a Facebook message from an elderly couple who will remain anonymous – I’ve never met them.
When people make comments about the lockdown measures we’ve been living with in PEI for 8 months under a health emergency without a single hospitalization, when lockdowns were only supposed to last a few weeks to keep hospitals from overflowing with patients, comments like, “Think of someone other than yourself for a change,” or “OMG!!! We’re not being asked to remove an arm,” or “It’s the least we can do…” well, I know I’ll think of the pain and desperation of this elderly couple that hit me like a brick when I read this letter.
If lockdowns worked I’d support them. They don’t.
If masks worked to prevent – or even significantly slow – the inevitable spread of the virus, I’d wear them. They don’t.
Those cheering the lockdown strategy here in PEI and telling me I should be ashamed of myself for presenting information, asking questions, and trying to get a public discussion going on these important issues, seem unaware of much of the new information available at this stage of the pandemic saying lockdown strategies need to be abandoned in the interest of promoting health and the public good.
The continued imposition of restrictions and the suspension of significant Charter Rights would be hard to justify even if it had some benefits; however, the science and reams of other data (economic analysis of negative impacts; documented mental health impacts; sociological data showing increased suicides, addictions, family violence, etc.) reveal that the strategy does not bring benefits, not even marginally, but significant and, in many cases, long-term negative impacts.
This unnecessary and harmful approach is especially cruel with elderly people, many of whom are being left abandoned to live out their days alone, cut-off from their family, their own children, grandkids, and great grandkids….left to sit and wonder what’s the point of living with such a constant sense of sadness and loss, when daily denied the most basic joys of retirement and one’s final years.
Those who support lockdowns and shout, “Think of the elderly” really need to read this letter and then ask themselves: “Perhaps I should ask the elderly whether they prefer to live life, or prolong a miserable existence before I speak on their behalf.”
I’ve cut and pasted the message, so it’s exactly as it came to me, only broken up in paragraphs:
Article Comments
fangolio
October 26, 2020 12:28 amI am 70 and my wife is 65. We have kids in Ontario and two new babies have arrived in the past year. We are going to go and see them, come hell or high water.
Anonymous
October 27, 2020 9:42 amI agree with your letter. My husband & I are of the same age as you & we too have children in Ontario & BC with young children, but I feel we have to think of them too.
Imagine if we visited and one of our grandchildren who are in school gave us the virus. If we were very sick; as we both have health issues or God forbid we died we wouldn’t want them to have to live with the thought they killed us. Just my thoughts about it but I know how you feel for sure.