Coronavirus fixation a symptom of our sanitary society

“How bad is it really?” I wondered aloud. 

“It’s like the bird flu,” said one of my badminton buddies. 

“And... how bad was that?” 

There was momentary silence. 

“It’s just a new virus,” said my other badminton buddy. “They don’t know how to deal with it. You know, like SARS.” 

Ah, the SARS scare I remember. It’s what put Toronto on the map back in 2003. Social and racial stigmatization aside, I’m sure it has all the makings of a Canadian Heritage Minute. 

I also remember the H1N1 outbreak of 2009, when the use of alcohol-based hand gels reached epidemic levels. It was scary shaking peoples’ hands, with all that clear goop squishing between our palms. 

I joke, but don’t get me wrong, I’m as fearful of disease as the next person. I make a point of avoiding people in the office who are coughing, sneezing, or exhibiting the early signs of pink eye. There’s nothing worse than a co-worker coming into your cubicle sniffling and hacking, telling you how sick they are. I politely shuffle back into a corner, hoping they halt their advance at once. 

Perhaps we should do as the Japanese do when sick and wear a mask. It would certainly be easier to identify the infectors. But it's always made me wonder, how do you sneeze when wearing one of them? It defeats the purpose if you have to pull the mask off, but on the other hand, do you really want to keep it on? 

In our ultra-sanitary society, we’re obsessed with the spread of germs and disease. The media loves these outbreaks because we absolutely want to know: How many people were infected today? Where were they infected today? And most importantly, how soon before I could possibly die? 

Never mind the thousands who die from the common flu each and every year. In an especially bad flu season two years ago, an estimated 80,000 died in the U.S. alone. That barely made the news. 

Nor was there any media attention when my daughter contracted the norovirus in Drumheller last summer (maybe I should’ve contacted the local paper?) I’ve never seen a child expel that much from her body in such a short time period. Two days later I was down with it, also in a state of expelling things, but by that time we were back in Saskatchewan. If I hadn’t quarantined myself in my home for the next five days, all of western Canada could've been infected! 

While the flu can be serious for the elderly and those with chronic health conditions, we live in a country where contagious illnesses are a nuisance more than anything. Of course that's not true for all parts of the world. Malaria kills hundreds of thousands worldwide and water-borne diseases kill over two million people every year, the majority of them children. 

Thankfully, good sanitation and vaccines can address most serious viruses. After that, you have only to worry about the smaller ones... like coronavirus, which apparently, is less dangerous than SARS, but maybe a smidgen more lethal than bird flu? 

I really have no idea. I know only what I can glean from my badminton buddies and, oh yes, the news – updated hourly, each and every day.