Cluster shows public must stay vigilant

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/05/2020 (1959 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

“People are careless because they say it’s not here. I can confirm — it’s here.”

— A relative of a Paul’s Hauling employee

 

“There’s been nothing hidden. We’ve been open to everything way before we began this whole thing. Our pandemic plan was approved by … the public health officials. There have been zero recommendations to anything that we’re doing now.”

— Rod Corbett, VP of Paul’s Hauling

 

It was always just a matter of time before we learned that the virus had coughed its way into our backyard, and now we know that it has.

As you can read in today’s paper, the cluster of COVID-19 cases announced by the provincial government on Tuesday were found at the Brandon terminal of Winnipeg-based Paul’s Hauling and Oak Point Service, a transport company that hauls bulk commodities like petroleum, agricultural chemicals, and grains for a wide range of industries across Canada.

By all accounts, it appears the company has been working with the province to ensure that uninfected employees are safe, and that all necessary protocols and procedures are followed to clean the facility and prevent further outbreaks. We hope any affected business will do likewise should it come to that.

For my part, I think it’s important to remember that COVID-19 may well have already been here for several weeks — we have no way of knowing due to the provincial government’s restrictive and questionable policy about offering little to no detail about the locations of where the virus has been found.

That lack of provincial transparency merely added to the concerns of local residents who were hearing all kind of rumours about which business had been affected — was it a processing plant like Maple Leaf or HyLife? Was it within the health-care system — after all, the province said the cluster fell within the “Prairie Mountain Health Region.”

All things considered, it’s perhaps understandable that the transport company was reluctant to announce the fact that it has fallen victim to the pandemic. Based upon the mob mentality that denoted the last two days of “guess Brandon’s COVID-tainted business” on social media, I can’t really blame them.

As I tried to explain to those posting the names of businesses circulating in the rumour mill on our Facebook page, we have to verify information before we can ever publish it. To do otherwise is unethical and highly dangerous.

It is nevertheless important that news media attempt to give more information to the public because in our estimation we all have a right to know what we face as a community, even if the province thinks otherwise.

Nevertheless, I want to forewarn city residents against blaming any one individual, any business or any employees in town for contracting a virus. This is a pandemic, and it’s highly likely that a majority of the population will contract the virus before all is said and done.

Think of it this way: that could have been your workplace being talked about by the province on Tuesday. It could be you suffering in some hospital ward. It could be any one of us. And it still may.

A virus does not care about where you work, what you look like, what kind of job you do, whether you love your kids, have a good relationship with your mother or whether you ate your hotdog with cheese for lunch. Everyone is a target, a host for this disease. And far too many people seem to have become complacent.

The relative of a Paul’s Hauling employee quoted above is not alone in her assessment of Brandon. Since the province announced that Manitoba was going to begin lifting restrictions in the province in a three-phase approach, I have seen countless kids hanging out together in parks — more than 10 certainly — and we’ve had at least one news tip of a group of at least 20 teens out playing basketball at one of the school grounds in the city.

There are more cars in the streets, meaning more people going out shopping or just getting out of the house because it feels like we’ve turned a corner — something we in fact predicted last week when the premier made known his government’s intentions for loosening up.

Clearly, we need to remain vigilant because the virus is still circulating, and Canada’s public health officials are warning of the potential for a second or even third wave of the coronavirus pandemic through the country, especially if provinces are not very, very careful about how they restart our economy.

As for Paul’s Hauling, we need to remember that the lives of real people are being affected by this virus, with potentially life-threatening consequences. Affected employees need our sympathy, and the company needs community support in the days and weeks ahead.

And those in our community with compromised immune systems, our senior citizens and those who work in essential services such as health care need everyone to continue taking this situation seriously.

» Matt Goerzen, editor