Close to a new school year

I spent the day with my eggplants and my tomatoes, in between thunderstorms of course. I love the look of an eggplant. There is an elegance and richness to it's colour and shape. Thanks to many of these Facebook followers, I spent the evening identifying and eliminating tomato hornworms. Yep, feet in the mud, face in the plant, eyes pealed looking for these nasty creatures. You were right! They eat their way through a branch of a tomato plant in a day.

My husband joined me at one point. I think by working together we will stay ahead of game. At one point I complained that I would have to be out here every night to keep up. He said, " It's just like COVID Anne-Marie. Keep on working and you'll stay ahead of the curve". I'd swear right now but it's not polite. He's a smart man and it's not a bad analogy. Lot's of work staying ahead of these hornworms but the plants are healthy and there are hundreds of tomatoes. More than I will ever need.

It's hard, consistent, relentless work and I won't be done until the season is over. We need to see COVID 19 in the same way. So far so good. I am amazed at how well we are doing as a country. Every where I went this weekend, EVERYONE, was wearing a mask. EVERYONE. I caught a glimpse of the front page of the Toronto Star on Saturday. The journalist who wrote this pretty well sums up how I feel about our nation:

August 1/20
Toronto Star- “ The view from here”

“ Here’s how we got here, not to the end but to this place of cautious hope: We took responsibility for one another. We sacrificed for the common good. We trusted experts, imperfect though they are. We let governments, imperfect though they are, do what only governments can do. Not all of us, of course, not all the time, but enough of us enough of the time that we saved lives. We found refuge in art. We laughed together at what was ridiculous. We grieved together over what was tragic. It wasn’t obvious that we could do this, that in this world such a surge of solidarity was possible. Nor is it obvious, though so much depends upon it, that we can seize the lessons of these last months and hold on, hold, on, hold on. "

HOLD ON, HOLD ON, HOLD ON. Can we do that? You bet we can. Wear a mask everywhere in public. Stay in a bubble of TEN and in that 10 there should be no drifting into other bubbles whatsoever. Stay six feet apart. Wash hands. That's how we hold on. That's how we save lives and that is how we make it very safe for our teachers and our kids to head back to school.

New data is emerging everyday that is showing that kids under the age of ten do not easily transmit the virus. Evidence from around the world is showing how rare in-school transmissions are. In outbreaks in schools and daycares, the virus has been tracked back to an adult that brought the virus into the school not from kids transmitting to other kids and their teachers.

"What we see from the reports that have been published to date up to July 20th from around the world is that children are not a major source of COVID-19 transmission," said Sarah Neil-Sztramko, an assistant professor at McMaster University.

How do we avoid adults bringing the virus in? Keep up with the public health guidelines outside of the school so that community transmission is rare. Adults won't have the virus to bring into schools.

The alternative? It's happening in so many parts of the world and it's grim; the unabated spread of COVID 19. There have been 1 million newly reported cases globally in the last 4 days. The reason? Public health guidelines are not being adhered to or enforced enough. My fear is for the poorest countries who have no public health system at all. May I just state how grateful I am to be living in a country like Canada where there is an intact, publicly funded healthcare system and a public health system that has shone across the country during this pandemic? I am just grateful. To whom much is given, much is expected.

Hunker down folks. The storm has not passed yet. Far from it. The is still a very long 'mask-wearing, physical distancing, massive testing, contact tracing' road ahead of us.

I have not said it lately, but.....We've got this.

Thirty-three studies from around the world were analyzed in detail by the medical experts who helped put the return to school guidelines in place. I am going to read everyone of them. Something else to do at night besides disseminating the hornworm infestation in my garden.

I will do my best to keep you updated as I do this review.

Anne-Marie

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