Please stay healthy. Please stay safe. We will get through this.

The 2020, and soon to be 2021 pandemic is figuratively a party that everyone has been invited to — upon reflection I think you’d be hard pressed to find someone who has not been effected by COVID-19. Tens of millions of people infected, millions of people dead, untold economic hardship, public health strategies impacting our daily lives, isolation, anxiety… the list regarding the pandemic’s impact goes on and on. Every country, every community, and every person is dealing with it in some way.

 SARS-CoV2, the virus that causes COVID-19 is like most viruses; very good at what it does — and what it does is opportunistically infect people. As we start to move into the winter months there is already an increase in cases, an increase in the resulting hospital visits and tragically, an increase in deaths; the cold weather is driving us indoors and the timing could not be worse because the virus is easily spread indoors by droplets in the air and poor ventilation. Public health in many jurisdictions have ordered lockdowns and is advising against gatherings except in the smallest of groups — all this at a time when COVID-19 fatigue is at its worst and we’re heading into the Holiday season. It may be a dark winter indeed.

The promise of vaccines is weeks away and the talk has moved from if there will be a vaccine to how we can effectively distribute the vaccines to our most vulnerable as quickly as possible. There has also been an increase in therapeutics to combat COVID-19 if you do become inflected. The brain trust of our scientific, medical and business communities have brought us a way to fight back in record time, and governments are looking to authorize these vaccines and therapeutics as soon as, and as safely as possible.

 It is now just a matter of time with a simple strategy; vaccinate the population faster than the virus can spread, and in turn reduce the number of cases, reduce the number of deaths and allow us to get back to what we remember as normal. The next three months will be difficult by any standard, but by then the momentum will have shifted in our favour and that light we’ll see, will truly be at the end of this COVID-19 tunnel.

 In the mean time —

Work very hard not to get COVID-19 — remember this virus is opportunistic. 

Be Kind — we are all dealing with this pandemic in our own way. 

Be Patient — there truly is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Take advantage of all this “free time” and learn something new — it makes it easier to keep track of what day it is, particularly if assignments are involved. 

We are all in this together. Please stay healthy. Please stay safe. We will get through this.

 iamgpe

In the time of Covid...

As I reflect on the spectrum of people that can offer a perspective on Covid 19 I can’t help but think of it in terms of a “drunk old guy at the end of the bar with an opinion” as being a one and Dr Howard Njoo, the deputy public health officer of Canada, as a ten — so with humble consideration to this scale, I would consider myself a solid five and a half on a good day.

Why am I so bold to say this?

Well I have an undergraduate in microbiology and have spend my career in the biotechnology space where I would find myself talking to virologists and immunologists quite regularly; insight by osmosis is how the saying goes. And as a hobby, I’m quick to dig into the statistics and curves, and lament what I would be doing if only I had applied myself more. With that said, it’s worth grounding ourselves before I offer insights into my guiding principles for dealing with this pandemic.

In December 2019, and possibly earlier, an animal virus jumped to a new host which had no innate immunity — the virus is from a family of viruses called coronaviruses and the new hosts are us. Because it’s a new virus it was called a novel coronavirus but soon after the WHO called the virus SARS-CoV-2, and the disease it caused, Covid 19. This particular virus infects the upper respiratory track, and more dangerously the lungs if it gets a chance, and because of it’s a novel virus there are over eight billion people that can unwittingly conspire to help it spread. We’ve had seven months to learn about this new virus and have found that it spreads easily in crowds (particularly indoors), it’s deadly (particularly to those who have underlying health conditions), people can be infectious even when they don’t show any symptoms, and the data suggests only about 1 % of the population has been infected — 1% is a long way from the herd immunity needed to bring us back to some sort of normality. This herd immunity comes when a majority of the population* either recovers from Covid 19 or develops immunity from a vaccine. And a vaccine for mass distribution is 8 to 12 months away (and I’m optimistic).

That is enough of me trying to show my worth as a solid 5 1/2, and with that small amount of self indulgence out of the way, here are my guiding principles in the time of Covid…. be it personally, professionally or spiritually.

1) Be as healthy as you possibly can — physically, mentally and spiritually. SARS-CoV-2 is a dangerous virus, more so for those with weak immune systems and underlying medical conditions (which is a very broad category). Depending on how you interpret the numbers, 2-5 % of those who are infected will die and many others may have to contend with chronic health issues. A healthy body, mind and spirit is the best defence.

Work hard to be healthy.

2) Work really hard not to get infected (FULL STOP). As a simple reminder, a person gets infected when the virus enters the body through the nose, mouth and eyes — more often than not this happens by being too close to an infected person or transferring the the virus from surfaces to your face. Try not to let this happen.

3) Be adaptive because change is happening. — Sadly some of this change is dramatic and hard (particularly on the mind and spirit). Remember though, with change comes opportunity, innovation, and more often than not, offers something better than you had. The important thing is to embrace the change and work with it.

4) Be kind. There is a common connection that SARS-Cov-2 has given us and a reminder that we are all very much the same. As you are (or should be) kind to yourself as you work through this situation, you should remember to be kind to others because they are working through the same situation. We will all get through this — not because of our differences but because of our similarities.

I appreciate each of my guiding principles necessitate the need for information, reflection, personal development, and stepping into the unknown — but isn’t that part of life anyway?

That’s all I got — be safe in the time of Covid.

iamgpe

*I’ve read that herd immunity will happen when 70 % of the population has developed an immunity to the virus. But remember I’m a 5 1/2.

A leadership requirement...

Let’s just put it out there right away so there is no need to read any further unless you want to. In a Harvard Business Review article by John Coleman entitled For Those Of You Who Want To Lead, Read he writes:

But deep, broad reading habits are often a defining characteristic of our greatest leaders and can catalyze insight, innovation, empathy, and personal effectiveness.

So there you have it; for anyone who fancies themselves a leader it may be worth counting the books on your night table — at the very least it’s some quantitative data you can work with.

And if you need further proof, in the book STILLNESS IS THE KEY (which I’m reading for the second time) Ryan Holiday offers a perspective on the subject:

Tolstoy expressed his exasperation at people who didn’t read deeply and regularly. “I cannot understand,” he said, “how some people can live without communicating with the wisest people who ever lived on the earth.” There is another line, now cliché, that is even more cutting. People who don’t read have no advantage over those who cannot read.


I hated to read until two things happened; I started wearing glasses and had an inspirational grade eight teacher. I’m not a particularly fast reader, I like to savour every word, and over the years, I’ve collected my fair share of books — sometimes I would have two or three books on the go so ownership became less costly than borrowing from the local library. As I read and collected there was a point where I got it in my head it was nicer to have my books stacked then on a shelf; be it stacked on my night table or stacked on the floor. It was my very own literary art. Most of the books I’ve read (if only just in part), and for those I haven’t started yet, the book is on the go — I ‘m just on page one.

I can’t say my eclectic stacks of books make me a good leader, but rather, something I am working on.

iamgpe

PS — As for this stack of books I can only say I’m not sure why I got it in my head to take a course on Statistical Techniques; The SILK ROADS: A NEW HISTORY OF THE WORLD offers a fresh perspective on how we got to where we are; although 21 Lessons for the 21st Century is still on the go, I definitely need to check to see if there is any insights into dealing with pandemics. And it goes without saying that Dilbert is simply a must.