I am amazed and oh, so grateful.

The pandemic is about 18 months old.  Before the pandemic, the world did not have a vaccine for protection against a virus. Imagine, just for a moment, what our world would be like if no vaccine had been created to combat covid-19. It is too horrible, and I can’t imagine; a long and endless lockdown, curfews, the death of the world population increasing from the current rate by many multiples.  All with no end in sight.

But, not only do we have a vaccine, we have several vaccines with different structures. Choice!

Several of the vaccines came about based on knowledge from research into cancer patients. Companies switched focus very early on, recognizing the need and the opportunity. The need was always there. SARS in 2002-2004 made this apparent. But we took our eye and our money off the ball, and this research faded away.

One reason for this was the difficulty and expenses the researchers had to find people to qualify for human trials. SARS largely disappeared, and so did the clinical trial opportunities. Instead of days or weeks, it would take years to get sufficient numbers of people for trials. It was too costly for private companies to fund such research.

I look at my personal collection of masks I purchased throughout this pandemic. It tells a story. I had a few medical masks lying about, no idea why. Then I bought a few cloth face coverings from an acquaintance. Then I added surgical filters into them. Next came the leap from cloth to K95 masks and finally to my current preference of Canadian-made N95 masks. Choice! Hopefully, I’m at the end of this progression.

I know I am very fortunate to have been able to protect myself so easily.  When I bought some early masks, I paid double the price to provide free ones to folks who couldn’t afford to buy them.

The availability of vaccines and masks are both forms of unique medical interventions.

I believe the progress forced upon us by covid-19 will turn towards other advances in the treatment for cancer, Parkinson’s, dementia and others.

It took from 1990 to 2003 to sequence the human genome. Warp speed. Since then, it’s been less than 20 years. We are seeing individual and personal medical approaches based on a person’s unique genetic code. Imagine what another 25 years will accomplish.

Please give this a bit of a think. How lucky are you to be living in these times and why.? What is one thing you can do to help another or others feel as fortunate as well?

I’m curious about your thoughts. Please leave your comment below.

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And my thanks to St. Albert Seniors Association: 780-459433 for making this Blog possible.

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TheBlog@stalbertseniors.ca