We are far from having conquered this virus

Are we talking too much about COVID-19 in the media, especially in Acadie Nouvelle?

Personally, I believe that we have the right to be well informed about this virus which has spread all over the planet. The media keep us informed about the number of people affected each day and how to protect ourselves.

Vaccines have been developed to try to counter this virus. It’s a shame, but not all people can be vaccinated as quickly as they would like. Many are on waiting lists. Others refuse the vaccine outright. In my opinion, they are on the wrong track.

Experts in the medical world as well as governments tell us forcefully what to do to protect yourself from the virus.

There was indeed the Spanish flu in 1918. There would be similarities between COVID-19 and the Spanish flu.

In my village, Balmoral in northern New Brunswick, a lady who had experienced this flu, Régina Savoie told me that there had been 18 deaths in the parish. At that time, the words parishes and villages were synonymous with many people.

The paths and roads were not open in winter at that time. Electricity had not yet reached the villages inland.

In Balmoral, healthy men took care of putting the dead in the ground without any ceremony. Without means of communication, we did not know what was happening elsewhere and especially how to protect ourselves from this scourge.

Even the parish priest, J. Arthur Melanson who was a young priest at the time, suffered from the Spanish flu. He was very ill, but managed to survive.

Still according to Ms. Savoie, he was so weak and emaciated that he was forced to celebrate his first mass sitting on a chair. It is the same Arthur Melanson who founded the Daughters of Mary of the Assumption in 1922. He then became bishop and later archbishop of Moncton. Today we owe him the cathedral of this city.

COVID-19 is still present among us, even with vaccines, and our prevention methods. We are far from having conquered this virus.

Marcel Arseneau
Moncton

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