RE:AC and reducting travel restrictionsWould your relatives be successful in suing the Toronto Transit Commission if you became infected with influenza on the subway and succumbed to the virus? And
how would your relatives be able to absolutely prove that you were infected on the subway? What if you were infected in a grocery store?
What it really comes down to is whether or not you are in a high-risk group. If you have another illness(es) that increases the severity of Covid-19 then you should continue to self-isolate until a vaccine is available. Unlike Canada, most states in the U.S. publish meaningful data on the disease. In one county in Texas, in addition to the daily death numbers, details surrounding each death is provided. On one day in early July, 20 people in the county succumbed to the Covid-19 disease. One died at home while the other 19 were diabetics, and 2/3s of those were above 65. Not suggesting that this is a typical sample, but it serves as an example of how serious Covid-19 can be for people with certain illnesses.
(Senior health officials in the U.S. have recently commented that the more vulnerable people are now more aware of the disease, and they are doing a better job of self-isolating, and this is helping to reduce the overall death count.)
In California, as of July 15, no one under the age of 17 has died from the disease, and this includes all races/ethnicities. Between 18 and 64 years of age, there are 28,649 confirmed cases involving white people, and 258 of those died. (Number of deaths were much lower in the 18-34 age group than in the 50-64 group.) If you use the conservative CDC estimate that actual cases are 10 times higher than confirmed, then there were 258 deaths out of 286,490 estimated cases for this broad age range.
You can do your own analysis for your race/ethnic/specific age group at:
https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID/DCDC/Pages/COVID-19/Race-Ethnicity.aspx Importantly, the CDC has revised its thinking on age.
“Previously, CDC stated adults over age 65 were at higher risk of severe disease, but on a call with reporters, officials advised thinking of age as a "continuum." They further noted that
people of any age with certain underlying medical conditions are at increased risk of severe disease.”
So, it’s a reasonable assumption that most of the 258 deaths in the 18-64 age group of white people had other morbidities that increased the severity of Covid-19, which eventually resulted in death. The corollary, of course, is that if you are a healthy person in this age group, your chances of dying from COVID-19 is extremely low.
The bottom line here is that If you are not in a high-risk group, take the standard precautions (frequent handwashing, etc.) and….
As “Red" (played by Morgan Freeman) said in Shawshank Redemption, Get busy Living, or get busy Dying.
Hello Air Canada, two business class tickets to Rome please!