Last week, I wrote my column on all the silly people buying enough toilet paper to last them 20 years and this week I’m now forced to take a more serious stance on Covid-19.

As I sit here writing this column, business, stores and facilities across the country are continuing to close down to help mitigate the spread of Covid-19.

Alberta has just closed the doors to all K-12 schools, leaving parents trying to find child care and grade 12 students wondering what it means for their graduation.

Some of these topics may get answered by the time you read this, which shows just how fast things are continuing to change.

Even early last week Albertans weren’t too worried about the virus and its effects on businesses and schools.

Fast-forward a week and now almost everything is closing and people are starting to lose their jobs as we enter uncharted territory.

As I write, I’m also somewhat uncertain.

As a reporter for a weekly newspaper, I tend to rely on events happening in the area for the stories I write.

Now with events getting cancelled, I’m not even sure if there will be enough news for me to write on.

Sure, I could write on how Covid-19 is affecting everyone but unfortunately that alone won’t be enough to fill an entire paper.

Even though I face a small amount of uncertainty, it doesn’t even compare to what others are going through.

In my worst-case scenario, I may lose my job if this extends a few more months but even in that scenario, I have family I could move back in with and still live comfortably.

There are people losing their jobs who don’t have that available to them.

For certain people, losing their jobs means they lose other pieces of their lives like their homes as well.

The government has stated that people needing EI will be able to receive it right away, instead of the usual weeklong waiting period but overall it may not be enough for some people.

That’s why even if you’re young and know you probably won’t die if you get the virus and may think that all these closures are way over the top, it’s time to realize that these measures are being taken to slow it down so that things can hopefully open sooner than later and people will be able to get back to a level of normalcy as quickly as possible.

I too realize that as a healthy young man, the chances of me dying from this are extremely low but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t do my part to help lessen the spread of Covid-19 to people who will be affected by it.

Over the next weeks and months, it’s extremely important that we all work together and do our part to ensure everyone across the country and the globe can get back to normal.