COVID variants are spreading rapidly. But the Ontario government continues to open up the province. Bruce Arthur writes:
Ontario is engaging in a game of chicken with COVID-19, which is not a game jurisdictions typically win. It feels like a perfect storm, in a way. A populace exhausted by months of middle-of-the-road restrictions which were enough to tire out the citizenry, rather than the virus. A government that has been losing patience with science, and now just wants to throw open any door it can. Variants that send more people to hospital. A chief medical officer of health who thinks indoor dining is safer than backyard gatherings. Maybe he missed a meeting.
Early data seems to show new variants send people across different age groups to hospital at approximately double the rate of classic COVID. The ICUs never emptied out after the last wave because the province got impatient, and there were 372 COVID patients in Ontario ICUs Tuesday, with 33 new admissions in the previous 24 hours. The second-wave high was 420. Hospitals have become more nimble and creative, but there are breaking points.
It will be a political decision. And that means the buck stops on Doug Ford's desk:
We’ll need another lockdown, is what the math seems to indicate, so this may come down to Doug. The one thing that has spurred somewhat serious intervention has been Ford seeing modelling that showed the hospitals might soon tip. Well, wait a few weeks.
If anything has been made clear in this pandemic it is that government policies matter, and that some people will always do what they are allowed to do, and more. Earlier in the pandemic I asked a source familiar with the province’s decision-making process, who is in charge of Ontario’s epidemic strategy, its specific response? They said, Doug.
Well, Doug, it may be your show now. And you will own it, either way.
In the end, Doug will be held accountable.
Image: Global News
4 comments:
Voting Ford out of office isn't enough accountability. I'd like to see him charged with criminal negligence. Unfortunately, that's about as likely as me winning the lottery.
Instead of following the successful containment example of the Atlantic provinces, Ford will kill even more Ontarians in his rush to "open the economy."
Ford has ignored the pleas of family physicians who want to distribute vaccines to their patients, despite the evidence that 6 in 10 vaccine-hesitant people are more likely to get immunized if their GP or NP were giving the shot.
Instead, we get appalling lines of seniors standing with walkers and canes as they wait at mass vaccination centres. The ones that can't arrange transportation halfway across town don't even get that chance at a lifesaving shot. In rural areas, their best bet for getting to a vaccination centre is to call their MPP's office.
It's a horrible mess that goes against everything we've learned through yearly flu vaccinations. It's no wonder Hillier's out. Ford should also be out, but the next election's more than a year away. Not good enough!
Cap
Unfortunately, Cap, we don't have a recall mechanism.
Another blogger who follows Canadian politics had this to say about Doug, "...Doug Ford, who somehow managed to fail at the one thing he's ever accomplished in life and which is definitely his bailiwick: distributing drugs efficiently".
The part of the business Doug understands is salesmanship, jrk. Distribution isn't his thing.
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