In Ontario, we're living in a make-believe world. Bruce Arthur writes:
About a month after the province announced masking was no longer mandatory, Omicron is everywhere. With testing limited and hobbled, wastewater data shows there is more COVID in circulation than there was at the peak of the January Omicron wave. According to Dr. Peter Jüni, the scientific director of the province’s independent volunteer science table, Ontario is seeing an estimated 100,000 COVID infections per day right now, give or take. That number will continue to grow. But what happens next is hard to say.
“It’s very difficult to tell right now,” said Jüni. “We’re not completely sure what the amount of immunity we have in the population, how much waning (of immunity) is happening right now.
“The (last Omicron) wave was broken — it was not the natural behaviour of the wave. Natural behaviour of the wave would have resulted in probably at least twice as many people in the hospital at the peak. So the question is now will (this wave) peak in a week from now, a bit earlier, or only two weeks from now. And this makes a tremendous difference.”
The range of realistic outcomes has shifted upwards, though. Jüni says the worst-case scenario — a two-week rise or so — could see a concurrent hospitalization burden similar to the last wave, which peaked just over 4,000. Human behaviour, as ever, will make a difference, and there are some signals in recent wastewater data that could indicate potential deceleration, which is probably behaviour-based.
But giving permission to doff masks in shared spaces was a powerful signal of more than permission — it was a signal from government that it is safe to do so, that you have no responsibility to protect others, that a mask is only a personal decision, with no other complications. Some people kept masks on, and lots didn’t. People are tired of the pandemic — literally everyone, at this point — and the knock-on effects of that are an incredible behavioural driver, here and in so many countries. Masks don’t solve everything. But they help, and societally they cost almost nothing.
The bottom line? When Doug Ford speaks, things get worse.
Image: CUPE Ontario
10 comments:
BBC reported that, on the last day of March, one in thirteen Brits had active Covid infections. 1 in 13. It's thanks to BoJo that our own leaders have been inspired to shed all precautions lest they be seen as the Grinch.
Inspiration from BoJo, Mound? They're lemmings, marching happily off the cliff.
The government/Public Health response has been little short of criminal. My brother from Calgary gaily flew here to Halifax this past Wednesday without checking into the roaring Omicron wave here, to surprise his relatives and daughter studying at Dalhousie U with a visit (!). Gets here, finds daughter with Covid flat on her back with the "plague", and despite all masking, windows open, etc tested positive himself with two different brands of RAT tests yesterday! Now they're both self-isolating and he's wondering when he'll be safe to fly back. Assuming no complications. He won't be seeing any of his brothers and their families here this trip! Imagine managing to avoid the virus for two years in what he calls kenney's dystopia, religiously masking and all that, and then BOOM.
Yes, Omicron is raging away, and there's no mask mandate. Judging by our premier's fatuous remarks and Freeland's total dismissal of Covid in the budget (I really do not like that woman, all ambition no hat), well, we're all reaping what we sow in trusting these quacks "of the people" and "public health".
It's bloody ridiculous to dump all restrictions at the height of a wave. But that's apprently why they invented politicians, and what in hell is going through the minds of public health epidemiologists right now sounds like Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy. Only PEI and Quebec still have mask mandates.
No wonder regular infectious disease specialists here are up in arms! They've started a Safe Shopping website highlighting where masks are still required. The situation is beyond ridiculous, and our once-vaunted Public Health people are uninterested in wastewater analysis offered by the Dalhousie Engineering department. They know best, eh. And the best is apparently sitting on your hands on the can and humming jolly ditties and tra-la-las until the wave fades away.
I wish we could fast-forward to the end of the story of Prince Prospero Ford and his cabinet: "And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all."
Cap
Willful blindness, Bill. And the plague rages on.
Something tells me that Ford would miss the reference to Prince Prospero, Cap.
The problem is Owen, because most people vaccinated or not, think the latest wave is only a 'flu' then what is to worry. But as you know workplace absences do add up and essential services will be hit. With no emergency money it will be small business that gets to carry this one.
Perhaps some of this will rub off on Ford but seeing as he has externalised it I very much doubt it.
Ford seems to think this is a minor problem, Ben. But, then, he's always lacked a sense of proportion.
Doug Ford is only the point man for ,yet, another jurisdiction that has thrown in the towel with it's reaction to Covid.
Covid will soon be relegated to the other world wide diseases such s AIDS and malaria.
The expendable generation is here .
My heart goes out to those that cannot afford good health care such as those in he US.
The same applies to those that will soon have to endure the implication of healthcare for profit in Ontario.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/31/us-affordable-healthcare-uninsured-underinsured#:~:text=An%20estimated%2046%20million%20Americans,believes%20they%20can%20afford%20healthcare.
TB
Thanks for the link, TB. As I've written before, for Ford profit makes the world go round.
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