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The reality of our pandemic situation

April 22, 2021   ·   0 Comments

If you are as done with the wimps and whiners in the media as I am, perhaps you will allow me some time to try and bring some reality to our pandemic situation. I would not want the job of any politician today. They have to make tough and untried decisions and we must support them as much as we are able. Politics has no place in these decisions. Unfortunately, we don’t have anyone at any level of government that knows how to manage a crisis. We need decisions made and implemented as they are identified, not days later. When implementation is delayed it sends a message to the public that it is really not an emergency. This delay also allows the infection to increase, and harder to bring under control, meanwhile killing or injuring more people.

We have had hospital staff working long hours in understaffed facilities for well over a year and even now under more stress than at any time during the pandemic. Watching people die or suffer through severe symptoms at a level they have never had to face before. These are doctors, nurses, cleaners and other support staff. We are told that temporary hospitals have been built and equipped on parking lots or in arenas in high population areas, so don’t worry. Who is going to staff these sites? There is already a shortage because of those who have become ill or died from covid, or have been exposed and must self isolate. There was a shortage of beds and personnel in many areas before the pandemic.

These are extremely dedicated people. They are not likely to protest and walk off the job because they feel tired, mentally stressed or simply fatigued. We need to laud them, not heap more work and stress on them.

Apparently we must be concerned for the mental health of our children. My observation over many years is that children pay attention to everything their parents do. My parents came through the depression and the World War 2 but that was never put on my shoulders. Kids are resilient. Of course, if they are dead then they can’t have mental problems. Young children do not seem to be as susceptible or respond as dramatically to the disease, but we do not know what the long term effects of having the infection will be. As a minimum, all schools should be shutdown and reopened as the staff receive the vaccine. In reality, they should be closed until September to protect the parents and siblings from infection. Unfortunately, this is complicated by the daycare function of schooling.

This third wave seems to have control, so we need to take some urgent action. Not the tokenism of the last announcement.  Big box stores without groceries should be limited to curbside pickup. The big box stores with groceries should be closed immediately and only open limited to selling groceries with a limited number of people allowed in the store. How they do that is their problem, but I bet they will have it done within 24 hours.

We need to give up on the idea of age as a controlling factor for vaccinations. It obviously should be medical staff, manufacturing, construction and distribution centres as well as public transit. The hot spots for outbreak. The older people may have a higher morbidity rate but those in the so-called essential worker categories are at much higher risk.

There is a lot more tweaking that can be done and should be done. It is the half measures taken in the past that have resulted in our current situation. If we had stayed dedicated during the first wave until we were at a controllable level we could have expected a much better result and small business would not still be suffering. Of course this is hindsight, but should indicate that we need to be bolder in our approach to fighting this pandemic. It will be at least 14 days before we can expect any leveling of the infection rate. Toronto and Peel will continue to rise after that because nothing has changed there.

It is outrageous that with all of the legitimate information given to us, and living in a country where our freedom is protected better than in any other country in the world, there are those who claim freedom as an excuse to refuse to wear a mask or stay 6 ft. apart.

With freedom comes responsibility! If you are not part of the solution, then you’re a part of the problem.

Charles Weller

Orangeville

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