Strange Times Indeed

Having taught for 30 years, I had my fair share of classroom experiences, both good and bad, as is the norm in a long career. Fortunately, most of the students I interacted with over those years were good and earnest, eager enough to benefit from educational opportunities as they anticipated their futures. 

Invariably, however, there were those classes that housed one or two students whose purpose for attendance was somewhat opaque; clearly, educational achievement was not their priority; disruption took precedence, resulting in severe compromise to the atmosphere and quality of learning. They were, to use the colloquialism, bad apples.

Similarly, today one is confronted with many examples of the minority trying to dictate the terms under which society operates. The 'Freedom' Convoy against Covid masking and restrictions readily comes to mind, its participants so passionate about protecting our freedoms that they held Ottawa hostage for three weeks. Perhaps their boundless energy came from the fact that they had been marshaling their reserves for just that moment, their prior efforts in fighting for freedom apparently non-existent. No doubt, they believed themselves agents of history.

Although the Ottawa occupation is long over, the disordered thinking that led to it is not. Consider, for example, the question of returning to mask mandates. The evidence is compelling that such a mandate is needed. Children's hospitals are being overwhelmed, and the all the signs point to a complete collapse as the flu and RSV cases mount, this in addition to the ongoing Covid cases our medical facilities have to contend with.

Despite all of the evidence supporting the use of masks to limit the spread of disease, no public official expresses any willingness to reintroduce mandates. Indeed, that reluctance flies in the face of polling results indicating that the majority of Canadians would support a return to mandates.

The poll conducted for CTV News found seven in 10 Canadians said they would support the return of face masks mandates to some extent. Fifty-two per cent said they would support the return of such mandates, 17 per cent said they would "somewhat support" them, while 22 per cent would be against them. Eight per cent would be "somewhat" opposed to the idea.

Here in Ontario, such a result does not sway Dr. Kieran Moore, our mislabelled chief medical officer of health, nor his political master, the often-hapless premier, Doug Ford.

Premier Doug Ford said Wednesday that Ontarians are welcome to wear masks, but there is no recommendation for widespread mandatory masking at this time from Dr. Kieran Moore, the chief medical officer of health.

 Moore told the Star in a recent interview that he is “strongly recommending” those at risk of severe illness from the three viruses to mask indoors but says he is reluctant to install a mandate.

 Instead, he wants people to remember the “basic layers of protection” of staying home when sick, masking in indoor settings, wearing a mask while recovering from a respiratory illness. and good hand hygiene.

Once again, our overlords seem quite willing to cede to the wishes of the minority. In my classroom days, I, too, tried to reason with the disruptive elements I faced, with predictable lack of results. The stakes, a positive classroom environment in which learning took precedence over disruption by the minority, were high enough then, but they are so much higher now.

People's lives are at stake, but those whose job it is to protect all of us quail before the minority. That is not leadership. That is capitulation.

Forgiving And Forgetting?

                           

I read an article recently that posed the question of whether or not relationships can be repaired that were damaged or torn asunder over disagreements about Covid restrictions, mandates and vaccinations. In other words, once the pandemic is over or even now, when it is at least manageable, is it possible to forgive and forget?

One of the stories in the article discussed an ICU nurse on the frontlines of trying to save those who had fallen ill, only to be met by a reaction from her husband that has torn her marriage apart:

“He just invalidated everything I said. He tried to turn it around on me. Nothing I said mattered. I just felt like it was my job to convince him.”

Marie said her husband and his friends get most of their information from far-right sources, such as U.S. conspiracist site Infowars, Rebel News and Canadian anti-vax activist Chris Sky.

Things got progressively worse when the vaccine came out and Marie, as a health worker, was one of the first in her city to get a shot.

“All of a sudden, he told me I was only going to live for a couple more years.”

Clearly, such lunacy would be hard to live with. Even those trained to deal with afflicted people are having a hard time here. One such person is University of Toronto psychologist  Steve Joordens, who

has a close relative who is against COVID-19 vaccines and masks. Initially, he tried to talk to the person about it. But after a few difficult and heated conversations, he stopped.

“We cannot agree to disagree. So, we don’t talk,” he said, “which is tough.”

Further complicating things, this relative has power of attorney over Joordens’s mother, and decided that she would not be vaccinated.

“I had this real worry that Mom is going to die alone. That’s what horrified me,” he said. “That’s a hard thing for me to get over.”

Another psychologist,  Hilary Bersieker, suggests the difficulty lies in how we see those who challenged and flouted Covid protocols:

[G]etting vaccinated and following public health measures are caring and socially conscious things to do, whereas refusing the shot and flouting health rules might be selfish. The more such decisions are moralized, the harder they can be to get over...

That really is the crux of the matter for me. Although I have no friends or relatives who fall into the refusenik camp, if I had, I doubt that I would ever be able to truly forget what the crisis revealed about a side of their character/level of cognition previously unseen. In being so selfish and benighted, how could I ever really respect them or feel any affinity for them again? 

People who discount the science, content with fringe sites filled with fake information, have a lot invested in their stances, one that suggests ego triumphing over goodwill and community spirit. I leave you with the following Twitter video that exemplifies such individuals. The woman in it cravenly claims to be taking a principled stand.

Be sure to watch to the end.