Covidiots: The Clay Feet Edition

Boomers like me often live in the past when it comes to musical idols: the Beatles, Eric Clapton, Van Morrison. to name but three, were the gods at whose altars we worshipped. The problems with gods, however, is that they often have clay feet, something we would have been inclined perhaps to overlook in our younger years.

The time for such willful blindness, however, has passed, especially since some idols are now abusing their power to the detriment of society. Going beyond the incomprehensible and inexcusable anti-lockdown stance taken by fellow-musician Van Morrison, Eric Clapton has gone into the realm of the absurd, claiming that those of us who have acted responsibly by getting vaccinated against Covid-19 are victims of mass hypnosis.

In a new interview for The Real Music Observer YouTube channel, Eric has claimed that [...] subliminal messaging hidden in advertising led people to get the jab. 

His eyes were 'opened' by 

....a guy, Mattias Desmet [professor of clinical psychology at Ghent University in Belgium], [who] talked about it.

'And it's great. The theory of mass formation hypnosis. And I could see it then. Once I kind of started to look for it, I saw it everywhere.

'Then I remembered seeing little things on YouTube which were like subliminal advertising. It had been going on for a long time: that thing about "you will own nothing and you will be happy." 

'And I thought, "What's that mean?" And bit by bit, I put a rough kind of jigsaw puzzle together. And that made me even more resolute.'

Mass formation psychosis - an attempt to hypnotise groups of people to follow messages against their will - has been widely discredited by scientists.  

What led Clapton into this disordered thinking? It was his personal experience with the AstraZeneca vaccine which, he says, worsened his pre-existing peripheral neuropathy.

In a message to his music producer, he said: 'I took the first jab of AZ [AstraZeneca] and straight away had severe reactions which lasted ten days.' 

The 76-year-old said he 'recovered eventually' but suffered further 'disastrous reactions' six weeks later after the second shot.

He added: 'My hands and feet were either frozen, numb or burning, and pretty much useless for two weeks, I feared I would never play again...

'I should never have gone near the needle. But the propaganda said the vaccine was safe for everyone.'

I am certainly willing to admit the possibility that the vaccine, in his case, worsened his neuropathy. However, doctors say that the risks of getting Covid are greater than the risk of adverse reactions from vaccines. In any event, what I find unforgiveable about Clapton's stance is his monstrous ego. Because he says he suffered an adverse reaction, he is now actively discouraging others from getting protection, putting countless lives at risk.

That is not the work of a god. It is more like that of a devil.

The Unthinking Hordes

H/t Greg Perry

As a student of human behaviour, one of the things this pandemic has made abundantly clear to me is that a significant number of people are ill-equipped to think. Whether through a lack of education or the sometimes cruel play of genetics, there are those amongst us who, no matter the evidence, will insist that their misbegotten notion of reality is the 'real truth.' This is particularly evident in the anti-vaxxer crowd.

Because such people can 'think' only in the broadest of terms, they often resort to hysterical and grossly inappropriate language and historical allusion. This has not escaped the notice of columnist Michael Coren, who begins his piece, There's no vaccination against human cruelty, with a fond memory of his great aunt, who he called bubba.

It wasn’t until long after she died and I was a teenager that I was finally told bubba’s story. She had been in a death camp, and the mark on her arm was a tattoo. The Nazis sadistically scraped them into the flesh of their chosen victims so as to dehumanize them before they were tortured and murdered. She survived, but many of her family and friends did not.

The reason I mention this is because of an increasing and repugnant fetish within the anti-vaccination crowd. Their hysteria, rejection of science and truth, and sheer irrationality are surely self-evident. Now they are comparing their experience to that of the victims of Nazism. They speak of the entirely ethical and admirable COVID vaccination campaign as being “Nazi-like”; they casually throw around the word Holocaust; they even wear yellow stars at demonstrations, and display that image on their social media pages. The yellow star that my bubba was forced to wear.

Coren rightly regards such antics as abhorrent. 

How dare they? How the hell dare they! They insult — they desecrate — the memory of those who suffered and died, and they do it with an obscene absence of self-awareness, empathy and sensitivity. They are using genocide as a cheap political ploy in their crazed campaign, playing with the horror of all that screaming and weeping. Once again, how the hell dare they!

This pandemic will eventually be overcome, and the victors will be the scientists, the medical staff, and the vast majority of ordinary, good, ethical people who were part of the great and communal movement to help save all of us.

But those who blithely trod on the mass graves of the persecuted will not suddenly disappear. Their malice and their arrogance will continue, waiting to be awakened and empowered in some future crisis.

The human condition has always lived with this brokenness — this virus, if you like — and that’s not going to change. Alas, there is no vaccination against cruelty. But while we may not be able to expunge this nonsense, we can at least be aware of it. Fanaticism and ignorance can have truly terrible consequences.

Jesus famously said, "Forgive them Lord, for they know not what they do."

I, and countless others, will find forgiveness of those who cause so much pain, suffering and death very, very difficult to muster.

 

Why The Anti-Vaxxers Are Despised

Some seem to have a difficult time understanding the vitriol directed at the strident anti-vaxxers. I hope the following helps clear up any confusion they might be feeling.

A 30-year-old Ontario woman diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer has had her surgery postponed indefinitely and says it could be too late to save her if the procedure keeps getting pushed back.

Woodbridge, Ont. woman Cassandra Di Maria was diagnosed with cancer in 2020 and has undergone 17 rounds of chemotherapy since then.

"Now, I'm waiting on my next big surgery," Di Maria told CTV News Toronto on Thursday. "I have no idea when this surgery will happen and I'm at a standstill."

In order to undergo the surgery, doctors told Di Maria in late October she needed to stop chemotherapy for a few weeks so her body would be strong enough to handle the procedure, which was originally scheduled for December. 

She said in December she received a notice saying the surgery was being postponed to January, and then later was told that date was cancelled too.

In an e-mail viewed by CTV News Toronto, a representative from Mount Sinai Hospital told Di Maria her surgery was cancelled because of "the situation with COVID-19" and that "everything is getting cancelled at this point."

I assume the point is clear. Di Maria's chances of survival are monumentally reduced by the selfishness of some of her fellow-citizens. 

As well, some letter-writers offer their withering views of those who are causing our health-care crisis: 

Mounting data shows that unvaccinated people are several times more likely than vaccinated folks to catch COVID-19, experience more severe symptoms, become hospitalized, need an ICU bed and ultimately die from COVID-19.

In this whole process, they tie up a disproportionately larger share of our limited health-care resources and enable the pandemic to rage on more than it should have.

At some point, difficult decisions must be made by our leaders so that those unvaccinated (without medical reason) face the consequence of their choice not to get vaccinated.

One solution might be to prioritize the ICU beds for the vaccinated patients when our ICUs are under strain.

When all ICU beds are full, vaccine-refusers will be moved to regular beds to make room for vaccinated patients.

Surely if they are so adamant about their right to what happens to their own body, they shouldn’t mind that little extra that may come with that choice: a bad case of COVID-19.

Tim Lu, Markham

 Bravo, François Legault! Finally, a premier who’s not afraid to make a bold decision.

It’s about time that unvaccinated people start paying for exacerbating the effect of the pandemic. They are disproportionately responsible for clogging our hospitals, for prolonged lockdowns and for putting their fellow citizens at risk.

There is absolutely no reason why they shouldn’t pay for it.

Some will argue that it’s a slippery slope or make comparisons with smokers, however there is no comparison to be made; if the smoker wants to kill himself that’s his problem, but when it comes to a very contagious disease, it affects all of society.

Persuasion doesn’t work as some were suggesting.

Now it’s time to talk money.

Claude Gannon, Markham

Hysterical protests and refusals will not end this crisis. Only fulfilling the requirements of good citizenship will.

 

A Failure Of Citizenship

That is the assessment in today's Toronto Star editorial of those who refuse to get vaccinated, thereby holding the rest of us (or, as I like to say, the sane majority) hostage. 

And it is time to start making them pay for their obdurate, anti-social stance.

It is their irresponsibility that is largely to blame for the restraints under which Canadians are currently required to live.

It is no surprise, then, and largely to be applauded, that exasperated jurisdictions from Quebec to countries in Europe have opted to raise the cost of demonstrably anti-social behaviour.

 In Quebec, the province’s health minister Christian Dubé announced this past week that, as of Jan. 18, Quebecers will have to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination to access provincial liquor and cannabis stores.

“If they can’t protect themselves, we will protect them against themselves,” said Dubé. “And we will make sure that they understand very clearly that if they don’t want to be vaccinated, they just stay home.”

European jurisdictions are hardening their hearts against the vaccine-refusniks with some relish. For example, the French President wants to make their lives hell:

 Macron told the newspaper Le Parisien that he wants to “piss off” unvaccinated people by making their lives so complicated that they’ll relent and accept the vaccine. The unvaccinated, he said, are reneging on the obligations of citizenship.

Other European countries are getting tougher with the unvaxxed. Italy requires proof of vaccination – or of having recovered from COVID — for entry to a host of public spaces. Greece is levying a monthly fine (called a “health fee”) of 100 euros ($144) on people over 60 who won’t get their shots.

Unlike Erin O'Toole, who pleads for understanding and accommodation for those who thumb their noses at the health and safety of their fellow-citizens, most prefer the stick over the carrot at this critical juncture.

But right now the responsible majority are paying an enormous price for the stubbornness of the recalcitrant – and it is not the former who should be asked to make endless accommodations. 

The majority of people who “did the right thing” and got vaccinated are effectively being held hostage to the selfishness of the few. At this point it’s entirely reasonable to raise the price of irresponsibility, and make life more difficult for those who won’t get their shots.

Ontario and other provinces should follow Quebec’s example and turn the screws further on the unvaxxed. 

To that, I have nothing to add other than my whole-hearted agreement. 

 

 

The Unvarnished Truth

 

H/t Theo Moudakis

Truth be told, I don't feel much like writing these days. The news is unrelentingly grim, the pandemic soldiers on, and the stupid continue to run around extolling their 'gospel.' My sympathy/empathy for the unvaxxed is non-existent, and given the deaths they are and will be responsible for through cancelled heart and cancer surgeries because their kind are filling the hospitals, I have reached the point that if they do expire from the disease, I really don't care.

Just like I don't care about the planeload of covidiots that chartered a Sunwing plane to Mexico. You have probably already seen the video, but if not, have a look.

I am happy to report that Sunwing, Air Transat and Air Canada are refusing them transport home. 

Oh, and one more thing. Thirty of the miscreants have come down with Covid. 

My heart does not bleed for them

And Now, A Word From Tech Support

I do believe this says it all.
 

If This Is A Recruiting Video

 ... Lorne from Bellville needs a major rewrite.

Johnny “Austin” Fondue

@EatsFood2

Freedom Fighter Lorne from Belleville gets some rapid antigen tests and is confused by the box… #belleville #antivaxxers

Truth

As I continue to fulminate about the benighted in our midst, this seems like an appropriate thought for a Wednesday morning.

Simply Monstrous

As parents, almost all of us want the best for our kids and would do anything to protect them from harm. In the following news report, you will meet a Canadian family divided over Covid-19 shots. That in itself is not news, but when you learn of the medical circumstances of the 11-year-old in the family, I think you might feel as I do that the father's refusal to get the shot is simply unnatural and monstrous. 

Please start at the 17 minute mark.

The Best Of Covid Karma

No words needed from me here.

                                      

                                 

And my personal favourite:

Thought For The Day

Busy as I am these days performing outside maintenance chores before the storms inevitably start to fly, I offer this for today's reflection, as well as gratitude that Aaron Rodgers was not chosen to replace Alex Trebek on Jeopardy:

A Meme For The Times

This particular meme has been around for awhile now. If you haven't seen it, I think you will agree that it is particularly germane to the times in which we live.

And this seems an appropriate accompaniment to the above:

H/t Graeme MacKay

Star Readers Weigh In

I like to regularly post letters-to-the-editor that hit targets concisely and precisely. The following meet those criteria.

On the subject of the Pandora Papers, her is what one writer thinks:

Naive to think any changes will come of Pandora Papers

• Toronto Star
• 10 Oct 2021

Re Opening the Pandora Papers and what they reveal, Oct. 4

As your research on the Pandora Papers shows, Canada has been and continues to be a tax haven for laundered money on both the provincial and federal level with its lax laws. Provinces don’t require residency or even basic identification to register a company, and the end result is millions of illicit money is placed in real estate.

It is not surprising that, on the federal level, billions are placed into offshore accounts.

Much of these activities can take place because of the legal loopholes that allow criminals, millionaires, and corporations to stash billions in offshore accounts around the world.

Since the publishing of the Panama Papers in 2016, not a single charge has been laid.

It would be totally naive for anyone to think that those identified by the Pandora Papers will face consequences.

Canada and the rest of the world needs to close loopholes that allow billions to be stashed in offshore accounts, leaving hard-working Canadians and citizens of other countries shouldering the bulk of the tax burden.

These loopholes allow the rich to continue becoming richer while the rest pay the price. 

Sheila Gaal, Toronto

 A flurry of letters attest to the public reaction of disgust over the insane opposition to vaccines and certificates:

Freedom comes with obligations

• Toronto Star
• 9 Oct 2021

RICHARD LAUTENS TORONTO STAR

A vaccination protester was arrested after refusing to leave nurses alone as the Ontario throne speech was delivered.

Is there no end to anti-vaccination characters complaining about tyranny and coercion of people to get vaccinated?

One argument turns on being forced to get vaccinated or losing their job; if I lose my job, who is going to put food on my family table?

The question they should be asking is: if I don’t get vaccinated and contract the virus and spend weeks or months in hospital or even die, who is going to put food on my family table?

The part that anti-vaccination folk are missing is that, with freedom, come certain obligations. The society you are part of is asking you to step up and join your fellow citizens in an effort to quash the pandemic that has cost thousands of lives in Canada and millions worldwide.

Don’t complain that restrictions, such as the requirement to show a vaccination certificate, make you a second class citizen if you are not vaccinated!

If your definition of freedom is “I do what I please and to hell with everyone else,” then you are a second class citizen all of your own making.

Francis Zita, Scarborough

Venues that follow vax rules deserve support

Re Ontario must enforce its Covid rules, Oct. 2 

Eighty-three per cent of the population has stepped up and been doublevaxxed. It’s time for the majority of us to enjoy our freedom.

And it’s time for the 17 per cent to endure the restrictions that their ignorance has caused.

Stop pandering to the minority! We’ve been a divided community since the vaccine became available.

A vaccine certificate didn’t suddenly become the cause for division in our society.

It’s too bad our premier doesn’t recognize this; so many deaths and hospitalizations could have been prevented.

I am proud to support venues that follow the rules, and will certainly avoid those that flout them. I am certain I am not alone.

Linda Saxe, Toronto

Following COVID-19 rules good for business

No one wants to see businesses like gyms and restaurants suffer any more unnecessarily, but the requirement for proof of vaccination for entry is a necessity, and any owner who openly declares that the rules do not apply at their establishment needs to pay the price

And this disregard to the rules demands a big price be paid.

The unvaccinated are many, but still a minority, so, if the owner feels motivated to cater to the minority of his clients, the majority of them who are the vaccinated will likely stay home.

How is that good for business, never mind the obligation we all have as part of society to protect each other with every tool available against the scourge of COVID-19?

Margaret Perrault, North Bay, Ont.

Kids routinely vaxxed, so why raise objections?

Go to school? Get your shots!, Sept. 26

The problem with this selfish, misinformed bunch is that they are too young to remember all the previous health challenges their ancestors had to live through, and defeat.

Smallpox, diphtheria, polio, not to mention measles, rubella, mumps, all of which are controlled by … vaccines.

All school children get their measles, mumps and rubella vaccination and diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough), and tetanus vaccination.

These anti-vaccination people all had these when they were children.

Yet they insist on listening to the those who spread unscientific misinformation and blame the various governments with infringing their rights.

The only right, when it comes to pandemics, is the right to do the right thing to protect themselves, their kids, their parents and their neighbours.

Roll up your sleeves and help defeat this disease!

George McCaig, Kitchener

Ontario needs system for reviewing exemptions

Re NDP leader calls out PC vaccine exemptions, Oct. 5

The recent furor over medical exemptions given to two government MPPs reminded me that, according to the news, medical exemptions in PEI must be approved by that province’s chief medical officer. Granted, there is a huge difference in scale between PEI and Ontario, but it illustrates the need to have those exemptions vetted by someone other than one’s own family doctor.

This is a matter of public health, and should be reviewed accordingly, with questionable exemptions reported to the Ministry of Health as well as to the College of Physicians and Surgeons.

The knowledge that such decisions of family doctors would be reviewed would ensure exemptions would only be granted for specific and relevant medical conditions.

Doug Lewis, Clarington

You Can't Keep A Good Man Down - UPDATED

…especially a man like restauranteur Jody Pendleton, who so loves his freedom that he exercised it by firing all of the staff from his four eateries who have been vaccinated against Covid-19.

God bless Amerika.

UPDATE:

Well, the story now gets a tad murky. According to Jody, this was all a joke, an attempt at satire. But is that all there is to this tale?

Then there is this:

One thing emerging from this imbroglio is certain: in the corrupted currents of American society, all things are possible.

Defiance Comes With A Cost

One of the things that riles me more than most is the absolute zeal with which the anti-vaxxers embrace their cause. Call it truculence, call it misplaced zeal, call it whatever you will, their willfully ignorant stance ignores the facts of Covid-19 and its very effective Kryptonite, the vaccines themselves. Unfortunately, the collateral damage caused by their desperate and pitiable effort to define themselves by their defiance is the rest of us.

Public health and any sense of community beyond their own benighted cadre seems non-existent.

Now added to the fray are restaurants and other businesses that are openly advertising that they do not 'discriminate' and will not be asking for proof of status as a condition of entry.

Propelled by a mixture of vaccine skepticism, business decisions and fear of government overreach, these proprietors — ranging from burger joints in Toronto to a Brazilian jiu-jitsu class in Thornhill — have formed an extensive and well-documented network of restaurants, gyms, cafes and more where clientele can enter regardless of jab status.

 In a Facebook group called “Ontario Businesses Against Health Pass,” which boasts more than 139,000 members, small business owners and entrepreneurs across the province have been promoting their products and decrying the Reopening Ontario Act.

“At King Jiu Jitsu, we do NOT discriminate,” wrote Gregg King, operator of a martial arts class in Thornhill, in the Facebook group. “Vaxxed or not vaxxed you are all welcome to train in a safe and friendly environment ... No BS. No politics. No Drama!”

 The posts receive scores of supportive messages from like-minded people. The businesses are added to an online directory, called Ontario BAD (Businesses Against Discrimination), where they can advertise their work and submit job postings to fill vacancies.

Apparently there are close to 700 enterprises listed on the site. If you are curious,  you can check out some of them on this Google Maps compilation.

Arguments for their stance are disingenuous at best. Jenna Barnes, owner of a very small restaurant in Hamilton called The Harbour Diner, 

thinks the province is disadvantaging small businesses by implementing rules that don’t apply to big corporations.

“You can walk into a Canadian Tire, or a Walmart, or a Costco and nobody will ask you a damn question about your medical history. Why is it all on us?”

The obvious answer, of course, is that those enterprises require masks at all times, something that is impossible when one is eating.

The Star's Emma Teitel has a solution to the problems posed by these scofflaws. 

What if, you, a fully vaccinated person, dine at a restaurant you assumed to be safe, only to discover later on that not only did you contract COVID-19 from an outbreak at the restaurant, but its owner failed to check diners’ vaccination statuses and boasted about this failure online?

According to Alex Colangelo, a lawyer and professor of paralegal studies at Humber College, you might have recourse to sue the restaurant for negligence.

 Consider this passage from Ontario’s Occupiers’ Liability Act, the “occupier” for our purposes being a business owner: “An occupier of premises owes a duty to take such care as in all the circumstances of the case is reasonable to see that persons entering on the premises, and the property brought on the premises by those persons are reasonably safe while on the premises.”

Consider this passage from Ontario’s Occupiers’ Liability Act, the “occupier” for our purposes being a business owner: “An occupier of premises owes a duty to take such care as in all the circumstances of the case is reasonable to see that persons entering on the premises, and the property brought on the premises by those persons are reasonably safe while on the premises.”

It is time that those who proudly trumpet their truculence accept responsibility for their irresponsibility. Lawsuits, fines for non-compliance and even closure of businesses seem a good place to start imparting a much-needed lesson.