Thought For The Day

 

Amen.

Pardon My Obsession

If you have grown weary of my regular posts about the willful ignorance and stupidity of the anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers, please skip the following.

A Texas bar and grill does not hold with those timid citizens who insist on wearing masks. Apparently, the patronage of Hang Time is limited to those who are made of sterner stuff, like all red-blooded citizens of the Lonestar State, I guess.

And if that doesn't convince you that there is something deeply wrong with people, take a look at this, an invasion of a Staten Island food court by an anti-vaccine mandate horde:

Not So Special After All

 

Given their passionate intensity, anti-vaxxers must be finding this week's ruling by the Ontario Human Rights Commission deeply galling. The long and short of it: they are not so special.

People who choose not to get the COVID-19 vaccine due to personal preferences or “singular beliefs” do not have a right to accommodations under Ontario’s human rights law, the province’s rights watchdog says.

While human rights law prohibits discrimination based on creed — someone’s religion, or a non-religious belief system that shapes their identity, world view and way of life — personal preferences or singular beliefs do not amount to a creed, the commission said, adding it “is not aware of any tribunal or court decision that found a singular belief against vaccinations or masks amounted to a creed within the meaning of the Code.”

Furthermore, even if someone can show they have been denied service or employment over their creed, “the duty to accommodate does not necessarily require they be exempted from vaccine mandates, certification or COVID testing requirements,” the commission said. “The duty to accommodate can be limited if it would significantly compromise health and safety amounting to undue hardship — such as during a pandemic.” 

It is a setback for the truly fervid, those who have made it quite clear that they don't give a damn about  anyone but themselves in this pandemic. But I have no doubt that they will continue their senseless crusade, even if it requires finding doctors with no integrity or falsifying vaccine certificates.

Consider this miscreant, Dr. Christopher Hassell:

The Richmond Hill physician has apparently grant exemptions, at $50 per pop, to hundreds of people, apparently unconcerned that what he is doing contravenes regulations and ethics.

Ministry of Health spokesperson David Jensen said Health Minister Christine Elliott is aware of the incident and ministry officials alerted the registrar of the province’s college of physicians. Jensen said if the allegations are true, it is a “serious offence and we expect the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) to conduct a full review.”

Medical exemptions must align with definitions and parameters outlined in the ministry’s guidance, he said, adding it is an act of professional misconduct to sign or issue documents that are false or misleading. Potential sanctions range from fines to the revocation of a physician’s certification of registration, he said.

Investigations, as they say, are ongoing. 

Then there is the avenue of fake vaccination certificates.

"There are no security features present on these documents. These documents are basically PDF documents," said Dr. Shabnam Preet Kaur, a forensic document examiner with Docufraud Canada, a Toronto-based company.

Kaur said different kinds of software can be used to manipulate PDFs. "It only take five minutes to make changes," she added.

There is no doubt that the most fanatical of the anti-vaxxers will resort to any ruse available to thwart the existing system. All the more reason that this profoundly selfish and willfully ignorant cadre of miscreants has my deep, abiding contempt.

 

 

 

 

My Sentiments Exactly

 

And in a related development, in Florida, apparently all things are possible.

Oh, Those Anti-Vaxxers

 

H/t Theo Moudakis

Just a short note: I have updated yesterday's post with a link to a London Free Press article in which Julie Ponesse is excoriated for her self-serving drivel.

A Sunday Reflection

 

Nothing like shining a light on the ignorant and the benighted, eh?

An Eloquent, Earnest Plea

Although it will likely fall on the deaf ears that it is intended to reach, this message by Dr. Michael Warner is for the unhinged who are harassing healthcare workers.

"I'm Fed Up"

That refrain runs through a recent piece by Bob Hepburn, but before delving into it, let me say that the phrase hardly seems adequate to what I and I'm sure many others are feeling these days. Disheartened, Disappointed, Disenchanted., Disaffected, Despairing - no particular word really does justice to my reaction to the foolish and dangerous behaviour my fellow humans are engaging in these days. 

Their contempt for reason and science, their worshipful elevation of demagoguery, their reliance on invective and even violence against those who won't submit to their peculiar form of madness leaves me with little real hope for the future of humanity. And bear in my that while this post is about the benighted anti-vaxxers that currently blight the landscape, they are but a microcosm of our larger refusal to address the existential problems we face today, climate change and overpopulation chief among them.

None of this is exactly new, of course, but the collision of so many problems at this juncture sets into sharp relief our many shortcoming as humans, and offers little hope for the future.

Enough of my editorializing. After suffering a fusillade of abuse via his leaked cellphone number from people unhappy with the Toronto Star's coverage of  anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers, Hepburn has much to say:

For me, those calls drove home the message that it’s time we stopped tiptoeing past the diehard anti-vaxxers for fear of upsetting them or hurting their feelings.

At the same time, we need to call out irresponsible Canadian politicians — from the national to the local level — who are too afraid of offending the anti-vaxxers and won’t get tough with them and instead try to appeal to their sense of civic duty, or propose bribing them with cash to get their vaccine shots.

I’m fed up with the anti-vaxxers, who seem unbothered by the threat they pose to my health, feeling targeted because they may lose their job, won’t be able to fly on a plane, eat at an indoor restaurant or attend a hockey game or music concert.

I’m fed up with the Trumpist-like mobs in Canada hurling pebbles and insults at Justin Trudeau, picketing hospitals, screaming at diners on restaurant patios and demonstrating outside politicians’ homes.

I’m fed up with anti-vaxxers who suggest COVID is a hoax or scam or is being overblown by mainstream media. I know people who have died from COVID.

I’m fed up with anti-vaxxer enablers who argue that many low-wage workers and others, such as the homeless and disabled, have been unable to travel to or get the time off to get to vaccination sites.

Rubbish! Do you seriously believe they couldn’t find a few minutes over the past five months to get a shot, when outreach programs are bringing the jabs almost to people’s doors?

Finally, I’m fed up with politicians who are basically protecting these irresponsible people who are making life miserable for all of us. 

Hepburn has also had it with the political opportunism and cowardice of politicians like Jason Kenney and Scott Moe, neither of whom will consider vaccine certificates, the former opting to bribe people with money to get the shot. Similarly, he has no use for Maxime Bernier, who has built his platform around giving public health measures a prodigious middle finger.

None of these people seem to care about the costs of their actions.

What’s true now is that the unvaccinated are by far the leading cause of overcrowding in our hospital ICU wards and comprise more than 80 per cent of the COVID-19 cases. They are now clogging up hospitals beds and forcing some operations to be delayed.

Worse, many of the deaths and serious infections in the latest rise in COVID cases could have been prevented by getting a free vaccination.

That’s why it is hard to feel sympathy toward sick patients who have refused to get vaccinated.

Call it compassion fatigue.

We are long past the time of being nice and being empathetic toward anti-vaxxers and trying to win them over with carrots — as opposed to the sticks that are much-needed vaccine passports and stiff restrictions.

It’s time that they — not the vast majority of us who are vaccinated — paid the price.

To which I shall add one final thought. Even though this rabble represents a minority of people, when the tail starts to wag the dog, nothing good can come of it.

But of course I state the obvious, don't I?  

The Invasion Of The Idiots

 

For a while I have been trying to cobble together a post on that virulent breed of anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers that are currently blighting our social and political landscape, While attempting to write about this often-execrable horde, in all honesty I've wondered whether I have the psychic reserves to do justice to the topic. Therefore, today I am taking the easy way out by reproducing the thoughts of a number of letter-writers who manage to address it with incisiveness and conciseness.

Protesters force Trudeau to cancel rally, Aug. 28

Shame on all those who prevented our prime minister from speaking about issues facing Canada while on the campaign trail!

We need leaders who will take enact policies to protect us all.

A pandemic is a community’s problem and not an intrusion in individual liberty. 

Judy Cathcart, Collingwood, Ont.

I thought Canadians were smarter than this. What has the social media wrought when people cannot now understand the role of science in our society?

I was a government scientist for 36 years. We are the only scientists paid to look after the citizens of our country. We aren’t there to make money for industry or scramble for grants to promote our own research interests at universities.

This is the foundation of the support the government has to look after the well being of our citizens.

Science works. Canada has contributed to the arsenal that medicine has to combat disease for decades.

Vaccines work. Some statistics suggest you may be more than 100 times more likely to die from COVID-19 if you are unvaccinated.

From smallpox to ebola, vaccines have reduced the impact of infectious diseases.

And scientific knowledge has reduced the degree to which ailments have affected citizens in many areas.

These same protesters will go to their doctors to get relief from many things, all based on the results of scientific studies and analysis.

Are we stupid? It certainly looks like it.

I fear we are entering a new dark age.

Tom McElroy, Professor Emeritus, York University

 It’s time to talk about the hate facing Trudeau, Aug. 29

When you want to motivate people to hate a person or an ethnic group you use dehumanizing or universally rejected words.

In Rwanda the targeted group was referred to as cockroaches. They obviously were not.

Here, in Canada, a popular posting and a popular phrase people have used to start or end political discussions is to say Trudeau is a communist. He obviously is not.

Susan Delacourt is correct; it is time to talk about the hate facing Trudeau.

Social media is now being used to whip up emotions and get people to stage public temper tantrums.

It is not the end of the world if Trudeau, O’Toole, Singh or Paul become prime minister.

A growing minority is mimicking the fanaticism we saw play out on Jan. 6 in the U.S. insurrection.

 Canadians need to make sure we are different by not letting animosity, antagonism and lame internet lies decide our country’s future.

Russell Pangborn, Keswick, Ont.

Province to bring in vaccine passport, Aug. 28; Protesters force Trudeau to cancel rally, Aug. 28

The idea of insisting on vaccine passports is obviously a no-brainer for any organization that wishes to operate in a safe and healthy environment that is free from most if not all COVID-19 restrictions.

What must be astonishing to the vast majority of Canadians are all these decision-makers who appear to be wilfully risking the health and lives of their constituents by wilfully allowing vaccines to be an option within their sphere of influence.

Whether it’s Ontario’s Ford government, Erin O’Toole’s federal Conservatives or any of the umpteen organizations across the country who insist on “respecting” people who insist on the “right” to choose whether to serve and infect, rather than keeping those in their care safe and healthy.

The result will be more COVID-19 sickness and death within our communities, accompanied by renewed restrictions that will, once again, hurt the marginalized and small businesses the most.

What’s becoming clear is that there’s also a straight line that can be drawn from these half-baked decisions to that small, loud and wild eyed subsector of self-entitled Canadians following politicians around the country who somehow have got it into their heads that they have the right to infect anyone they please.

It’s quite clear that Canada does not offer that right to anyone and I hope it never will.

Vaccine passports are a good start, but why are there so many leaders in Canada continuing to offer nonvaccination as a choice for anyone who is eligible?

Jack Bergmans, Toronto 

For those who subscribe to the Toronto Star, there is quite good a article by Hugh Segal that draws clear distinctions between political heckling and bullying, the latter, of course, the only apparent strategy of  the anti-vax rabble.

 

Just A Short Note

                                
Few would disagree that having suffered a severe vaccine reaction would justify caution about subsequent injections. Fortunately, that exemption, in the case of Covid-19 vaccines, has only very, very limited application, one that, if the doctors are doing their jobs, will see the success of newly-announced mandates and certificates. 

In an email sent to members Wednesday, the head of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO), Nancy Whitmore, said doctors are receiving “unfounded” requests for medical exemption notes to vaccines that would allow them to continue working in settings where COVID-19 vaccination is mandatory or, soon, get around Ontario’s newly announced vaccine certificate requirements.

Only children and those with a doctor’s note will be exempt from the rules.

“We need to ensure we are only allowing COVID-19 vaccine exemptions in the few situations where they are warranted,” Whitmore wrote.

Those situations are very few, the email goes on to say. Two valid reasons are if a person had a severe reaction to a previous dose of mRNA vaccine, or if a person had a case of myocarditis following a vaccine. Both are extremely rare.

Whitmore wrote that all doctors’ exemption notes need to clearly state the reason for the exemption, and the time period of the exemption, as it may not be permanent.

In additional guidance posted on the college’s website, the CPSO wrote that doctors, who are typically required to fill out third-party medical forms for patients, are not required to write exemption notes for illegitimate reasons — and should not.

The College's final advice is earnest and clear:

 “If you find yourself in this situation, clearly and sensitively explain to your patient that you cannot provide them with a note or form, along with the reasons why.”

The advice proffered by the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons rests upon the assumption that doctors will remember and act upon the most sacred injunction of their Hippocratic Oath: Do No Harm.

We live in hope.

Even Dogs Have More Self-Control

Today, I was going to post about the rabble stalking Justin Trudeau on the campaign trail. However, I became depressed at the prospect of writing about humanity's dregs. Therefore, because words fail me, I leave you with this story about equally appalling 'human' behaviour and a caution that you use your discretion in watching the accompanying video.

A disgruntled customer at a Dairy Queen in Port Alberni, B.C., took out his frustration over being told to wear a mask by relieving himself in front of staff at the counter.

The incident was captured on camera and appears to show the man urinating on the counter following an altercation with restaurant employees.

In the video, the man can be heard arguing with staff and refusing to wear a mask before he unzips his pants.

Staff can be heard shrieking as the man begins to relieve himself.

The video was recorded by a customer and was shared with CTV News by his friend.

The RCMP say the incident happened around 9 p.m. Saturday. 

Boy, Are These People Ever Dim

My disdain grows deeper daily.

"I'm Done"

                                          

Like many of us, Peter McMartin has had enough. He's had enough with the anti-vaxxers, the anti-maskers, those who place their faith in what they read on the internet rather than science, those who, ultimately, don't give a damn about anyone but themselves. 

If you will indulge me, I shall reproduce much of his denunciation below:

I’m done with those whose fear of vaccinations arises from studies that were long ago peer-disproved and retracted.

I’m done with those whose ignorance of science is so profound and intractable that, rather than heeding the advice of scientists, doctors and virologists, they put their trust in celebrities, politicians and quacks …

I’m done with those who are so mentally lazy that they refuse to trust in anything beyond hearsay, urban legend, apocrypha, conservative wing-nut provocateurs and the whole digital witch-doctor network of chat rooms, Facebook forums and the first hit that pops up on their Google searches that are designed to reaffirm their ignorance rather than challenge it.

I’m done with those who believe we all have our version of reality, because no, we don’t all have our own version of reality. Singular undeniable realities exist. The earth is round. COVID-19 has killed millions. There are no microchips in vaccines. Vaccines are not designed by governments, Bill Gates or the Illuminati …

I’m done with those whose fear of vaccinations is so rigid and unthinking that, as an unintended consequence of their ignorance, they would drag us back into the Third World by helping to resuscitate polio and whooping cough and mumps and measles …

I’m done with any person, government or business that would coddle anti-vaxxers, or who, like desperate parents trying to entice a spoiled child to eat his vegetables, would offer them tax breaks, lottery tickets or beer as rewards for getting vaccinated.

I’m done with anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers who, while literally weaponizing themselves by refusing to get vaccinated and putting other lives in danger as surely as if they were carrying a loaded gun, see themselves as brave freedom fighters protecting their constitutional freedoms, not because they believe in equality, but because they believe exactly the opposite, that their rights are preeminent over all others.

I’m done with those who complain about wearing masks, as if having to wear a piece of fabric designed to stop the inhalation of a deadly virus was akin to torture. 

I’m done with those who, after a visit to the intensive care unit and death’s door, experience their moment of revelation that, yes, they are so sorry that they didn’t get vaccinated because — with the usual egocentricity and selfishness that characterizes anti-vaxxer sentiment — they could have died rather than, you know, the untold number of people their stupidity put at risk.

Other than those with legitimate health concerns or compromised immune systems, I’m done with trying to understand, accommodate or politely tolerate anti-vaxxers, or those who are just too stupid, tuned out or unconcerned with the health and safety of others to get vaccinated.

My late father-in-law had a succinct way of dismissing things that to him were patently absurd. I leave you with his words:

"I don't have time for such foolishness." 

In that, he is far from alone.

For People Who Aren't Sheeple...

 

… they seem strangely attracted to unconventional 'cures' for Covid, including an animal dewormer called ivermectin.

UPDATED: On Mandatory Vaccines

Now that the City of Toronto has mandated vaccinations for all 37,000 of its employees, with limited exemptions, and the Toronto Transit Commission following suit, now seems to be a good time to explore what those exemptions might be.

The city will possibly allow religious exemptions. The only problem with that is, as far as I have been able to ascertain, no legitimate, established religions forbid vaccinations. Not Dutch Reformed. Not Jehovahs's Witnesses. Not Islam. Not Judiasm. End of story.

Unfortunately, so-called medical exemptions are a different story, judging by the American experience. Jeva Lange writes:

Medical exemptions have increasingly become the à la mode way for anti-vaxxers to deflect judgment and excuse themselves from mandatory vaccination requirements — even when doctors say there is almost never a well-founded reason to not get the safe and effective shot.

Art Krieg, an expert in immune disorders, was recently asked by Bloomberg if he could think of any health conditions that would disqualify someone from the COVID-19 shot: "Absolutely not," was his answer. "[T]here is no health condition where you should not get the vaccine." William "Andy" Nish, an allergy and immunology specialist, concurred: "[T]he risk of getting COVID-19 is so much higher and so much worse than the risks of getting the vaccine that it's just not even debatable," he told The American Journal of Managed Care. "It's just something that people need to do." 

One notable exception would be people who had a severe allergic reaction to the first shot — which, of course, would require them to have gotten the initial shot to have discovered. Yet cases of anaphylaxis seem to only occur in about 5 in every million people vaccinated (and those who did have allergic reactions, meanwhile, responded positively to the use of an antihistamine, Bloomberg notes).

Unfortunately, medical fact never gets in the way of  medical enablers.

… that hasn't stopped vaccine skeptics from seeking medical exemption letters — or sham doctors from writing them. "[A]n Oklahoma clinic said on Facebook that if an employer mandates vaccines, they can write a doctor's note exempting you from it if you qualify," reports Oklahoma's 4 News, going on to quote Dr. Dale Bratzler, the University of Oklahoma's Chief COVID-19 officer, who frets about such "exemption vouchers ... that are not based on any science." 

Could such medical chicanery happen in Canada? Of that I have no doubt. In fact, it wouldn't even require an ethically-challenged medical practitioner to issue such an exemption. What if a person went to her or his doctor claiming that needles set off panic attacks owing to a traumatic experience? Would that not qualify for a medical exemption? 

No one, of course, can compel people to submit to the needle. But their unwillingness to protect themselves and society at large from this deadly pandemic surely demands sanctions, right up to and including job dismissal if alternatives to working alongside of others cannot be found.

An abrogation of human rights? I don't think so, especially given their apparent disdain for the health and well-being of those around them.

UPDATE: There is an excellent article by an infectious disease physician in the L.A Times who has witnessed with a growing weariness far too many unvaccinated people die. Here are her concluding words:

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, has mutated countless times during this pandemic, adapting to survive. Stacked up against a human race that has resisted change every step of the way — including wearing masks, social distancing, quarantining and now refusing lifesaving vaccines — it is easy to see who will win this war if human behavior fails to change quickly.

The most effective thing you can do to protect yourself, your loved ones and the world is to GET VACCINATED.

And it will work.

 

 

An Escape From The Kennel

Hopefully, they will be returned to their enclosures post-haste:

The Liberal campaign is confronted by some protestors at a campaign stop in Coburg. They are yelling about freedom and vaccines as Trudeau speaks. There is swearing in this video.

More here as Trudeau’s bus leaves. One woman repeatedly yells about vaccines killing children. Many of the protestors were live streaming the event.

H/t David Cochrane

The Frenzy For 'Freedumb'

 

I suspect the majority feel the same as this letter-writer:

I am disappointed with my fellow Canadians who choose not to get vaccinated, for various personal reasons each have expressed.

These individuals could be relatives, friends, neighbours, young and old and come from all walks of life, but even after conversations and education on the matter, they continue to hold strong against vaccination.

I have lost a brother to COVID-19 who was living in a nursing home in Toronto. Both my father in Toronto and father-in-law in Calgary, who were living in personal homes, died from COVID contracted from in-home health-care providers.

The government should mandate vaccinations for all Canadians, and if they do not have the political willpower to do this, then at least target the health-care sector who, by profession, are there to save lives and not endangering the sick and vulnerable.

If individuals choose not to get vaccinated, they should have to purchase a health insurance policy to cover costs if they get sick with COVID.

Why should fellow Canadians have to not only deal with the selfishness of individuals who choose not to be vaccinated, but have to pay for their misguided decisions as they fill up our hospitals and stress out are dedicated health care professionals?

Gordon Honkawa, Scarborough

Then there is this, from an Ontario resident:

COVID-19 is a fighter but unfortunately, Ontario Premier Doug Ford is not. Every time this virus lands a heavy blow, Ford hides in his corner, cowering. 

He consistently refuses to listen to the epidemiologists, medical experts, experts of any kind. He does, however, listen to his far-right base, the one that bleats incoherently about personal liberty.  

The fact is, people’s rights will be impacted. The question is who’s [sic]? Will it be the vast majority who made the choice to protect themselves, and their community, by following the science? Or will it be those who ignore the facts to make personal choice based solely on their own needs? 

John Snider, Tottenham, Ont.

I guess the above describes what happens in a society led by political cowards, those who rule by fear of offending their traditional bases of support. I guess they haven't gotten the memo that when it comes to Covid-19, the tide has definitely turned.

A Ball And Chain Forged By Fools

I hope to be back with something new tomorrow. In the meantime, this speaks volumes:

Party Of None: Many People Have Been Asking

Well, no, I just made that up, but for those of a certain faction, the following should set their hearts and minds at ease. 

Guess this hale and hardy young buck will be ready for the next election, eh?

In Loving Memory