About Canada's Much-Vaunted Reputation On Human Rights

Despite our politicians' proud proclamations, there is actually much less to them than meets the eye:

From The Land Of Make Believe

That would be Ontario, though I suppose, in truth, it is far more widespread: a rising number of deaths from Covid (this week was the worst since last May, despite three days missing from the weekly data) in the province. Nevertheless, our political overlords and their minions continue to do little to dispel the delusion that the pandemic is over. 

That, presumably, would be bad for business.

True, Ontario's medical officer of health, Kieran Moore, has made some mewling sounds about mask-wearing and booster shots, chiding us for the low rate of -fourth-booster uptake among those 70 and up (a mere 16% , which he deemed "not acceptable"). Yet he seems strangely reluctant to really address the issue:

While a return to mandatory masking is not yet being recommended, Moore called on people to consider [italics mine] wearing masks indoors as cases rise and said he would not hesitate to recommend a stronger measure if necessary.

“If there is any significant impact on our health system where we can’t care for Ontarians appropriately, I will absolutely have the conversation with government (around) whether we have to mandate masking for a set period of time,” Moore told Global News.

Huh? Hasn't he heard about the current crises of overcapacity and staff burnout in our hospitals?

Perhaps his pusillanimous response is the inevitable outcome of working for the Ford government. The message seems to be: normalcy no matter what the cost. 

And the cost could be substantial. New immunity-evading variants are of growing concern.

The increasing concern around these emerging variants has earned them unofficial Twitter hashtags that spare users from constantly typing awkward combinations of letters and numbers. BQ.1.1 is known as #Cerberus; its parent BQ.1 is known as #Typhon; BA.2.75.2 is being called #Chiron; and XBB has earned the moniker #Gryphon.

Whether or not these new immune-evading variants will lead to worse health outcomes than previous variants is the key question.

Dr. Peter Juni, former head of the Ontario Science Table, says thanks to vaccines and previous infection, the new kids on the block may not be as deadly as previous iterations. However, he admits of the possibility

that a variant that is both very good at evading the immune system — and also more virulent than existing strains — could one day arise. 

Of course, the chances of new and deadlier variants increase with each new infection. Undeniably, vaccines are of tremendous importance in preventing serious illness and death, but so is masking. While neither confers absolute protection, statistics show significant reductions in infections and thus significant reductions in the chance for endless mutations to arise when both are embraced.

So why the increasing stigma and public repudiation of masking? I suppose some see the mask as a very visible constraint on what they regard as their freedom, binary thinking being very popular amongst the simple-minded. And, of course, as alluded to earlier, government sees it as a reminder that the pandemic isn't over, and that is surely viewed as an impediment to the economic imperatives that drive government.

It has been said that we get the government we deserve. Perhaps that observation needs to be updated to include the diseases that can decimate us.

Meanwhile, On The Other Side Of The Pond

One can either be appalled by the clown show that is now British politics, or one can cultivate and embrace a wry sense of humour.

M.G. Duggan chooses the latter:

A new door has been fitted at number ten.

Seems About Right For The Times We Live In

 

The Next President?

Many think the swamp in Florida will yield up one of its fondest denizens, Gov. Ron DeSantis, as a contender for the GOP presidential nomination. The following reveals much about the heart of darkness that defines him:

Meanwhile, In The Land Of The Looney

Danielle Smith cultivates her tribe.

H/t de Adder

However, those inoculated against her lunacy beg to differ.

Anti-vaxxers are wilfully ignorant and uncaring about their responsibilities in society. To my mind, for Danielle Smith to say they are being discriminated against is akin to saying that incarcerating crooks is discrimination against the criminal class. Before discounting this comment, consider the thousands of people that failed, through no fault of their own, to get timely medical care because hospitals were unnecessarily challenged by unvaccinated, COVID-19 patients!

As of February 2022, over 900,000 people had died of COVID in the U.S. If the Canadian program had been in place, with 91 deaths per 100,000 people, the U.S. would have seen 600,000 fewer people die. This was because of Donald Trump rhetoric, like that of Smith.

These are irresponsible statements from a main-stream politician. Is Smith really this ignorant or dismissive of medical science? Or is this an attempt to garner votes?

Tom McElroy, Professor Emeritus, York University

The unvaccinated are the most discriminated against group Danielle Smith has ever seen? How does someone with so little lived experience ever get elected? A quick search for “Amnesty International” will show that unvaccinated are among the world’s most privileged and pampered victims ever.

Paul Collier, Toronto

As with Covid-19, one wonders when this pandemic of demagoguery, ignorance and manipulation will end.

Perhaps This Is Part Of The Answer

My wife, who is far from being the cynic of the family (that would be me), often concludes that humanity is a failed experiment. It is not an assessment with which I disagree.

I often find myself pondering why and how we have reached our current perilous, likely terminal, state. While there are many obvious factors, perhaps one of the biggest is that there are far too many people today. Beyond the physical pressures that our population puts on our planet, there is a breakdown of any sense of community with the larger world. Perhaps in earlier times, hunters and gatherers found it much easier to feel a kinship and responsibility for each other. Even today, we behave toward our immediate community, family and friends, far differently than we do with those with whom we have no immediate connection.

And with that loss of connection comes increasingly selfish behaviour, and self-regard often becomes our default position. If Covid has taught us nothing else, it is that large numbers put their personal freedom and comfort over the safety of others. Hence the outrage over mask mandates, vaccinations, etc. The same, I suspect, is reflected in our attitudes toward climate-change mitigation. While some can see the larger picture, others can only see the cost of gas, carbon taxes, etc. that elicit reflexive, often violent, reactions.

There is a letter in today's Star that got me thinking about the above. It expresses a perspective that succinctly puts all of us in our place.

Microbes may have swarmed Mars, Oct. 11

So French scientists have concluded that Mars may have harboured an underground world teeming with microscopic organisms …. Sadly, they say, these microbes may have themselves altered the atmosphere and triggered a Martian ice age, leading to their demise. These French scientists have further concluded that simple life like microbes might actually commonly cause their own demise.

I look at what is going on in our world today: climate change caused by humans; senseless destruction caused by the Putins of the world; the toxic environment created by politicians like Trump, Poilievre, Smith et al.

My non-scientific conclusion is that humans are no smarter than single-celled microscopic organisms.

 Patrick Stewart, Toronto