Is Omicron in Your Near Future?

 

The headline in the National Post speaks for itself: "It looks like we're all going to catch Omicron."

Tristan Hopper's column begins with two facts:

1.  One in ten Canadians already have someone in their social circle who has contracted Omicron.

2.  In the span of just two weeks, the Omicron variant went from 19 per cent of cases to 28 per cent.

It's spreading fast even in Canada where most of the population is already double vaccinated.

Alberta’s United Conservative Party has invited criticism for asking residents to avoid Christmas parties … before immediately holding a massive Christmas party just steps from the provincial legislature . The Dec. 21 “Members Christmas Reception” promised “good food and good fellowship,” according to an invitation obtained by CTV , and it occurred just three hours after a press conference in which Health Minister Jason Copping urged Albertans to “ cancel any social gatherings,” even if socially distanced.

Are we all destined to contract Omicron Covid? Probably not. More of us than we might imagine. Probably so.

Will our hospitals be overrun with Omicron patients? Maybe, for a while anyway. Will the ranks of our healthcare workers hold?  They've been waging this war for what now, 20 months? Pfizer officials claim the pandemic will run into 2024. If they're right, we're not even halfway through this yet.

We're hearing a lot these days about "Covid fatigue."  A segment of the public is figuring they've had enough of masking and social distancing and doing without bars and gyms. Don't they realize what message they're sending to the nurses and doctors, the technicians and the cleaners and all the other essential workers who keep our hospitals open? 

It's time our federal and provincial leaders made the hard calls. They need to show our healthcare workers that their fight is worthwhile. The anti-vaxxers lurking in our midst, these Covid fatigue whiners, those who think the public wellbeing is someone else's burden must pay some price steep enough to elicit their compliance. Now.


Comments

  1. LorneDecember 24, 2021 at 8:28 AM

    I agree, Mound. The time for coddling the increasingly truculent anti-vaxxer cults has passed. Public health is everyone's responsibility. I suspect many of them would be happier if they were living in that bastion of 'freedom' to the south of us.

    Merry Christmas to you and yours, Mound.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Disaffected LibDecember 24, 2021 at 12:14 PM

      Thanks, Lorne, and a Merry Christmas to you also. Public health is a shared responsibility and those who shun their responsibility to their society, their community and their families are not to be coddled.

      Delete
  2. GyorDecember 24, 2021 at 11:21 AM



    I'm personally double vaccined, but horrified by your taking another step closer to fascism. This isn't about public safety, it's about forcing people into compliance.

    There is the Pzifer pill, Omnicron is a much more mild version, there is no reason to expect overwhelmed hospitals. No this is about crushing anyone who thinks for themselves and still believes in civil rights. You can lie to yourself and say it's about saving lives, it's not, it's about power.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Disaffected LibDecember 24, 2021 at 12:19 PM

      Gyor, I'll rely on that avowed fascist, Noam Chomsky. He defends the individual's right to refuse vaccination. He also says, having made that choice, they have an obligation to remove themselves from society.

      “People who refuse to accept vaccines, I think the right response for them is not to force them to, but rather to insist that they be isolated. If people decide, ‘I am willing to be a danger to the community by refusing to vaccinate,’ they should say then, ‘Well, I also have the decency to isolate myself. I don’t want a vaccine, but I don’t have the right to run around harming people.’

      “Suppose there are people who say ‘it’s an attack on my liberty to make me stop at a red light. It’s government overreach.’ They don’t want the state to have that power ‘over my private life’ … Well, such people should have the decency to remove themselves from the community,’” he said.

      “If they refuse to do that, then measures have to be taken to safeguard the community from them.”

      Sorry, Gyor, but you're totally out to lunch on this one.

      https://vancouversun.com/news/world/noam-chomsky-says-the-unvaccinated-should-just-remove-themselves-from-society

      Delete
  3. TroyDecember 24, 2021 at 5:48 PM

    Hello, Mound. Not sure if you've seen this yet: https://the-disaffected-lib.blogspot.com/2021/12/is-omicron-in-your-near-future.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. TroyDecember 25, 2021 at 5:13 AM

      Well, that link's not so very handy. Here's the one I wanted to share: https://www.dailyposter.com/how-the-koch-network-hijacked-the-war-on-covid/

      "As Omicron surges, a shadowy institute filled with fringe doctors appears to be part of big business’ two-year strategy to legitimize attacks on pandemic interventions."

      Delete
    2. The Disaffected LibDecember 25, 2021 at 12:15 PM

      Troy, Troy, Troy - you do pop up at the best moments. I hope everything is going your way.

      I had not heard of this Hillsdale College/Koch initiative. I wonder how many victims they have claimed. Reminds me of that Bruce Cockburn song, "If I Had a Rocket Launcher."

      Anyway, fella, a Merry Christmas and a better 2022.

      Delete

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