With Ontarians under a stay-at-home order, Quebecers forced to abide by a curfew and those living in other provinces facing increased restrictions, it has become apparent that this country is not all that good at balancing public health restrictions with even the most basic freedoms. Even in the midst of a crisis, there is something particularly unseemly about police stopping people on the streets and asking to see their papers, and neighbours snitching on each other because there are one too many cars in the driveway.
“China eats weird animals disease”
WARMINGTON: Stay home unless you’re making a TV series
Your kids can’t play indoor or outdoor hockey without fear of law enforcement showing up to write an $880 ticket.
Ontario Reports 2,655 New Covid Cases
Ontario is reporting 2,655 cases of #COVID19 and over 54,300 tests completed. Locally, there are 925 new cases in Toronto, 473 in Peel, 226 in York Region, 179 in Windsor-Essex County and 129 in Niagara.
— Christine Elliott (@celliottability) January 20, 2021
And after the lockdown restrictions have eased the numbers will creep up because lockdowns really don’t do anything more than delay the inevitable. Used wisely they can buy time. Used as a bludgeon they are worse than the disease.
I see this as a media effort to cast Pfizer as Bogeyman and take some of the pressure off Trudeau’s incompetence.
Tonight on the Press Gallery @RobertFife says Pfizer is lobbying the federal government for tax breaks. Watch more at https://t.co/YQe50FHb6K.#ctvpp #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/0N8TbLNzko
— CTV Power Play (@CTV_PowerPlay) January 19, 2021
Single Pfizer Covid vaccine dose in Israel ‘less effective than we thought’, ‘Lower than Pfizer claimed’
Israel’s coronavirus tsar has warned that a single dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine may be providing less protection than originally hoped, as the country reported a record 10,000 new Covid infections on Monday.
In remarks reported by Army Radio, Nachman Ash said a single dose appeared “less effective than we had thought”, and also lower than Pfizer had suggested.
By contrast, those who had received their second dose of the Pfizer vaccine had a six- to 12-fold increase in antibodies, according to data released by Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer on Monday.
Toronto councillor accuses Doug Ford of “perpetuating rape culture” over vaccine statements
Toronto City Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam accused Ontario Premier Doug Ford of threatening to sexually assault the CEO of Pfizer after Ford made a strangely-worded statement during his COVID-19 update on Tuesday.
Vaughan community centre hockey rink salted to prevent outdoor skating
Canada’s greatest pastime is quickly becoming verboten, as hockey rinks are being shut down across the country.
Biden is the Cure for Negativity – The Press Suddenly Discovers Positive Pandemic News on the Eve of Inauguration Day
Joe Biden is poised to have one of the breeziest Presidential terms in history. The man has not even been sworn in and the press has been flush with beatific coverage of the man, from his socks to his food preferences and we have been given all assurances his administration will be most successful in everything from economics to global harmony.
The witch-hunting of lockdown sceptics
The demonisation of dissenters has reached hysterical proportions.
We have entered a new era of demonology. The hunt is on for heretics and witches who might be held responsible for our current predicament, for the plague of Covid. As in pre-modern times, sinful speakers and thinkers, those who dare to bristle against the political or scientific consensus, are being demonised and publicly shamed as assistants of the plague, as Covid’s willing helpers. They have ‘blood on their hands’, the lockdown fanatics cry, blissfully unaware of how similar they sound to those who in earlier times of disease would drag eccentrics to the stocks in the warped belief that those eccentrics either brought the plague or at least aided its spread.
London, Ont., NICU nurse who travelled to D.C. has been fired ‘with cause’
Kristen Nagle, who worked in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC), made headlines earlier this month following a trip across the border that went against Canadian government directives to avoid non-essential travel.
Over 50,000 Restaurants in Italy Declare “I Am Open” Defying Lockdown Measures
This weekend, over 50,000 restaurants in Italy began defying the country’s strict ‘anti-Covid’ lockdown measures in a massive act of civil disobedience according to Off-Guardian.
Italian restaurant owners have been spreading their “I Am Open” message through the social media hashtag #IoOpro (“I am opening”) and customers have turned the tables on the government.
Diane Francis: Ottawa’s inept vaccine rollout is now risking lives
There is no puddle that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau misses. So far, there have been three ethics scandals, two blackface revelations and now the COVID cock-up.
Canada has an exemplary health-care system that’s run by the provinces, and Canadians have generally been following the advice of public health officials. But the federal government now risks lives because of its inept vaccines roll-out. Just over one per cent of the country has received at least one dose of the vaccine, placing us behind many other developed countries.
Ontario reports 1,913 new Covid cases
Ontario is reporting 1,913 cases of #COVID19 and over 34,500 tests completed. Locally, there are 550 new cases in Toronto, 346 in Peel and 235 in York Region.
Due to a technical issue at Toronto Public Health, there is likely an underreporting of cases today.
— Christine Elliott (@celliottability) January 19, 2021
The line is trending down but so are the number of “tests” being done. There’s already been talk of lifting at least some of the lockdown restrictions. This is all looking “political” to me.
Fewer Canadians holding out hope for summer reprieve from pandemic: Ipsos
It appears optimism over the timeline to get the coronavirus pandemic under control is dwindling among Canadians, with 47 per cent of those surveyed expecting a summer reprieve, down from 58 per cent in mid-December 2020.
However, more than two-thirds of Canadians surveyed are still confident that the pandemic will be under control by the end of the year and nearly eight in 10 are confident vaccines will help limit the spread of the virus.
SUCCESS: the flu doesn’t really exist anymore, according to the WHO
Lasting from fall through late spring, the flu season has been something humanity has been dealing with for around 6,000 years. It wasn’t until the mid-1700s that an Italian coined the term “influenza,” a play on the idea that the virus was caused by “bad air.”
Humans have been dealing with some form of the flu for a long time, needless to say.
Yet, in 2020 (and now into 2021) something has changed. In September of last year, it was reported that the southern hemisphere had record low flu cases. In the United States, the CDC said the seasonal flu had all but vanished.
Canada to wait longer than Europe for Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine
The European Union will have a much shorter interruption in deliveries of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine than Canada, despite commitments last week that countries would share equally in a temporary drop in doses.
Don’t avoid going to the ER because of pandemic, Canadians urged
Avoiding or postponing a trip to the ER can result in grave repercussions, CIHI said in an email to CTV News this week, pointing to data collected during the first half of 2020 and released in November. Many patients who finally did go to the ER for care may have been sicker and needed greater interventions, the institute noted.
This is the set up; the punch line is the next post.
Emergence of new strain could cause Ontario’s COVID caseload to explode, doctor warns
A top doctor on Ontario’s COVID-19 scientific advisory committee says the province could face up to 40,000 new cases each day by the end of February if a virus variant that originated in the U.K. takes hold.