Roundup: The third wave is accelerating

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The third wave is accelerating, and targeting younger populations, and the affected provinces are seeing record levels of hospital strain, and the number of positive cases has now topped one million since the beginning of the pandemic. School boards are starting to shut down in-person learning in several Ontario regions, and it’s getting really, really bad. But the province is keeping on with its current mockdown rather than imposing actual tough measures, and I’m sure we’ll hear another round of blame being laid at the federal government (never mind that the vaccine rollout is ahead of schedule, with another 2.2 million doses arriving this week).

One thing we are hearing a lot about is workplace spread, and most of it with “essential workers” (even though that definition is so broad these days). This is causing a number of infectious disease experts to call for the province to shift its vaccination plans from simply going by age to targeting areas where more of these essential workers live, or even vaccinating at workplaces. I’m not confident, however, that the affected provinces will do so, because a) they are being run by incompetent murderclowns who are incapable of pivoting to where there is greater need, b) they want to cater to boomers because that’s where the votes are, and c) they have an in-built ideological inability to doing the kinds of things that are needed to halt workplace spread, such as paid sick days or simply paying people to stay at home to avoid spread, and this is allowing things to get progressively worse.

To that end, here’s Robert Hiltz, who quite rightly points out that the current mockdowns will remain useless because the provincial governments have decided that these workers are expendable to keep the economy chugging along, while tut-tutting at the rest of us, and yes, that should make us all furious.

Good reads:

  • Jean-Yves Duclos (who appears to be back from medical leave) is making the case for keeping up spending for a faster economic recovery from the pandemic.
  • We got a look at some of the damage suffered by HMCS Corner Brook, some of which may be permanent and reducing our submarine capability.
  • In spite of the PBO’s report on shipbuilding, the Royal Canadian Navy has no plans to make any changes what they have committed to.
  • Former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney is a featured speaker at the upcoming Liberal (virtual) convention, raising more speculation about his ambition.
  • Here is a look at some of the policy proposals for the Liberal convention.
  • Here’s a look at the policy proposals for the NDP’s virtual convention.
  • My weekend column looked at the NDP’s plans to unilaterally fix long-term care, despite it being an area of provincial jurisdiction.

Odds and ends:

My latest Loonie Politics video explains why there won’t be a spring election, barring an accident during a confidence vote.

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8 thoughts on “Roundup: The third wave is accelerating”

  1. The government wasn’t “catering” to boomers. It was vaccinating the age group that up until recently was the most likely to get very sick or die from COVID. The second-largest number of fatalities after the residents of long-term care occurred in the 60+ group living independently. This group was also the most likely to wind up in hospital beds because often the LTC residents didn’t even leave their residences. The virus has mutated, and is targeting new hosts, so now the half-vaccinated seniors who were so worried about their own health are terrified for their children’s and grandchildren’s health. This is worse, much worse.

    • Yes, I agree, this was why Sask Health is vaccinating people by age, starting with people over 80 (over 50 in the North) and working downwards, People 58+, and people with chronic conditions, are now able to book vaccine appointments, and people 55 to 65 can get the AZ vaccine at drive-through clinics.
      I got my first dose last week. And now because of the variants I am very scared for my late-30s children, I just hope the vaccine schedule reaches their age groups very soon.
      I would fully support the idea of vaccinating workplaces – schools, health care offices, industrial facilities, grocery stores, Walmarts, home & garden stores, warehouses, police and fire stations, etc – anyplace a number of people must gather to work. “Flying squads” could be set up to carry in the vaccines and just do everybody in a location at once.

    • Exactly right. Dale needs to ease up on the lazy cynicism and follow the science instead.

  2. The NDP and now the Greens are so blinded by their own ambition and jealousy of the prime minister and his party that they continue to lie about jurisdiction, thus giving the murderclown premiers a pass for the blood on their hands. Dipper diehards get mad at so-called “Liberal Twitter” for pointing out repeatedly that they’re nothing but foot soldiers for cons, and the Greens get similarly annoyed when exposed as “cons on bicycles.” (A descriptor that may as well apply to bespoke Singh with his luxury Schwinns.) But that’s exactly what they are, and what they prove themselves to be, every time they blame Trudeau for things that are in the wheelhouse of “the Resistance”.

    Now that it’s mostly young people getting the new variants, I’m sure Singh will release a new Tik Tok where he basically pulls a Kanye and says Justin Trudeau doesn’t care about young people. As though Ford, with his attacks on schoolteachers (of which Trudeau is one, and also a parent of children in the Ontario school system himself), doesn’t exist, or Kenney the zealot, or Moe and that other stooge with his safe house in Costa Rica. They are, of course, aided and abetted by a media that is so willfully ignorant as to be malicious and intentionally spreading disinfo or “bothsiderism,” for “ratings” and to serve a blatantly partisan agenda aimed at making the Liberals look bad. It’d be like blaming Biden for the wingnut governors in Florida and Texas ending mask mandates. IOKIYAR, Canadian edition.

    But who cares about facts and constitutional realities, when Trudeau derangement syndrome is the easy, lazy way to score points. Meanwhile, people are dying (and those who don’t, end up with debilitating after-effects that continue the rest of their lives); healthcare workers are getting burned out, and the murderclowns in their personal provincial fiefdoms are laughing all the way to the bank.

    A pox on all their houses. “Conscience of parliament” my behind.

  3. good article but enough about ” the boomers”….my understanding is the reason for going by age was deaths increase in the older population. Are numbers showing that has changed. Numbers…not doctors on twitter… numbers. Not every 60 plus person is well off retiree. Many are in the workforce. A percentage will be caring for an older spouse or chronic ill family member.

    Also l wonder if we’re having these inter generational discussions partially because premiers like Ford have dicked around with getting vaccines out, ironic when vaccines seem to have been their only plan for the COVID pandemic. BC is no better with only 69% of available vaccine out. Painfully obvious BC’s only plan was to vaccinate our way out even in the face of rising variants.

    Maybe if our provinces ought to have taken some lessons from the “island nation” of Atlantic Canada.

  4. This pandemic has shown Canadians that to have provinces sole arbiters of providing “health care” without accepting certain requirements from the Federal government on how funds are spent is not acceptable. Many voters like politicians are not aware by ignorance or by political choice what each jurisdiction does under our constitution and this fosters a sense of disappointment when there is inaction like long term health care. Soon there must be an attempt to make substantive changes to what the provinces are required to do for their citizens. There must be strings attached by the Feds when they supply the funds to the provinces for health care.

  5. I so agree. AB premier is a prime example, wants more and more $s but doesn’t want conditions.

  6. You think the vaccination program is priorizing older people because politicians want votes? That’s beneath you. One of the nastiest outcomes of this awful era is the ageism that’s been given free rein. For months there was pressure to keep people of a certain age locked up because they were seen as the most vulnerable to COVID. Now they’re a problem because they’re taking the vaccines I guess, that should be going to anybody else. It couldn’t possibly be because the vaccine rollout has agonizingly ponderous.

    The issue might be more what I just heard them say on the Herle Burly podcast, that we’re fighting the last war. The last COVID hit older people the hardest; the variation gets to younger people and policies haven’t caught up. And maybe since the vaccines have been given to many older people and they now have immunity, the variant is having a harder time making inroads with them.

    It’s weird how it comes across as the variant “going after” younger people. For all the talk about following the science, the scientists seem as hysterical as everyone else sometimes.

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