The COVID-19 pandemic

[ac3r]

An interesting research project out of the University of Waterloo regarding Covid-19...

Ontario university study shows CBD may offer some protection against COVID-19: https://globalnews.ca/news/8505406/canna...-waterloo/

[danbrotherston]

What do you think re-opening will look like? What if the school has no teachers and all students who do show up are forced to sit close to each other in a large room and learn nothing? What if they get COVID sitting in that room because there is no cohorting and they are combined with hundreds of other students?

I want kids in school as well, but I also understand that our government has put us in a position where re-opening is exceedingly dangerous, and increasingly pointless. My daycare is open, but my daughter is not there.

Being someone who has close connections with people who work in the school board they don't want kids back in schools because they don't believe it is safe to do so, the HEPA filters that the government is giving to schools are primarily being used in Kindergarten classrooms and most highschools don't have many. They want students to have just as much protection as themselves because it doesn't make sense for them to have protection when the 20+ students they're with don't necessarily have the means to get high quality masks.

Many staff members are already having to isolate because of Covid cases within their families and going back is just going to make this issue worse. Staffing was already a major issue before Omicron since there already was a lack of supply teachers/ECE's/EA's that it was extremely common for their to be fail to fills and with Omicron that's only going to make the problem worse.

In kindergarten and highschools students are already forced to sit close to each other, in many highschools there are classes of 30-40 people who are elbow to elbow and many students stay in their classrooms for lunch because of the cold so you have 30+ students without masks on for all of lunch so Omicron is inevitably going to spread through school's.

It just doesn't make sense to open schools right now when our hospitalizations aren't close to peaking since opening of schools is just going to result in another wave that's going to start in kids and work it's way to everyone all over again.

Yup, that is on point.

FWIW my example is not a hypothetical, it's literally the first hand account of multiple students and teachers at different schools in NYC right now.

[danbrotherston]

Your children...who are vaccinated...unlike mine, who is ineligible for vaccination?

It is your and your children's choice to be out playing with classmates and having birthdays. That's a choice which is contributing to the spread of COVID (you yourself acknowledge your family got it, do you know if you spread it to anyone else? anyone vulnerable?).

As for your family members who work in hospitals, where do they work? Apparently not Peel, whose ER is closed right now. Others will follow, we are still growing exponentially, this isn't going to get better. I don't understand why you think it being fine now means anything about the future?

I think it's awfully selfish of you and your colleagues to question why others "can't manage" when others cannot be vaccinated, when others are in vulnerable groups. You KNOW these things, so why do you think you don't know why others "can't manage".

What I recognize as a dangerous situation is different from you because I am IN A DIFFERENT SITUATION FROM YOU, not because I am more fearful than you. Also, because I recognize exponential growth and can use that understanding to predict the future.


Edit: Umm...you didn't go to work at your job where you liaise with the public while you were sick likely with COVID did you?!

My children are not vaccinated. 

I know where my  first child got it but I am not going to speak openly on a forum about my kids activities so you can judge us. And our entire family kept to ourselves for the prescribed time period which meant not spending Christmas with our family.   That was exactly my point about saying you do what you want to do for you

I work in Peel, The ER is not closed.  Peel memorial campus was closed but it does not have an emergency department, All emerg goes to Brampton Civic Hospital.

As for my work, I will answer you, I took vacation time over Christmas and simply utilized 2 more vacation days instead of sick days even though according our our organizational guide lines, I could have gone to work. I just wanted to be extra cautious for others...

Well, I guess it's your choice to endanger your children and our entire community.

Meanwhile William Osler Health System has this to say:

"Urgent Care Centre is temporarily closed until February 1

Due to increasing volumes in our Emergency Departments, further compounded by our extreme capacity and staffing pressures, Osler has made the very difficult decision to temporarily close its Urgent Care Centre at Peel Memorial until at least February 1, 2022. This closure will help to direct the highly skilled staff and physicians to where demand is the greatest."

Don't tell us that everything is fine and dandy. Like I said before this is only the beginning. Our graph is going straight up, and it's growing exponentially, and we've done little to stop it, and are cancelling what we did to stop it.

I have nothing polite to say.

Well, that's not fair...good on you for doing the absolute minimum of not spreading COVID in the community when you are both sick and exposed.

[jeffster]

An interesting research project out of the University of Waterloo regarding Covid-19...

Ontario university study shows CBD may offer some protection against COVID-19: https://globalnews.ca/news/8505406/canna...-waterloo/

CBD seems to be good for a lot of things. I read the article before posting -- my first guess is that it's a good anti-inflammatory, but in this case, it's something else.

The more you know. Good thing we have a pot shop on every street now.

[plam]

Don't tell us that everything is fine and dandy. Like I said before this is only the beginning. Our graph is going straight up, and it's growing exponentially, and we've done little to stop it, and are cancelling what we did to stop it.

I have some hope that we might peak about now, but it's going to be hard to tell, especially since the case numbers don't mean anything anymore. At least positivity is decreasing. We'll know about wastewater in Waterloo tomorrow at 1:30. This doesn't mean that we should relax on measures, but it is some hope. Of course we care about the total number of cases, but at least not increasing means that we aren't continuing to be even more screwed.

[danbrotherston]

Don't tell us that everything is fine and dandy. Like I said before this is only the beginning. Our graph is going straight up, and it's growing exponentially, and we've done little to stop it, and are cancelling what we did to stop it.

I have some hope that we might peak about now, but it's going to be hard to tell, especially since the case numbers don't mean anything anymore. At least positivity is decreasing. We'll know about wastewater in Waterloo tomorrow at 1:30. This doesn't mean that we should relax on measures, but it is some hope. Of course we care about the total number of cases, but at least not increasing means that we aren't continuing to be even more screwed.

Even if we were past peak, hospitals are lagging, and will keep going up for a week.

More, if we reopen schools it seems very unlikely that will keep numbers flat.

[JoeKW]

Yeah things  are going great... This is from my daughters daycare sent on January 10th.

[ac3r]

An interesting research project out of the University of Waterloo regarding Covid-19...

Ontario university study shows CBD may offer some protection against COVID-19: https://globalnews.ca/news/8505406/canna...-waterloo/

CBD seems to be good for a lot of things. I read the article before posting -- my first guess is that it's a good anti-inflammatory, but in this case, it's something else.

The more you know. Good thing we have a pot shop on every street now.

Better this than anti-vaxxers drinking their own piss (yeah that's actually the latest conspiracy theory to cure Covid) and begging TSC stores to sell them horse dewormer, I suppose.

[Rainrider22]

My children are not vaccinated. 

I know where my  first child got it but I am not going to speak openly on a forum about my kids activities so you can judge us. And our entire family kept to ourselves for the prescribed time period which meant not spending Christmas with our family.   That was exactly my point about saying you do what you want to do for you

I work in Peel, The ER is not closed.  Peel memorial campus was closed but it does not have an emergency department, All emerg goes to Brampton Civic Hospital.

As for my work, I will answer you, I took vacation time over Christmas and simply utilized 2 more vacation days instead of sick days even though according our our organizational guide lines, I could have gone to work. I just wanted to be extra cautious for others...

Well, I guess it's your choice to endanger your children and our entire community.

Meanwhile William Osler Health System has this to say:

"Urgent Care Centre is temporarily closed until February 1

Due to increasing volumes in our Emergency Departments, further compounded by our extreme capacity and staffing pressures, Osler has made the very difficult decision to temporarily close its Urgent Care Centre at Peel Memorial until at least February 1, 2022. This closure will help to direct the highly skilled staff and physicians to where demand is the greatest."

Don't tell us that everything is fine and dandy. Like I said before this is only the beginning. Our graph is going straight up, and it's growing exponentially, and we've done little to stop it, and are cancelling what we did to stop it.

I have nothing polite to say.

Well, that's not fair...good on you for doing the absolute minimum of not spreading COVID in the community when you are both sick and exposed.Tere

There, you said it.  You passed judgement....  You are so predictable...

[danbrotherston]

Well, I guess it's your choice to endanger your children and our entire community.

Meanwhile William Osler Health System has this to say:

"Urgent Care Centre is temporarily closed until February 1

Due to increasing volumes in our Emergency Departments, further compounded by our extreme capacity and staffing pressures, Osler has made the very difficult decision to temporarily close its Urgent Care Centre at Peel Memorial until at least February 1, 2022. This closure will help to direct the highly skilled staff and physicians to where demand is the greatest."

Don't tell us that everything is fine and dandy. Like I said before this is only the beginning. Our graph is going straight up, and it's growing exponentially, and we've done little to stop it, and are cancelling what we did to stop it.

I have nothing polite to say.

Well, that's not fair...good on you for doing the absolute minimum of not spreading COVID in the community when you are both sick and exposed.Tere

There, you said it.  You passed judgement....  You are so predictable...

It’s not a big leap. It’s medical science.

And yeah, I’m a principled guy, also not a big leap.

[danbrotherston]

<politics>

So Ford is saying there won't be an additional healthcare tax on the unvaxxinated people (as Quebec suggests).

FWIW, As you all know, I think it's a smart policy, economic incentives are an effective way to encourage behaviour we want. We *DO* tax cigarettes and alcohol.

That being said, regardless of how one feels about this policy, it's very revealing that our Conservative government says they won't implement a policy which is inherently conservative. It's anti-socialist, it's pro-personal-responsibility, and it's an economic incentive--for every definition of conservative, this policy fits.

Our parties mean almost nothing anymore.

</politics>

[panamaniac]

<politics>

So Ford is saying there won't be an additional healthcare tax on the unvaxxinated people (as Quebec suggests).

FWIW, As you all know, I think it's a smart policy, economic incentives are an effective way to encourage behaviour we want. We *DO* tax cigarettes and alcohol.

That being said, regardless of how one feels about this policy, it's very revealing that our Conservative government says they won't implement a policy which is inherently conservative. It's anti-socialist, it's pro-personal-responsibility, and it's an economic incentive--for every definition of conservative, this policy fits.

Our parties mean almost nothing anymore.

</politics>

Is it "inherently conservative" or, in the context we've seen in Canada, is it simply populist?

[danbrotherston]

<politics>

So Ford is saying there won't be an additional healthcare tax on the unvaxxinated people (as Quebec suggests).

FWIW, As you all know, I think it's a smart policy, economic incentives are an effective way to encourage behaviour we want. We *DO* tax cigarettes and alcohol.

That being said, regardless of how one feels about this policy, it's very revealing that our Conservative government says they won't implement a policy which is inherently conservative. It's anti-socialist, it's pro-personal-responsibility, and it's an economic incentive--for every definition of conservative, this policy fits.

Our parties mean almost nothing anymore.

</politics>

Is it "inherently conservative" or, in the context we've seen in Canada, is it simply populist?

It's inherently conservative in that it aligns with the dictionary definitions of conservatism. I don't actually know if it's populist at all...it may very well be, but it could also not be (we do love our socialized healthcare---I do too!).

[ijmorlan]

Is it "inherently conservative" or, in the context we've seen in Canada, is it simply populist?

I’d say internalizing externalities is very much a conservative policy, as opposed to detailed rules about how everybody must behave. Except that nowadays “conservative” seems to have more to do with denying problems exist than with a different perspective on how to solve them.

[Acitta]

So I am out doing some errands on my bike on this balmy afternoon, when I find that I must empty my bladder. Since I am passing the Kingsdale Community Centre, I decided to go in there rather than finding a tree in the park. So I park my bike and walk in where I am confronted by several people interrogating me. I told them that I was rushing in to use the washroom and would be leaving immediately after, but they insisted on asking me whether I had any of these 100 symptoms or had been out of the country, etc., while someone else squirted hand sanitizer into my hands lest I transfer any dangerous germs to my dick. After getting past that gauntlet and spending 60 seconds or so in the washroom, I had to fill out a form with my name and phone number before leaving.
Meanwhile, you can walk into any crowded grocery store in the city and nobody says anything to you. Anyhow, I hope that the urinal doesn't get covid from me.