(02-01-2022, 04:00 PM)tomh009 Wrote: No one is promoting or suggesting COVID Zero in Canada, though. And we haven't had a single lockdown, at least not in Ontario.
(02-01-2022, 04:16 PM)JoeKW Wrote: I believe that is called the strawman argument... No one is arguing for covid zero.
Meh, you know what I mean. Forget about the semantics. And to say we haven't had a lockdown is just nonsense no matter how you attempt to define what a lockdown is. In 2020, we were removing basketball nets from public courts, putting caution tape up on playgrounds, chaining swings to the poles. Police were given power to start questioning people in the street as to why they were out, although as far as I know, not a single police force ever did that...most said there was no way in hell they would be doing it. The province had repeatedly invoked a stay-at-home order, stating that nobody was to go anywhere unless one was working, accessing health services, going to school or exercising although they left what that meant fairly ambigious because it was never going to be truly enforceable.
In an ideal world, we eliminate the virus from circulation, though that likely won't happen. My point is that there are people out there that for whatever reason believe we should keep doing what we're doing in perpetuity. I don't deny the measures we've taken have an impact, whether it is lockdowns (again, forget about the semantics of that word...we all know that implies closures to whatever degree), masks, vaccinations etc. They've worked.
I simply believe that we need to start considering how we can readjust our strategies to fight this while finally returning to normality because this virus is going to be out there for a while. And one strategy we should be starting to consider involves protecting the minority of people who are more vulnerable to this disease than others. Remember Doug Ford's "Iron Ring" idea? The majority of us are vaccinated, healthy and will easily survive this should we become infected. There are plenty out there who aren't so fortunate, though, so at this point we should be focusing on how to specifically protect them. The measures we took at the start are not sustainable in the long term. They've also failed to keep things under control when you look at things on a larger scale. So much for the "just two weeks to flatten the curve" nonsense. The measures that we keep relying on are having dire consequences on many aspects of life - from economics, education, mental and physical health, food security, employment, politics, culture and so on. This stuff is extremely important and needs to be balanced with public health measures to fight the pandemic. It's not just the virus/disease that can and is destroying lives.