Not a good look

December 23, 2021 · 0 Comments

by SAM ODROWSKI

Dr. Kieran Moore, Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health made quite the statement last Friday.

He said that someone who’s double vaccinated shouldn’t visit their elderly triple vaccinated relative’s house over the holidays because the risks are too great.

Instead, he advised that they should meet outside, masked up, and socially distanced.

These types of comments don’t exactly fill people with confidence that the COVID-19 vaccines are very effective. In fact, it casts doubt.

It’s really not a good look.

A healthy person, who doesn’t have symptoms and is likely in the 99.85 per cent of Ontarians who aren’t currently infected with COVID-19, should be able to assess their own situation and make a rationale decision on the matter, like a grown adult.

With the recent 3,000 to 4,000 daily case counts, one might think everyone has COVID-19.

But when looking at the reality, using Public Health Ontario’s COVID-19 Data Tool, there’s been 24,926 new cases of COVID-19 recorded in the last 14 days (average length of infection) out of a population of 14.57 million. This accounts for 0.171 per cent of the total population in Ontario.

Of course, there’s likely more cases of COVID-19 then what’s being captured by the Province, but it gives you a rough idea. Even if there’s three to five times as many people infected, it’s still less than one per cent of Ontario’s total population.

I’m not saying people should be irresponsible, but they certainly shouldn’t live in a constant state of fear. The stress, anxiety, and uncertainty caused by the mainstream media and Public Health is creating one of the worst mental health epidemics in recorded history.

People are afraid of each other like never before.

And much of the hysteria being spread isn’t based on fact.

A couple weeks ago I wrote a column on Dr. Kieran Moore’s false statements about hospitalizations rising in the 5-11 age group when they were at zero and remained at zero.

Now, many media outlets and the Science Table are acting like the Omicron variant is the black plague and we must again lock down small businesses through capacity limits and refrain from visiting loved ones over the holidays.

It’s true the Omicron variant is more transmissible; we can see it in the rate at which COVID-19 cases are climbing. But there’s a growing body of evidence that Omicron is no worse than Delta or the original Wuhan strain of COVID-19.

Just look at our own ICU numbers in Ontario.

On December 6, as reported in CBC, there were 168 patients in ICUs across the province being treated for COVID-related illness.

The number as of December 21 is 165, as reported by our Minister of Health Christine Elliot.

That’s right.

We now have less people in the ICU then we did over two weeks ago but that won’t stop Doug Ford from putting further restrictions on small businesses while he still collects a full paycheque.

The rationale for doing the “circuit breaker” lockdown was because the Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table’s reading of early data out of Denmark that indicated Omicron is just as severe as previous variants. However, new data from Denmark, just one week later, shows Omicron has proven much milder.

There’s also good news locally.

As of Dec. 21, Omicron’s hospitalization rate across Ontario sits at 0.15 per cent of all COVID-19 cases, which is significantly lower than the province’s general hospitalization rate for the virus.

According to Dr. Moore, there’s also no Omicron admissions in the ICUs.

Early reports of it being more transmissible yet milder appear to be true, however more will be known with time.

Let’s hope for the best, but not leave it to Public Health to prepare for the worst.

We can’t afford any more lockdowns.