I imagine it’s the same with you: three, four times a day for a week, I learn that someone I know has tested positive for COVID-19. So when the PM announced that Wednesday was a 9,000 case day, it hit…
But I was not surprised.
Speaking of what the PM announced on Wednesday, about that day at 9,000 cases, allow a chronicle in three observations.
The word “exponential” takes on its full meaning with these 9000 cases: the day before, Tuesday, it was a swab below the 6400 mark.
This press briefing, Mr. Legault had telegraphed: Tuesday, during the day, more than 24 hours before, by tweeting: Quebec is faced with very difficult choices, we come back to you tomorrow with our decisions …
We felt, from then on, that the hour was even more serious than serious. This delay of more than 24 hours between the PM’s announcement that he would make announcements the next day and said announcements allowed all kinds of leaks on the scenarios being studied in pharmacies …
Curfew ?
No parties of Christmas ?
Closing of stores on the 26th? Restaurants?
Martial law?
Well no, on martial law, I’m kidding. But the conjectures were rife. The conspirators already had fake safe-conducts for the early curfew, to give you an idea …
It is still astonishing, given the gravity of the situation, given the 9000 cases, given the hospitalizations which go up, since these hospitalizations are still mainly due to the Delta variant and not to the all-contagious Omicron … from lousse until December 26! That it is only on the 26th that the directive to reduce its contacts will come into force.
Sorry, you say?
Is the 25th Christmas?
Yes, yes, the little cultural Catholic who sleeps in me knows very well that Christmas, December 25, is the day of the birth of the divine child. But in our society where adherence to secularism has become a kind of test of Quebecitude, I can not help but be a little surprised that the government makes a reasonable accommodation to the health emergency in order to “save” a Christian holiday. But hey, let’s not talk about religion, we’re going to quarrel …
So, the hour is serious … or not?
I am not fixed any more since the press briefing of Mr. Legault.
I am at the same point: I govern myself and I reduce contact to a minimum. Not at zero, but at a minimum.
You want to make parties at ten, Friday and Saturday?
Shop for groceries, too, and you may soon be spending ten days at home.
Two, the federal government may have missed the boat a few times since the start of this pandemic, Mr. Legault’s government will have to stop blaming it – subtly or not – because, frankly, it is starting to look like the Liberals. by MM. Johnson, Charest and Couillard who blamed Lucien Bouchard and the PQ for more than 15 years for having put-thousands-of nurses-to-retirement to explain each of the ills of the health system … The chorus is coming worn out.
Yes, Ottawa needs to “deliver” rapid tests to the provinces. But these rapid tests have been selling for months and months on the open market. Hundreds of Quebec companies have bought self-test boxes for their employees to screen themselves.
Scoop: It comes in boxes of 25 and it’s made, among others, by Abbott. I have one in a secure location (and I’m asking $ 10,000 for the box in question, write me in DM).
But the Quebec state has not invested the market to buy these tests. Why ? Because the salaried public health of the government did not believe in it, until very recently.
It’s been over a year that scientists who are not employees of the National Institute of Public Health of Quebec or the Ministry of Health, I speak of researchers and doctors attached to universities and hospitals, say aloud and strong that rapid tests could be an effective weapon in the arsenal …
Sounds of locusts in Quebec, which has even left rapid tests to rot in warehouses lately.
So I remember from Mr. Legault’s press briefing that the federal government is part of the government’s strategy: it is blamed as often as possible.
Sometimes, no, it’s our fault, sorry, it’s the Nation that goes wrong. On the rapid tests, it’s our fault; on the mask not recommended by the Dr Arruda because of “false sense of security” in spring 2020, it is our fault; for the false hope of parties Christmas at 20, maintained by a jovial PM Legault, it’s our fault …
Moreover, Federal Public Health said it was a bad idea, parties at 20, when Mr. Legault still saw rainbows in our beautiful trees, with the approval of his equally jovial national director of public health, Dr Arruda….
And the Dr Howard Njoo of Federal Public Health said this on December 101.
Ottawa was right about that.
They had seen it coming.
Not the salaried public health of Quebec.
Why?
Three, let’s talk about the unvaccinated.
The non-vaccinated make up 50% of hospitalizations, while they make up 10% of adults in Quebec.
They embody the word “over-represented” when it comes to statistics.
I want to relay the immense discontent of the vaccinated, at present. Following my column “Message for my gang”2, where I encouraged people of good faith not to give in to the temptation to quit with the rise of cases, I was inundated with messages …
The editorial comment that came up most often? It was crystal clear: OK, Mr. Columnist, but the other gang, the unvaccinated, I’m tired of making efforts that are undermined by them …
And again Wednesday, before the press briefing, two emails from people of good faith calling out to me: Worse the unvaccinated, them?
Minister Dubé said during the press briefing that the non-vaccinated are already subject to severe restrictions, that the vaccination passport prevents them from having access to many sections of society.
OKAY…
But that does not seem sufficient: they still cause 50% of hospitalizations.
Austria confined them, the unvaccinated3, and it will oblige the vaccination in February.
Is this the right solution here? The government is thinking about it, nothing more. I do not know. I’m just saying that it’s starting to hit the kidneys of lots of goodwill people, this overrepresentation of unvaccinated people in hospitals, hospitals that we are trying to preserve with our sacrifices.
And if the government loses them, these good faith people, well, we’re going to have to believe real hard in the prayers given to the guy whose birthday is on Saturday.