Chaos!

The Oxford Learners’ Dictionary defines chaos in five words – a complete lack of order. 

Well, a complete lack of order defines global Covid-19 responses. The scrambled reactions to the Omicron surge do not leave many world governments looking good. 

Confusion

I don’t know what signals your governments sent you when the Omicron variant emerged. In Québec our premier earned our family’s nickname of Barney Rubble in more than appearance. He suggested that:

• Parties could continue
• Restaurants and bars could stay open
• That twenty people could gather for seasonal celebrations. I found his focus on December 25 or Christmas Day strange. He promotes a supposedly secular state and passed law that bans religious garb in many government occupations. Don’t get me wrong on this! I think it is fine to talk about Christmas. However, the leader of a government trying to sell secularism should be more careful. Well, it demonstrates his real bias.

And Then

• Restaurants were reduced to half capacity and bars were closed.
• The next step was to close restaurants completely
• Private gatherings were reduced to ten people and then to five. 
• Use rapid testing! Oh! that’s right! We didn’t like rapid testing! Might have made the Feds look good. This dalliance led to line ups and  stress at pharmacies across the province! 
• And now, curfews . Can dog owners walk their pets between 22:00h and 05:00h? Time to buy a doggy bathroom? Hey, Québec designed and manufactured! A new way to promote “made in Québec”? Hilarious. 

Even worse

• The situation in schools – pandemonium and a clearly incompetent education minister who ducks, dives, misleads and has done next to nothing about air quality in classrooms. 
• As vaccination centres reverted to normal use and vaccinators went back to their day jobs, why were there no contingency plans to ramp back up quickly?
• Rapid test kits have languished in Federal government warehouses for months. Our provincial government didn’t want them until a week or two into Omicron and then – pandemonium. 
• Ten day quarantines or five days of isolation? What a debate. Oh, no! Back to ten days or is it seven? I am confused.
• Despite vainglorious political declarations, there is no evident progress hiring more health care workers 

Any parallels with your the chaos where you live?

Travel Bans and Advisories

There is no evidence that in this modern world, travel bans work to reduce infection rates. Bans may delay the arrival of Alpha, Delta or Omicron but only if infection is not already present in the community. However, the next character of the Greek alphabet will arrive, but it may be a little late for its date.  

In Canada, international travel and borders are a Federal government jurisdiction. New bans and advisories were, in my mind, a political decision forced on the Feds by the provinces. The Feds should have resisted! But then Ontario and Québec would have put all the blame on Ottawa for the Omicron surge if they had not  imposed the new travel restrictions. 

Smart travellers buy health insurance. Insurance companies increase premiums based on risk analysis. Consider increased costs for travel and for travel insurance, the requirement for vaccine passports, testing requirements / costs, forced extended stays, and “other country” chaos. All are already effective dampers on travel.

So the Boo Birds and Sycophants…..

Will ask if I am so smart, why not come up with a plan. Well, that is a bit like asking a music critic if he could sing better than an opera star on a bad night. Unfair! The critic hasn’t had years of training and practice but can still judge a bad performance. 

So, I am handicapped. I don’t have access to the same information and armies of minions to develop a plan.  However, I may also have an advantage.  I don’t need to think about re-election. So my next issue – a plan to tackle the complete lack of order.

So that my Ontario readers don’t feel left out! The Waters clan has a nickname for Doug Ford. Bonhomme Carnival!  Too bad he isn’t mayor of Québec City. It would help save money on costumes.