Opinion from the TORONTO STAR
Will we ever forgive the deliberately unvaccinated for having helped spread a disease that killed and disabled so many, devastating the economy, leaving many of us jobless and wretched?…
And will your children forgive you? The always humane Financial Times columnist Simon Kuper wrote about “disenfranchised grief,” a psychological term to describe the feelings of mourners who keep quiet about their suffering because the cause of death is stigmatized. Can a little girl tell people that her unvaccinated dad died of COVID-19?
For each unvaccinated American death, Kuper says, about nine people lose a grandparent, parent, sibling, spouse or child. But a child’s suffering is greatest. Children come first with all of us. Don’t they?…
It was Premier Doug Ford’s responsibility to get everyone vaccinated, N95-masked, and kept safe in schools, on transit, and in the cities and towns of Ontario. He didn’t do it…
But Ford will not punish the unvaccinated, the dim, the cruel, the easily led, the mean-eyed people who cherish the freedom to harm others. Does he consider them his base? If so, who speaks for the rest of us?
Heather Mallick is a Toronto-based columnist covering current affairs for the Star
Eideard 
Nobody needs forgiving, why write this – there’s no need for animosity in today’s world
Classic example of idiotic moral panic.
Maybe “moral panic” is defined differently in Oz. Most of the definitions I’ve found in the US and UK, so far, key in on whatever panic exists as being overblown, unfounded in reality.
The anger expressed by the STAR article – though I personally think it’s unproductive as do probably most folks in the GOUSA – it still has a material, real foundation. State-by-state, deaths from COVID19 run 80-99% among the unvaccinated. While that may be “satisfactory” to folks like Heather Mallick, these cases serve as additional, unnecessary disease vectors. A danger to more people, especially unvaccinated children,,,who have no voice qt all in the matter.
Mr Eideard. Healthy children are NOT repeat NOT at serious risk from covid, especially Omicron. They are more at risk from seasonal flu than covid according to the CDC (i think it was the CDC – might have been the Brits).
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/05/25/997467734/childrens-risk-of-serious-illness-from-covid-19-is-as-low-as-it-is-for-the-flu.
Statistically, healthy children are at more risk of a car accident on the way to vaccination, or from the vaccine itself if young men, than hospitalisation from covid. I support the vaccination of kids that have co-morbidities or serious health issues but vaccinating healthy children willy nilly is indefensible. Putting children at risk in this way to prevent transmission is a) futile with Omicron and b) selfish and irresponsible beyond belief.
Another example of moral panic, in fact the archetypical example, is when one jumps to ‘wont SOMEONE think of the children’ to support an argument. The definition of moral panic you cited is indeed correct and the same down under.
“Moral panic” just not a common phrase here at all. Had to Google it. :-] Simplest reason in the world for mentioning kids…none of the readily available treatments have been approved for children under 5. Specs are rolling out for 5-12, now. Only Pfizer OK’d.
From the CDC – “There are approximately 28 million children between the ages of 5 and 11 years old in the United States, and there have been nearly 2 million cases of COVID-19 within this age group during the pandemic.” A bit over 8000 hospitalizations and nearly 100 dead. Not high percentages like adults; but, sufficient to put COVID19 into our top 10 causes of death in 5-12 age group.
And the flu vaccines are for-real effective…generally just updated from season to season for the expected strains. Most of that discussion is now centered on whether it’s worthwhile to focus on a combo flu and covid jab in the future.
I wonder if the distinction has been made between died/hospitalised WITH covid or FROM covid. This distinction is normally not made in official stats which are inflated with incidental cases discovered through routine testing when admitted to hospital. This is normally at least 20% and often 50% plus inflation.
I say this because the UK has reported less than 50 deaths of under 19s where covid was mentioned on death certificate and less than 20 confirmed due to covid. This was up until 17 Sept 2021 so pre Omicron.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/aboutus/transparencyandgovernance/freedomofinformationfoi/childdeathsandhospitalisationsinvolvingcovid19andchickenpox
Something fishy about those CDC stars methinks.
The range of ailments – including pre-existing – has always been included in any releases I’ve seen published stateside. Generally, those releases include total hospitalizations, deaths, those with pre-existing conditions, those assigned to COVID as primary. In fact, there often are notes describing additional ailments discovered as a result of hospitalization.
I’ve never known a public relations geek who didn’t think they should get paid by the word. More to the point, “data-driven” is a magic concept in US news, nowadays. Not all the press; but, pretty much anything to the Left of Attila the Hun. Useful enough that I hope it lasts.
I am vaccinated. I accept that others choose not to and that is their right. I don’t blame Doug Ford for any of this. I accept responsibility for my actions and so should anyone who chooses not to get vaccinated. Perhaps if Prime Minister Trudeau had done his job in the first place by shutting down our borders immediately and procuring proper Vaccines from someone other than China; I could go on and on but if you want to lay blame here Doug Ford should not be the target.
WOW!! WOW, WOW, WOW. How dare you. Wake up. You’re creating this kind of hate…I hope you feel the wrath of this article for years to come.
We removed the lies, untruths, misinformation from this comment
I feel that those anti-vaxxers shouldn’t be admitted to hospitals at all. Save the beds for anyone else who needs them.
I’m pretty sure you will find that almost every “antivaxxer”, as you like to call them, has had every vaccination since they were born. (Chicken. pox, Measles, Mumps, Flu, etc.) I’m sure you will find, upon talking and listening to them, that they are not wanting to put an experimental concoction into their bodies, not knowing what the outcome may be for them. Perhaps, in time, they may change their minds, nobody knows…but nobody should be bullied, deprived, restricted and removed from the life they live because of the way they feel about something that is forced upon them, and could possibly be damaging to their well-being. Lockdowns we’re forced upon us too, and look at the damages it has created-families, siblings, grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, cousins…lost the comfort and support they needed to pull through these hard times, psychological damages from not being able to feed, cloth, educate, and even shelter the people in your care, and physical damages from lack of exercise. There is only so much a person can endure, and if the “antivaxxers” do not feel they want to jab themselves, well…I greatly support them. Personally, I think they are very strong and brave and also very smart. Perhaps you should take the time…time to really listen, without judging them. You may be surprised at what you learn.
“Experimental” is a misnomer well aware to anyone dealing with testing/evaluating systems drafted by our federal government. Essentially it only describes a function of time. It has little or nothing to do with efficacy. If you’re already aware of this – then, your opinion is hypocrisy. Otherwise (I hope), do some research on governmentese. It’s a pain – mostly to writers who explain this over and over again.. Unnecessary to purveyors and the few well-read consumers. There are beaucoup products in the marketplace that are labeled “experimental” only to satisfy the absurd language drafted years ago by some congressional committee.
Not a misnomer…trials on the vaccines end in 2023. Until then, we are the “guinea pigs” of this experimental vaccine. Seriously, tell me how good these vaxxes really work anyways…I seriously believe that a vaccine is good if it keeps you out of the hospital after you take it. How many jabs will you need before you realize that it is ineffective? When are they going to tell us we don’t need more boosters every couple of months??? Get a vax, you’ll be free again!!! NOT…it’s a load of crap the government and big companies push on us, so we will make them more powerful, and more rich. I know one thing for sure…I’m not going to be the guinea pig anymore, it’s just a waste of my time and money…with no end in sight.
Fine. Join the waiting line for the hospital and/or undertaker. The side effects incidence for the existing studies is measured in thousandth’s of a percent. Below the original target of 0.008%. The studies are available for free. You’d be better off looking at the science instead of political press releases.
BTW, the official standards for “experimental” for both Moderna and Pfizer ended last August and September. Continued characterization isn’t required by even the stodgiest bureacrat.
(FOX News): “Thousands rally in DC to oppose COVID-19 vaccine mandates, demand ‘freedom’
‘Mandates are not right in this country,’ firefighter says https://www.foxnews.com/politics/thousands-rally-in-d-c-to-oppose-covid-19-vaccine-mandates-demand-freedom
“Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, who is unvaccinated and revealed this week that she tested positive for the coronavirus, dined again at a New York City restaurant Wednesday night, flouting local health and safety measures calling for positive cases to isolate.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/01/27/sarah-palin-covid-restaurant-elios/
“Anti-vaccine activists decided to piggyback on Friday’s annual antiabortion march in the capital by having a “Defeat the Mandates” rally on Sunday. Combined, the two groups of (mostly) conservative activists engaged in a demonstration of mass inconsistency.
…The crowds weren’t the same but, collectively, the two rallies captured the hypocrisy of the right at this moment: Protect the unborn, but feel free to infect — and perhaps kill — innocent people already born, including, er, pregnant women. And yet both movements claim to be operating under the authority of “God’s mandate” and “God’s law,” as the anti-vaccine speakers repeatedly put it. God works in mysterious ways, indeed.”
Dana Milbank, Washington Post (1/25/22) https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/01/24/march-life-anti-vaccine-protest-hypocrisy/
“World’s brightest x-rays reveal COVID-19’s damage to the body
A new scanning technique delivers exquisitely detailed images—and could revolutionize the study of human anatomy.” https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/worlds-brightest-x-rays-reveal-covid-19-damage-to-the-body
SARS-CoV-2 can remain active for longer than recommended quarantine period, study shows https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/941471
Brazilian researchers followed 38 COVID-19 patients and found that it took a month on average for the diagnostic test to become negative. In three patients, the virus remained detectable for more than 70 days.
This is not the first evidence that the virus can remain active for longer than expected even in patients with mild symptoms. https://agencia.fapesp.br/study-suggests-shortening-quarantine-for-people-infected-by-novel-coronavirus-to-ten-days-would-be-risky/35303/
The latest Covid variant is 1.5 times more contagious than omicron and already circulating in almost half of U.S. states https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/28/the-new-bapoint2-omicron-subvariant-is-already-circulating-in-half-of-us-states.html
The new BA.2 sublineage doesn’t appear to further reduce the effectiveness of vaccines against symptomatic infection, according to the U.K. Health Security Agency.
Omicron Drives US Deaths Higher Than In Fall’s Delta Wave
Even though the COVID-19 variant causes less severe disease for most people, the fact that it is more transmissible means more people are falling ill and dying. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/omicron-drives-us-death-higher_n_61f46aece4b01d3f299b52c2
7AM MST, tomorrow morning, 31st
“Vastly unequal US has world’s highest Covid death toll – it’s no coincidence
As the US passes 900,000 Covid deaths, much of the blame has fallen on individuals despite vast income inequality and vaccine accessibility issues” https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/06/us-covid-death-rate-vaccines
“…the US reaction to the pandemic is also compounded by an American sense of exceptionalism.
“It’s a very American idea to suggest that reality is what you want it to be. You can be whoever you want to be. Reality is a real thing, though. The virus doesn’t care who you are, It only cares that it can infect you.” William Hanage, associate professor of epidemiology at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and co-director of the Center on Communicable Disease Dynamics.
“Truckers are starting a working-class revolution — and the left hates it” (according to Media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post) https://nypost.com/2022/02/03/truckers-are-starting-a-working-class-revolution-and-the-left-hates-it/
“Canada trucker protest: Ottawa declares emergency” (BBC) https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-60281088 (scroll down for background stories)
Fascist-minded rightwing pricks always hate to admit they rely on the ignorant and ill-educated for counter-revolutions and similar backwards, often self-destructive, behavior. Regardless of class. Though, most often, workingclass “heroes” are the most education deprived.
(FOX News): “Canadian-style trucker protests spread throughout the world
In Netherlands, New Zealand, UK, US, truckers driving in solidarity with Canadian convoy” https://www.foxnews.com/world/canadian-style-trucker-protests-spread-world
“”I think you’re starting to see what will become a big global movement to end these mandates,” Brian Brase, co-organizer of the U.S. protest, told Fox News Digital on Sunday. “It’s a violation of your human rights to be mandated to take this vaccine. If you want it, go get it, but being mandated to get it, we’re standing up against that. We think it’s wrong.”
“The Department of Homeland Security is warning law enforcement across the country that a convoy of truckers protesting Covid-19 vaccine mandates, similar to recent protests in Ottawa, Canada, could soon begin in the US — with the potential to affect Sunday’s Super Bowl in the Los Angeles area and cause other disruptions.
A DHS bulletin issued on Tuesday to state and local officials, obtained by CNN, said the agency “has received reports of truck drivers planning to potentially block roads in major metropolitan cities in the United States in protest of, among other things, vaccine mandates for truck drivers.” https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/09/politics/dhs-bulletin-truckers-protest-super-bowl-state-of-union/index.html
A blockade of the bridge between Canada and Detroit by protesters demanding an end to Canada’s COVID-19 restrictions forced the shutdown Wednesday of a Ford plant and began to have broader implications for the North American auto industry. https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-business-health-prince-edward-canada-6f60c879c0c2eff82235e3157ad79bb0
About 90% of truckers in Canada are vaccinated, and trucker associations and many big-rig operators have denounced the protests.
The “freedom truck convoy” has been promoted by Fox News personalities and attracted support from many U.S. Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, who called Trudeau a “far left lunatic” who has “destroyed Canada with insane Covid mandates.”
Pandemic restrictions have been far stricter in Canada than in the U.S., but Canadians have largely supported them. Canada’s COVID-19 death rate is one-third that of the U.S.
“From the western province of Alberta, moving east to Quebec City, and in cities and towns in between, thousands of Canadians have hit the streets in trucks, tractors, cars and on foot to protest the nation’s Covid-19 restrictions.
With persistent and noisy horn honking, protesters are demanding governments at all levels lift their health restrictions, including vaccine and mask mandates, lockdowns and restrictions on businesses and gatherings.
“The whole event has gone beyond just vaccines and it is now about the entire ordeal,” protester James MacDonald told CNN, adding he’s been in Ottawa since last weekend and has no intention of leaving until health measures are dropped.” https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/05/americas/canada-trucker-protest-covid-19/index.html
“White Wilderness” is a 1958 American-Canadian nature documentary produced by Walt Disney Productions. It is noted for its propagation of the misconception of lemming mass suicide. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/white-wilderness-lemming-suicide/ (includes clip
“Save the Lemmings!” https://www.nationalreview.com/2006/12/save-lemmings-john-j-miller/
“Researchers identify SARS-CoV-2 variants with potential to escape cellular immune response” https://phys.org/news/2022-02-sars-cov-variants-potential-cellular-immune.html
“A number of existing strains of SARS-CoV-2, as well as other future variants that could arise, have the potential to escape the immune system’s cytotoxic T cell response in some portion of the population. That’s the conclusion of a new modeling study publishing February 10th in PLOS Computational Biology by Antonio Martín-Galiano of the Carlos III Health Institute, Spain, and colleagues.”
Research published Thursday paints a startling picture of the destructive toll Covid-19 can take on pregnant women and their growing fetuses. https://news.yahoo.com/no-fetus-survive-covid-attack-164156924.html
The virus can attack and destroy the placenta, a vascular organ that serves as a fetus’s lifeline, leading to asphyxiation and stillbirth, according to the study in the journal Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine. https://meridian.allenpress.com/aplm/article/doi/10.5858/arpa.2022-0029-SA/477699/Placental-Tissue-Destruction-and-Insufficiency
“We have never seen this level of destruction from an infectious illness before. It rendered the placenta unfit to carry out its duties,” said Dr. David Schwartz, a perinatal pathologist in private practice in Atlanta, who led the study. “These fetuses and newborns died from asphyxiation due to lack of oxygen.”
“It’s almost the exact opposite of what we see in other infectious diseases like zika, rubella or syphilis,” he said. “It’s not the fetus that is being attacked and destroyed by the virus. It’s the placenta.”
COVID causes “substantial” longterm cardiovascular risks, huge study finds : will affect health care for years to come, authors say. https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/02/covid-raised-heart-risks-63-for-a-year-after-infection-in-study-of-11m-people/
FOX News: “Hannity predicts outcome of Canada’s ‘Freedom Convoy’
Hannity argues that truckers should be able to make their own health decisions” https://www.foxnews.com/media/hannity-predicts-outcome-canada-freedom-convoy
Rand Paul urges truckers to disrupt Super Bowl and come to D.C.: ‘I hope they clog up cities’ https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/02/12/rand-paul-trucker-protest-super-bowl/
Asked by The Daily Signal about his thoughts on the convoy and the potential for it to spill over into Los Angeles, home of Sunday’s Super Bowl, or into the nation’s capital, Paul said Thursday that “it’d be great” if the anti-mandate, truck-inspired protests popped in the United States to “clog things up.”
“I’m all for it,” Paul, a longtime opponent to masking and vaccine mandates, told the conservative media outlet. “Civil disobedience is a time-honored tradition in our country, from slavery to civil rights, to you name it. Peaceful protest, clog things up, make people think about the mandates.”
He added: “I hope the truckers do come to America, and I hope they clog up cities.”
Paul’s office did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment. https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/12/politics/rand-paul-trucker-protests-america/index.html
Gotta love this hypocrite using all the issues he hates as good examples of civil disobedience. This creep has always been a racist pimp.
⚠️ “When ‘Freedom’ Means the Right to Destroy” (Paul Krugman, NYT) https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/14/opinion/canada-protests-black-lives-matter.html
“Recent events have confirmed what many suspected: The right is perfectly fine, indeed enthusiastic, about illegal actions and disorder as long as they serve right-wing ends.”
⚠️ “When the Rage Came for Me : disruption for disruption’s sake” (Stephen Marche, The Atlantic) https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/02/canada-anti-vaccine-trucker-protests/622060/ [Marche is the author of “The Next Civil War”]
⚠️ “Canada’s Trucker Blockades Are a Warning” (David Frum) https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/02/canada-trucker-protests-spread-america/622039/ “Politically motivated violence in America has been on the rise in the past half-dozen years: the riots and looting in U.S. cities after Floyd’s murder; the takeover of a portion of Portland, Oregon, by left-wing militants; the attempted kidnapping of Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer by anti-pandemic-restrictions extremists, all preceding the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol—and whatever comes next.
Maybe this latest form of performative intimidation is only being road tested in Ottawa. It could be coming to American cities soon.”
“We have all heard people say that COVID is just like the flu, people die from both. According to data from the New York Times retrieved February 9, 2022, 907,500 people in the U.S. have died from COVID, which is about 0.3 percent of the population. With 76,961,143 reported cases, that works out to a fatality rate for the disease of 1.2 percent.
During the 2019-2020 influenza season, the estimated number of deaths in the United States from influenza was approximately 20,000, or 0.06 percent of the population. The estimated number of people in the United States symptomatic of influenza was approximately 20,000,000, which would be a fatality rate for the disease of 0.1 percent. (These influenza statistics are from Wikipedia.)
The United States does a terrible job of accurately tracking COVID testing and fatalities, so these stats should be taken with a grain of salt.” https://wildfiretoday.com/2022/02/11/covid-was-the-leading-cause-of-deaths-on-wildfires-in-2021-according-to-report/
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FLhfpfuVQAEfRhD?format=jpg&name=small
Driving While Baked? https://www.wired.com/story/weed-dui-test/
‘Don’t take the damn thing’: how Spotify playlists push dangerous anti-vaccine tunes https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/feb/13/dont-take-the-damn-thing-how-spotify-playlists-push-dangerous-anti-vaccine-tunes
Spotify, which has more than 180 million users, has recently faced criticism over its relationship with podcaster Joe Rogan, who it signed in an exclusive deal for a reported $100 million.
Several artists including Neil Young and Joni Mitchell demanded their content be removed from Spotify in protest at Rogan’s alleged role in spreading misinformation about Covid-19, and 270 US doctors, scientists, healthcare professionals and professors wrote to the platform calling Rogan “a menace to public health” for airing anti-vaccine ideology.
Omicron wave was brutal on kids; hospitalization rates 4X higher than delta’s : Incidental cases do not account for the jump in hospitalizations, the authors found. https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/02/omicron-wave-was-brutal-on-kids-hospitalization-rates-4x-higher-than-deltas/
“Peak hospitalization rates of children ages 0 to 4 years during the omicron wave were more than five times higher, with about 15.6 hospitalizations per 100,000 children, compared with delta’s peak in that age group of 2.9 per 100,000. Additionally, omicron hospitalization rates among children ages 5 to 11 and adolescents 12 to 17 were both around double their peaks during delta.”
The U.S. Has Had a Million ‘Extra’ Deaths Since the Pandemic Began
On paper, 900,000 Americans have died from covid-19—but excess death tracking tells a different story. https://gizmodo.com/the-u-s-has-had-a-million-extra-deaths-since-the-pande-1848547641