The truck protests continue across Canada--Quebec City, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Vancouver--and around the world--Australia, New Zealand, and perhaps the US in the near future. The original Canadian one started to protest a requirement that drivers entering Canada be fully vaccinated or face testing and possibly quarantine. It has grown to the point of demanding an end to all health restrictions including mask and vaccine mandates, lockdowns, and capacity limits. The numeric growth of the protest is staggering. The Ottawa police chief offered, " The oath of office that I and my officers swore was never intended to deal with a city under siege, a threat to our democracy, a nationwide insurrection driven by madness. We do not have sufficient resources to adequately and effectively address this situation while adequately, effectively providing policing in this city." Potential hate crimes connected to the protest are under investigation.
Because the demands have widened to include the national response to the pandemic, the prime minister commented, "This pandemic has sucked for all Canadians." Finding this quote made my morning. Can you imagine Uncle Joe getting away with such a line here? The Professor noted that our previous president would never, ever have uttered such a line. It would have been to the effect that this pandemic has sucked for him personally.
The world went over 400 million covid cases Tuesday, probably a drastic undercounting. We only passed 300 million cases a month ago. At the start of the pandemic, it took over a year--from late 2019 to January 2020--to hit 100 million cases. Seven months later, that had doubled to 200 million; six months after that, cases had doubled again, to the current 400 million.
Some Asian countries are now seeing surges in response to the recent Lunar New Year holiday. South Korea recorded almost 50,000 cases Wednesday, up about 13,000 from the day before. Cases have more than doubled in Singapore and are up more than fivefold in Hong Kong. Cases in Indonesia are up more than elevenfold.
Massachusetts has joined the states relaxing or removing mask mandates. The Massachusetts school mask mandate has been lifted as of the end of this month. The school mask mandate in New York is set to expire in two weeks; whether it will be extended is open to question. In the meantime, the indoor mask mandate has been dropped, and businesses are no longer required to check for proof of vaccination.
In addition to the relaxation of mask and capacity mandates, today's news contains more than several references to the pandemic's winding down or becoming endemic. Dr. Fauci says that the US is exiting "the full-blown pandemic phase" and that decisions on restrictions will more and more be made locally. As for the pandemic becoming endemic, it should be noted that "endemic" does not mean "end." There is a very interesting article from The Atlantic on endemicity here. If you choose not to read it, here are some of the highlights. Endemicity says nothing about a total number of infected people in a given time period nor how severe those infections will be. Nor does it define how much death or disability will result. There is no guarantee that life will return to pre-pandemic normalcy. Endemic disease can be innocuous or severe and it can be common or rare. The key characteristic is that there is some predictability in the average number of people who get and transmit infection in a set time period.
You say toe-may-toe, and I say toe-mah-toe. You say en-dem-ick, and I say pan-dem-ick. Are we there yet? I don't think so, though I will concede that we are getting closer. I might be more positive had I not gotten the news that there have been or are a total of ten new covid cases at the assisted living facility where my mom lives. So far, symptoms are none or very mild. Since that outbreak was not anticipated, I'd say we're still working our way to a crystal ball that offers the predictability mentioned above.
No comments:
Post a Comment