For a Post-Easter Sunday Monday

 

Wow, people really have a handle on this conronavirus thing:

“Briefing notes prepared by bureaucrats for federal ministers show just how quickly the COVID-19 situation evolved in Canada — with public health officials stating the risk of transmission in Canada was low right up until early March, only to recommend an ordered shutdown of economic life in this country some two weeks later.” 

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Canadian military intelligence was aware of and monitoring the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China in early January. 

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A leading public health official told the House of Commons health committee that sending 16 tonnes of personal protective equipment (PPE) to China was “probably not” the best decision. 

(Sidebar: oh, do you really think so?)

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For seven years, Felix Li served on the distant front lines of Canadian public health, in China. As a doctor posted to Beijing, he fostered ties with health authorities that let him peer beneath the official rhetoric of a country that has been the source of multiple viral epidemics in recent decades.

When Dr. Li returned to Canada in 2015 and retired from the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) after 23 years, he was not replaced.

But he retained his contacts inside the Chinese public health system and was keen to help when another outbreak began to emerge.

So, a few days after the Jan. 23 lockdown of Wuhan, he sent an e-mail to the PHAC, including Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam, offering his expertise.

“I offered to go back to Ottawa to work with them on this. I needed to help, to save lives,” Dr. Li said in an interview.

In the e-mail, he described his knowledge of the Chinese system and the contacts he maintains there.

“I got an e-mail back saying, ‘We’ll talk about it and let you know.’ But I never had any response after that.”

Instead, the PHAC has relied heavily on the World Health Organization for information and guidance in its response to the rapid spread of the deadly new virus.

(Sidebar: this WHO.) 

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A shipment of more than 100,000 testing swabs arrived in Ontario contaminated and unusable, the Star has learned, illustrating how even as the province strives to expand its COVID-19 lab-testing capacity it is still contending with global supply-chain havoc wrought by the pandemic.

The shipment of much-needed swabs, a critical component of the testing, was the first instalment of a big order procured by the federal government, with hundreds of thousands of more from the contaminated batch on the way. The contamination is believed to be mould.

Covering up incompetence at this point seems futile, even in a country where people are glad to take orders from total idiots: 

Other countries have realised that they made serious mistakes and have done what they could to make up for them, (even if quite late). This country is like the student who finally remembers to bring his math textbook to class on the last day of school:

A Canadian company says it has received approval from Health Canada for a rapid portable test to detect the novel coronavirus.

Based in Ottawa, Spartan Bioscience said in a news release Sunday that federal government approval means its tests can now start heading out the door to “federal and provincial government partners starting immediately.”

Also - Tweeter feeds like this reinforce my belief that Canadians are so bereft of critical thinking skills and self-reflection that putting them in front of wool-shearers would make them useful for once in their lives:

Agreed, @jackmintz.

I have directed our officials to consider use of COVID19 tests, vaccines, or medications that have been approved by the high standards of at least one credible peer country’s drug agency, e.g. @EMA_News, @US_FDA.  We won’t wait for Health CDA to play catch up https://t.co/eYFSf7bbx2

— Jason Kenney (@jkenney) April 12, 2020

 

But if Justin, the blackface-wearing snowboard instructor, said the same thing it would be acceptable?

No one is advocating not using caution. They are advocating removing bureaucratic hurdles that only prolong the physical and financial suffering of people who are caged in their homes because the idiots at the top thought that the risk of a highly infectious virus entering a country with laissez-faire migration policies and a crumbled healthcare system was "low".


And - if I were Kenney, I would make Quebec beg for the equipment it so desperately needs. It's not like Quebec will ever be grateful for anything that Alberta did for it:

As Alberta continues to outperform official COVID-19 models, the province announced Saturday it will send its surplus of ventilators and personal protective equipment to Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia.

The province is donating 750,000 N95 masks, seven million procedural masks and 50 ventilators, as well as gloves and goggles, to the three provinces, which are at risk of running low on medical equipment as they fight to contain outbreaks of the novel coronavirus.

It's just an economy:

More than a million Canadians believe they are on the verge of having to declare bankruptcy, according to the findings of a new poll released Thursday.

The survey conducted by DART & maru/Blue found an even larger group — 4.2 million Canadian adults —  said they consider themselves to be heading towards bankruptcy over the next three months unless their personal financial conditions improve. 

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On Monday morning, Conservative finance critic Pierre Poilievre announced a proposal from the Conservative government to make the 75 per cent wage subsidy available to small businesses next week.

“It’s been almost a month since the government shut down the Canadian economy and our small businesses have not received a single penny in rescue assistance,” Poilievre said.

He said the subsidy is not expected to flow to businesses until about four weeks from now but these Canadian companies are “literally drowning” to pay wages and expenses. He added the government should provide “urgent assistance to the businesses that are the backbone of the economy.”

The finance critic said that the government should lift the $40,000 limit for loans through banks, guaranteed by the government, to allow businesses to access extra funds to cover wages.

“We propose to lift that limit for business that want to spend on wages,” Poilievre said, allowing businesses to spend the money now and reimburse banks and credit unions when the subsidy arrives.

He added that the U.S. government was able to more effectively give small businesses a wage subsidy almost a month ago, although it has been reported that many American companies still have not received their funds.

Poilievre went on to criticize the federal government’s Canada Emergency Response Benefit for making people “poorer” if they work more than 10 hours.

“I can’t think of a policy more perverse and backwards than one that punishes people for the crime of working hard,” he said.

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The City of Vancouver is at risk of going bankrupt, says the mayor, citing a recent poll showing more than half of property owners are not expecting to pay full property taxes this year as COVID-19 financial woes take hold.

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Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet is raising concern about temporary foreign workers arriving in Canada to work on farms, saying he believes the quarantine rules for these workers are inadequate.

The federal government has exempted migrant workers from COVID-19 cross-border travel restrictions because of their importance to the Canadian economy.

Federal officials have said these workers will face health screening before travelling to Canada and must isolate for 14 days upon their arrival in Canada.

But Blanchet says more than 100 temporary farm workers arrived in Quebec this week from Mexico, and he is concerned they are not being tested for COVID-19 upon their arrival in Canada and that their mandatory quarantine will happen on the farms where they will work, rather than in federal facilities.

(Sidebar: do you know who could be used? Canadians.)

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Legislators predict another wave of insolvencies May 1 due to ongoing delays in processing of federal payroll rebates. Cabinet gave various estimates of when the first of $73 billion in subsidies will be paid: “They have a choice to make: lights on, lights off.”

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Cabinet can’t rebate GST payments to small business because “it’s not their money”, says Finance Minister Bill Morneau. Opposition MPs last week proposed the rebate as a quick $30 billion remittance to employers facing bankruptcy: “We looked at it.”

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Energy market analysts say Canadian oil wells will likely continue to be shut down amid weak prices despite an agreement to limit output struck by OPEC and other major producers on the weekend.

Because priorities:

Canada and France, the only two major countries that are yet to decide on Huawei’s role in their national 5G networks, have said that Chinese donations of masks will not affect their stance on the company.

(Sidebar: oh, I'll bet it hasn't.)

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The Canadian Press, self-described “trusted news leader”, is lobbying for grants from the same federal government it covers. A staff memo disclosed by the Ryerson University Journalism Project said management was “pressing” cabinet for aid though it already received seven figures in federal fees and grants last year: “We are pressing Ottawa.”

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Canadian authorities are blaming travel restrictions related to COVID-19 for a request that Iran hold off on downloading the flight recorders from a commercial jetliner shot down in January.

The abandonment of elderly and special-needs residents in homes in Quebec and Ontario are indictments not only of poorly staffed and equipped homes but of a society that shoves its "unwanted" members of society out of sight and without advocates to speak and act on their behalf. It was a dereliction of professional and moral duty that will, no doubt, be excused by unions and those who regard their own skins as more valuable than even the most basic care of people who can barely walk.

Who leaves a grandmother in pools of her own waste, anyway?




But remember - the US is much worse off somehow:

North Korea called for stronger measures against the rapidly spreading coronavirus pandemic at a meeting presided by leader Kim Jong Un, state media reported Sunday, without acknowledging whether the country had reported any infections.

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The Kremlin said on Saturday a "huge influx" of coronavirus patients was beginning to put a strain on hospitals in Moscow as Russia's death toll rose to more than 100. 

Moscow and many other regions have been in lockdown for nearly two weeks to stem the contagion, but hospitals in the capital are still being pushed to their limit, officials said.

Last week was Holy Week for both Christians and Jews. Unable to observe any rituals or services due to restrictions, people remained at home and did what they could.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Sunday drew an angry response from some Twitter users after sharing a video of himself lounging on a sofa with his dog, drinking tea and reading, with a message telling people to stay at home.

"Who do you think you are?" became a top trend on Twitter, with users saying Abe's message ignored the plight of those struggling to make a living during the coronavirus outbreak.

Interesting:

While ordinary Canadians are facing hefty fines for breaking coronavirus-related public health orders, it appears that the same rules don’t apply to the prime minister and his family.

On Sunday Sophie Grégoire Trudeau posted pictures of herself with Justin Trudeau and their children on Instagram taking part in Easter festivities. According to the advice of public health officials, Trudeau violated the government’s social distancing rules. 

“Even though families across the country are having to get a little creative and celebrate a bit differently this year, we’re all in this together,” Gregoire Trudeau wrote on Instagram.

Justin couldn't respond because ...