You will mask up, distance yourself, stand in bread-lines and be happy:
A single unvaccinated patient is being blamed for a COVID-19 outbreak at Winnipeg's largest hospital that has led to 21 additional infections and one death.
The initial case was discovered during routine COVID-19 testing before the patient's operation earlier this month, according to a spokesperson for Shared Health, the organization that oversees Manitoba's health-care system.
The outbreak, on the GD2 surgery unit at the Health Sciences Centre, was declared on Nov. 4. It later led to a second, unrelated outbreak being discovered Nov. 8 in the GD4 medical unit, the spokesperson said in a statement emailed to CBC on Nov. 12.
Since that first case, 16 more patients and nine staff — all fully vaccinated — have contracted breakthrough COVID-19 infections in the two outbreaks, the spokesperson said.
**
The government of Quebec has blinked in its standoff with unvaccinated healthcare workers, and will not suspend those who refuse to get vaccinated against COVID.
In August, the government of Francois Legault decreed that all healthcare workers in the province would need to be vaccinated against COVID in order to keep their jobs.
Protests and legal challenges followed, with lawsuits filed on behalf of paramedics and other health workers who say their right to choose medical treatments was being violated. In response, the Legault government doubled-down and gave holdouts until October 15 to get vaccinated or face suspension without pay.
As the deadline approached and thousands of workers remained unvaccinated, however, the government extended the cutoff date for vaccination to November 15.
But with some 14,000 healthcare workers, including 5000 who work directly with patients, refusing to budge on their decision, the government announced on November 3rd that it was dropping the vaccination requirement for existing workers. (New employees in the Quebec healthcare system will need to be vaccinated against Covid-19 as a condition of their employment.)
**
The Department of Transport effective today will permit airlines and airports to grant employee exemptions to compulsory vaccination on medical or religious grounds. Similar exemptions for air passengers are expected by month’s end: “How does a manager decide?”
This:
The Grinch Who Wants to Ruin Christmas:
Tam went on to say that singing inside is dangerous, even for those who have been fully vaccinated, according to Blacklock's Reporter.
Speaking at a press conference, Tam said that "the risk for surges in disease activity is likely to increase with more time spent indoors."
As a result of this, Tam said that Canadians should "do a personal risk assessment."
"In the wintertime, going inside with a lot of people shouting and singing is not the best idea if COVID is circulating and accelerating outside your front door," she added.
This Theresa Tam:
- At the start of the COVID-19 crisis, Tam said, “There has been no evidence to date that this illness, whatever it’s caused by, is spread easily from person to person.”
- Shortly thereafter, Tam said there existed “no reason to be overly concerned” about the spreading virus.
- In the week Canadians started to get infected, Tam said: “There is no clear evidence that this virus is spread easily from person to person. The risk to Canadians remains low.”
- Even as the virus was killing Canadians, Tam said masks had “potential negative aspects” and added that “it can sometimes make it worse.”
- Much later, Tam said that people should wear the aforementioned masks when having sex, and avoid kissing.
**
The only mention of mask-wearing recommendations listed in the timeline was on April 7th when a Council of Chief Medical Officers of Health issued a statement “supportive of wearing non-medical masks as an additional layer of protection.”
However, Dr. Tam had repeatedly advised Canadians against wearing masks as far back as March.
“Right now there is no need to use a mask for well people,” said Tam during a March 28th briefing.
**
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the Covid election after staff conducted psychographic polling that showed most Canadians trusted cabinet and were “very angry” with people who didn’t follow pandemic rules, records indicate. Pollsters suggested useful messages in “exploiting” divisions among voters: “Successful segmentation of the general population depends upon exploiting the diversity.”
No comments:
Post a Comment