Sometimes you see old people purposely forget things, or purposely do what they are advised not to do. They know what they are doing, but use any excuse to not do it. I understand. They have the right to make decisions for their own life. As CoVid-19 indicators climb here in Toronto and Ontario, I see a purposeful forgetfulness permeating the ether. Government is looking the other way as the indicators worsen.
When indicators were receding the Ontario government was keep to use this as evidence, to bolster its direction to loosen all CoVid-19 mandates. An election is within 2 months, so there is impetus to not annoy voters. This does not protect public health.
Currently CoVid-19 indicators are opaque at best. The best we have are wastewater indicators, which are very hidden from the regular public. Who in the public can decipher this data? PCR testing is only done for hospital admissions, and thus is an unreliable indicator. Ontario’s Chief medical doctor advises to take the PCR number and multiply by 10. Even this gross estimate is quite shocking. Today Toronto hit 8,800 and Ontario hit 32,000 cases.
Schools do not track CoVid-19 absences, and even if they did, numbers are not published. The Toronto District School Board recently decided to publish all CoVid-19 infection absences, but they don’t track this data.
“Living With CoVid-19” is now meaning that each person needs to make their own determination what is safe for them. In the absence of proper indicators, what does the public use to make this determination? We have very little to go on. Ontario’s Chief health officer has been absent since 2022 Mar 18, and is not talking.
With so much up in the air, a proper assessment and advise as for mitigation steps is pretty damn difficult. As we experience new variants, this is not a very good public health policy, but is extremely confusing.