By Pepper Parr
April 17th, 2021
BURLINGTON, ON
One of a series of articles on the Science Table data that led to the decisions the Premier made to limit mobility.
Three hours before Premier Doug Ford stood before the podium Friday afternoon for a virtual media event, the Science Table held its media event during which they set out the evidence they had given the government a day before.
That evidence is what the government used to justify the decision they made to order people to stay in their homes.
The evidence was compelling and there was a lot of it. The Gazette will report on that evidence in a series of shorter articles.
Dr. Adelstein Brown
Dr. Adelstein Brown, who headed up a team of 120 volunteer scientists who gathered the evidence and did the analysis said, had some cogent comments for people who took the position that they could “work around this and do it their way” .
Many seem to think that is “not such a big deal”; they are more “angered by the rules than they are of getting Covid”.
Ignoring the rules is what got us to this point and why we now have to clamp down very hard.
Dr. Brown said there was “some” hope that we might still have a summer but there are huge obstacles to overcome before that can happen.
The focus for the medical community is getting people vaccinated, increasing capacity at the hospitals, dealing with the staff shortages and praying that doctors do not have to begin triaging patients.
For Dr. Brown and Dr. Williams the immediate concern was limiting mobility, forcing people to stay in their homes.
The data makes the point.
Mobility has to be driven down to below that threshold dotted line. The scientists know where it is happening and why – the challenge now is to stop it.
A breakdown of why people are traveling is revealing: workplace travel leads. People are being infected by a very contagious variant of Covid
Dr. Brown made it very clear – there is no silver bullet. The hope for a summer is with strong adherence – without that adherence to the Stay at Home rule – summer is gone.
