By Pepper Parr
November 16th, 2020
BURLINGTON, ON
OPINION
On a CBC radio program earlier today Melissa Lastman, a strategist with Enterprise Canada said: She added later that many people feel “Nobody is telling us why”.
We are getting a lot in the way of numbers – nothing comforting in any of them.
1487 new cases in Ontario
538 for Toronto
88 active cases in Halton – 16 deaths in the Region.
And we are now in a “red” code which the Mayor seems to be comfortable with as she struggles to breath some life into the hospitality sector.
She is pushing a big stone up a hill.
The virus is in the community – that is a fact. How far it gets to go is up to us.
We have a Premier who is loath to shut things down – it isn’t in the way he thinks or acts. He is a business person – the doors don’t get closed.
At a Standing Committee Council was focused on getting a little closer to normal and beginning to open up a little. There were some really good ideas and the mood of council was upbeat.
Then the move into a Red Control Zone. Council and Staff didn’t seem to be fully aware of just what the numbers were really telling us.
There is a bigger picture and a bigger responsibility that no one seems to fully understand or prepared to do all that much about.
At Council next week they will decide if the second round of $125,000 funding for PPE is to go forward.
There is now a very vigorous debate within the medical community. The province appears to be prepared with new infections just as long as there aren’t too many.
There is a new group of medical professionals who urge that a 0 growth rate be put in place and that we shut down as much as possible until that level is reached.
We need to do more to get this virus under control is the sentiment that is being heard.
No one at the political level is prepared to say that Christmas will be different – just how much is the big question.
The Canadian Medical Association has said that “we are very close to a tipping point”. This is a voice that needs to be heard.
Something that has to be said as well: We should be ashamed of what we have let happen in the long term care homes.
There is a report of one home in which 80% of the residents are infected.
The virus is in the community, yes that is an undeniable fact and it is spreading, also undeniable and frightening but where is the problem originating? If we close the restaurants where there is contact tracing and people gather in private homes, is that better? Is there a safe number to put on these gatherings? Does anyone really know? I have often heard 10 is the maximum. Why?
Of those 10, how many have attended school, gone to the mall, gone to work, gone to the gym., to the grocery store, etc., etc. Lots of contact with many others with no tracing in many of these places. Is it still safe to put an absolute number on these gatherings?