Impudent Thoughts about Ontario’s COVID Response
Ontario keeps struggling to control COVID. I think it’s due to the avarice of its government and the arrogance of its citizens.
Canada seems to be finally getting a handle on COVID. CTV has been doing an excellent job of tracking the pandemic’s progression in Canada. Here’s their chart for total cases as of today.
The seven-day average helps flatten minor variations (many of which are due to reporting problems rather than increases in actual cases). We see a nice, steady decline for long enough that I’m willing to believe we’ve finally got a grip on it. For now, at least.
British Columbia has without a doubt done the best job, thanks to their amazing provincial Health Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry. Here’s the chart for BC.
And then there’s Ontario, the so-called economic engine of Canada — the gas-guzzling, pollution-spewing engine of Canada.
We’ve had two mini-spikes in less than a month. Our daily rate is decreasing only very, very slowly.
Heck, even Quebec — long the poster child for How To Completely Screw Up A Pandemic, is doing better than Ontario. Even though Quebec still accounts for more than half of all COVID cases in Canada (53,666 out of 97,894 as of today), they are now showing a very rapid improvement: while at its peak, Quebec had twice as many new cases as Ontario at its peak, Quebec daily rate is now 30% lower than Ontario’s.
I don’t doubt for a moment that there will be more spikes. I believe this for three reasons: (1) most of the experts who are not media whores or owned by Big Business/Government are convinced of it, (2) governments hate making “hard calls” for fear of not getting re-elected, (3) and the IQ of a society is the average IQ divided by the number of people in it.
Setting aside questions of future spikes, consider why it is that Ontario is doing so poorly. I would argue that it’s due mainly to two things:
The avarice of the Provincial Government. Doug the Slug Ford and merry band of regressive conservatives have always been interested in business over people and money over health.
The recently peddled tripe that COVID is “forging” Ford into a good leader has things exactly backward. That he’s finally starting to do an acceptable job only proves he’s not a sociopath.
It is perfectly natural for people to tend to do the right thing in moments of crisis; it’s a hundred million years of evolution at work and nothing more. The measure of a person isn’t what they do in crisis but what they do when times are good. This is why rich people hoard their wealth and tend to be such assholes to people they perceive as their lessers: a person’s true colours only emerge when their basic needs are satisfied.
Fundamentally, Doug Ford is still conservative — in the worst possible sense of that word. Once we get past COVID, you mark my words, he’ll go right back to his usual power-mongering, bending over for big business, and sticking the bill for it all on the 99%.
Even now, though, his desperate obligations to industry and business is driving him to “re-open the economy” far too soon, which is contributing to Ontario’s elevated COVID rates.
Let’s not forget that one of the big reasons that Ontario has had so many cases is because Ford waited too long to shut down the Province and was lazy about imposing physical distancing, contact tracing, and other significant measures.
The arrogance of many Ontarians. I’m stunned by how few people I see wearing masks or taking even the most basic public hygiene measures. And at least half of those who I see wearing masks are wearing them as chin straps (!!) or not covering their noses. Then there are the absolutely horrid displays like the Trinity-Bellwoods Park fiasco. Even though it appears there were no spikes in Toronto as a result of that stunningly selfish display, simple contact tracing and follow-ups do nothing to address the systemic feedback that such events create: people see crowds, so they think it’s okay to be a part of crowds, which increases the size of the crowd, and increases the odds of new COVID spikes.
And if you look at the numbers for Ontario, you will see an uptick about two weeks after Trinity-Bellwoods.
Ontarians — and especially Torontonians — have displayed a stunning arrogance here, and a complete disregard for their social responsibilities. Whether it’s tearing down physical distancing posters (which I have witnessed myself) or the narcissism of “looking weird” in a mask, or plain stupid hubris, Ontarians are themselves as guilty as Doug the Slug for the shameful lack of progress we’ve seen in this Province in controlling COVID.
And when the next spike comes, I expect it will be worse in Ontario. And more people will die unnecessarily.
