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I’m flabbergasted.
You won’t have to isolate or quarantine if you test positive for Covid? I think Dr.Hinshaw has finally given in to the political machinations she’s had to fight against during the UCP’s legendary mishandling of the pandemic in Alberta.
No masking required in schools? Or in public transportation?
It is discouraging when your government decides that the best possible policy course is going to be “survival of the fittest”. People who are immune compromised or other vulnerable populations can apparently go fuck themselves.
I won’t be taking part in any of the freshly reopened economy. I will continue to distance and mask for the protection of myself and others.
See you in the 4th wave.
I’m not buying it. The Alberta re-opening, as much as I want it to happen, is just too soon.
Stage 3: Two weeks after 70% of Albertans 12+ (born in 2009 or earlier) have received at least one dose. Effective July 1. All restrictions lifted, including ban on indoor social gatherings. Isolation requirements for confirmed cases of COVID-19 and some protective measures in continuing care settings remain. The general indoor provincial mask mandate will be lifted, but masking may still be required in limited and specific settings. More information will be shared prior to the start of Stage 3.
The UCP Alberta government has consistently placed it’s citizens in harms way. Ignoring professional medical advice and best practices we have blundered through this pandemic. Half measures have been par for the course leading to an overtaxed healthcare system and needless deaths.
And yet, here we are, about to go full hog-wild into the summer months with masking requirements being lifted and full indoor gatherings being give the green light.
There are already concerns in Ontario about a possible fourth wave –
“On Friday I want to remind our residents that these first steps to reopening are not a full return to normal. We do have high first dose coverage but we have low second dose coverage and the science shows that only 33 to 50 per cent protection is afforded against the Delta variant with one dose. That protection may not be enough to forestall a resurgence if we reopen and re-engage too quickly,” Loh warned. “You can start to meet with people outside your home but continue to limit your contact and ensure that you’re following precautions.”
Ontario will enter the first step in its reopening plan as of 12:01 a.m. on Friday, allowing retail stores to reopen at 15 per cent capacity and bars and restaurants to serve customers on their patios.
Loh did indicate that he believes Peel is ready for a partial reopening but he said that residents must remember that the Delta variant growing in the community “ahead of the rest of the province” and “will continue to grow.”
In fact, Loh said that the variant likely accounts for 30 to 35 per cent of all new cases in Peel Region already and is increasingly being observed in workplace outbreaks.
“The potential fourth wave is brewing right now and that’s why I think you’ve heard myself and Mayor (Patrick) Brown really pointing to the advice that we’ve received from the science table to accelerate second doses in communities that are seeing Delta variant activity, such as ours,” he said.
Brown calls on province to ramp up vaccine supply
Back in May the province directed 50 per cent of its vaccine supply to hot spot communities such as Peel but it has not yet committed to a similar strategy for second doses in communities experiencing a rise in Delta variant cases, despite calls from its own science advisory table to do so.”
Masking and maintaining sanitary precautions at least until October for me.
Statistics are a part of our lives. Sadly, most people do not have a clue how they work and how they are to be interpreted. Our conservative government here in Alberta continues to find unique and exciting new ways to drop the ball when it comes to dealing with the pandemic. The government has set up mass vaccination clinics in Calgary and Edmonton and both are ghost-towns.
Why?
(**edit – It has been brought to my attention that this comparison is more like orange to apples than oranges to oranges – The type of clot and severity are on quite different scales. However, a better comparison would be the possible chance and complications from the AstraZenca vaccine versus the chance and effects of being infected with Covid 19 or one of its variants and the complications involved. The vaccine is the better choice.)
Because people don’t want to die of AstraZeneca vaccine related blood clots. How likely is that to happen? Roughly the risk is 1 in 250,000.
Scary, right?
The risk of getting blot clots from another injection – Between 3 and 9 people out 10,000 will develop blood clots on the birth control pill.
Yet Birth Control pills are still widely prescribed and used in society with not a great deal of hoopla. That being said, this what the vaccination centre looked like here :
“The mass COVID-19 vaccination clinic at the Edmonton Expo Centre can administer 7,000 shots per day, if operating at full capacity.
On Wednesday, it did 280.
The rapid-flow clinic is solely offering the AstraZeneca vaccine and only to Albertans aged 55 to 64. An Alberta Health Services spokesperson said the Expo clinic did not run at full capacity this week because a slow uptake was expected for the shots.
On its opening day on Monday, the clinic administered 1,632 doses. That dropped sharply the next day to 520. As of Thursday mid-morning, AHS said around 400 people were booked for the day.
Another mass clinic at the Calgary Telus Convention Centre is also facing low appointment numbers after it opened last week.
“The first day we were doing about 5,000. Right now, we have bookings for between 500 and 1,000 people,” Dr. Cheri Nijssen-Jordan, AHS’s vaccine task force co-lead, said in an interview with the Calgary Eyeopener on Thursday.”
The targeted people in the demographic are small in society and are afraid of the AZ vaccine – because blood clots(?).
“Nijssen-Jordan said part of the issue is hesitancy brought on by reports of extremely rare blood clots occurring in people who have received AstraZeneca, also known as Covishield.
On Wednesday, Health Canada announced it had completed a safety review and found that AstraZeneca is safe, and that Canadians over 18 shouldn’t hesitate to take it if offered.
Eligibility is still limited to those over 55 for the time being as the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) is still reviewing research and hasn’t updated its recommendation. An Alberta Health spokesperson confirmed Wednesday that the province is following NACI’s recommendation and will continue to only offer AstraZeneca to Albertans aged 55 to 64.
Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, said Thursday that the province’s Alberta Advisory Committee on Immunization would discuss expanding the age eligibility this week.”
So because of statistical illiteracy we have viable vaccinations sitting on the shelf while not all essential and front line people have been vaccinated.
The UCP government has added fruitless dithering to its already terrible record of dealing with the pandemic in this province.
is right twice a day. Or so they say. In this case Jason Kenney actually gets something right.
This is of course to people protesting the fencing off of a church (from what I understand). These people decided to trespass on Enoch Cree Nation land, threaten and assault their members, and vandalize their property. And it’s here where I get a certain sense of schadenfreude. Jason Kenney has been stoking the far right and using them to his own political means here in Alberta since he joined provincial politics. These people are his base, the people who will show up en-masse to rallies and canvas for him. They’re the ones that just won’t shut up about politics in the work space. They are the ones who have Nutley and TruDOPE bumper stickers on their vehicles, as well as some more unsavory stickers. So I wonder how his base is going to react to what is essentially a post asking people to calm down and come back to reality. Well lets find out.
First up we have the outright anger at Kenney.
Then we have what I like to call the ironic posts.
So that was fun. My favourite part is Tara showing her hatred and getting it wrong. Up next we have the MAGA crowd.
And finally what would a right wing protest be if we didn’t have the Kudatah crowd?
So that was a fun adventure. I wonder if all this outrage will last until the next election. Maybe if they are so upset with the UCP they could go and form their own party. They could name it after an iconic Albertan flower. The Wild Yarrow Party or The Giant Hyssop party or something like that. I’m sure their is some kind of name that would work out well for them. Anyway, I quite enjoyed reading Kenney getting clapped back by the people that used to cheer his incivility to all the other Albertans in this province. That’s all for now and I hope you enjoyed!
Organized religion makes people stupid. This is a tale of a church and congregation in Alberta that kept going without following any public health guidance, as if we were not in a pandemic and that everything was right as rain. Reminds me of the religious wisdom available circa 1347:
Not exactly the best strategy for dealing with an infection disease. Yet, in the here and now of 2021 the religious persist.
“AHS [Alberta Health Services] said it has attempted to work collaboratively with the church for months to address ongoing public health concerns.
Steps taken before Wednesday’s physical closure include:
- An order issued by AHS on Dec. 17 requiring the church to comply with restrictions ordered by Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health.
- A Court of Queen’s Bench order obtained Jan. 21 requiring the church to comply with the previous order.
- A closure order issued Jan. 29 requiring closure until compliance with the restrictions was attained.
- On March 27, AHS sent a letter to Coates providing him with information on the continued spread of COVID-19.
- Last week AHS invited Coates to meet virtually to discuss the risks presented by COVID-19, but the church has not provided any dates to meet.
GraceLife Church “has decided not to follow these mandatory restrictions, nor have they attempted to work with AHS to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission,” AHS said in the media statement.”
Finally GraceLife church was shut down.
“Alberta Health Services has closed GraceLife Church in Parkland County west of Edmonton.
In an emailed statement to CBC News Wednesday morning, RCMP confirmed they were on scene, assisting AHS as they closed the church under Section 62.1 of the Alberta Public Health Act.
As of 8:30 a.m., police vehicles and unmarked SUVs were blocking entrances to the church parking lot.
In a media statement, AHS said it “physically closed” the church and has prevented access until the church “can demonstrate the ability to comply with Alberta’s chief medical officer of health’s restrictions.”
It only took a year and a bit to nip this cluster of superspreaders in the bud. Our current government has demonstrated repeatedly (until now) that it will not enforce public health regulations so we should not be surprised with the length of time involved with this particular case of religious inanity.
The United Conservative Party of Alberta has consistently chosen the ‘middle road’ when it has come to policy decisions between keeping the economy open and locking down the province to combat the COVID19 virus. The result has been a roller coaster of half measures and half steps that instead of getting the transmissibility rate down to 0 we are following the historical pattern – experiencing first, second, and now third waves of infection (with a fourth coming as in the USA, because of the dithering of the government).
The Gracelife debacle illustrates how the government in pandering to its ‘base’ is only prolonging the epidemic in Alberta, and ultimately, allowing more people to unnecessarily die. It is policy position that is illogical, science denying, and morally unconscionable.
Unfortunately for Albertans, this is par for the course for this government so fully expect the shit-show to continue.
I haven’t been blogging these last couple of weeks because Fran, my mother, had to go to the hospital. She had an persistent UTI, which upon further investigation at the University of Alberta Hospital also coincided with a pneumonia. Fran was already suffering from the damage of two previous heart attacks along with atrial fibrillation and diabetes.
On Friday March 5th Fran had just come out of ICU she had stabilized and was in the regular care rooms, my visits on that Friday and Saturday were hopeful as she seemed to have stabilized and was beginning the road to recovery.
Late Sunday night the situation drastically changed. All of her vitals plunged and she was rushed back to ICU. I was not called until early Monday morning. My girlfriend Tara and myself rushed to the ICU where Fran’s doctors outlined the situation and then had the ‘you need to sit-down’ talk.
Fran was barely responding to the highest levels of medicine to keep her blood pressure up and antibiotics to quell the pneumonia and now septic infection that was ravaging her body. Everything that could be done, had been done. Her body was simply overwhelmed and a systemic cascade of organ failure had begun.
Fran was disconnected from life support at 2:55pm, Monday March 8th. She was not conscious or lucid (I don’t think), but I spoke with her, held her hand and told her that she was loved and her pets were safe.
Fran’s vital ceased at 3:00pm. She passed calmly with dignity and in the presence of her family.
——
Today I awoke and went to the living room. I sat on the couch and looked out the window. That’s Fran’s car behind our still winter slept tree.
I could think of nothing to do. So I put on Mozart’s Requiem in D minor and listened and remembered all I could about my Mom’s life and started to grieve over her passing. Please honour her passing as I did with the last movement, the Communio from the Requiem. It begins at 41:46 in the video.
Communio – Lux aeterna
Lux aeterna luceat eis, Domine,
cum sanctis mis in aeternum,
quia pius es.
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine,
et lux perpetua luceat eis,
cum sanetis tuis in aeternum,
quia plus es.
May eternal light shine on them, O Lord.
with Thy saints for ever, because
Thou art merciful.
Grant the dead eternal rest, O Lord,
and may perpetual light shine on them,
with Thy saints for ever,
because Thou are merciful.
Her cat Angel came and sat with me for the entire requiem. She knew.
I am lost without words.
(Thus, I am taking a bit of break from blogging. Know that I have my Tara and my family supporting me through this time. Thank you all for commemorating with me Fran’s life, it’s the best one can hope for in these Covid times.)
The UCP continues to fail at governing the province of Alberta. We look to our public representatives to set an example of how to act properly during these pandemic times.
Apparently traveling to the likes of Ariziona, Mexico, and Hawaii are the behaviours the citizenry should be modelling. Because air travel is safe:
“Two more Alberta MLAs are returning home from holiday trips abroad.
Pat Rehn, the MLA for Lesser Slave Lake, posted a statement on Facebook Saturday confirming he is on his way back to Alberta from a trip to Mexico.
“Residents in our riding have done a tremendous job reducing the spread of COVID-19. We must all work together to get past this pandemic and get back to normal life,” Rehn said.
“Given this, I apologize for the fact that I recently took a previously planned family trip, following a busy legislative session. I am returning home to Alberta and will ensure I follow the premier’s new travel directive.”
A photo posted to Rehn’s Facebook account on Dec. 24 shows Rehn wearing a T-shirt in a cave, with tropical plants in the background.
Jason Stephan, MLA for Red Deer-South, is also returning from a trip to Arizona. In an emailed statement Saturday, Stephan said he flew to Phoenix on Dec. 31. He said he bought the ticket in October.”
This sort of behaviour from the party of ‘personal responsibility’.
“Allard said she has spent Christmas in Hawaii with her family for most of the past 17 years. She also said she felt she was keeping with the current health mandate through the international border testing program, which allows for a shorter quarantine period following a negative COVID-19 test.
“With all that said, however, as a minister of the Crown, I know that I’m held to a higher standard and in retrospect, I definitely made the wrong decision.”
Kenney said Allard was the only cabinet minister who left the country. The premier also confirmed Friday that Jamie Huckaby, his chief of staff, had travelled to Britain last month.
Kenney said Saturday that he takes responsibility for not being clear about travel rules.
CBC News has also confirmed that Calgary-Klein MLA Jeremy Nixon was also in Hawaii over the holidays. It is not clear when he left or whether he has returned.
Calgary-Peigan MLA Tanya Fir said on social media Friday night that she had recently been to the United States visiting her sister. In a Facebook post, she said that she has since returned and will abide by the new travel directive.”
So of course our besotted Premiere knew about his MLA’s leaving the country during a pandemic. He has never been in tune with the people of Alberta or the sacrifices they are making to stop the spread of the virus (gutting the healthcare system during a pandemic). This is a clear illustration of one set of expectations for the populace, and another for the political class.
Certainly the rules currently do not forbid international travel but why even take the risk in these unflattened curve times?
Is it Arrogance? Hubris? Or just plain stupidity?
I hope Albertans remember the mendacity demonstrated by this UCP government come election year.
bleatmop
Mystro
Dead Wild Roses 
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