COVID Twists & Turns

The story kept changing. Eventually, the truckers had had enough.

This appeared in the Toronto Star, but it’s a Canadian Press story that would have been published in numerous daily papers. Click image to read the whole thing.

Brad Howland’s story, published here this past week, transports us back to the beginning of the pandemic. We’ve passed through distinct phases since then, but at no point have officials or journalists been impressive.

The truckers who took part in the Freedom Convoy had experienced numerous pandemic twists and turns. In their gut, they knew things weren’t adding up. Here’s why:

In the earliest weeks of 2020, as China took extreme measures against a mysterious new virus (including locking down Wuhan, a city of 10 million), Canadians were assured by Theresa Tam there was no cause for concern. Testifying before a parliamentary committee on January 29th, Canada’s chief public health officer assured us everything was under control.

Health bureaucrats were “watching very carefully,” she said. Measures were in place to “make sure” infections didn’t spread. Protocols and procedures would “ensure” public safety. “Canada’s risk is much, much lower than that of many countries,” she insisted. Here in the Great White North the virus was “going to be rare.”

At that moment in time, the public wasn’t supposed to be concerned about this virus. That might stigmatize Asians, you see. The day before Ms Tam testified, Canada’s mainstream media applauded school board trustees for rebuking parents. Officials elected by these same parents had tried to shut down their legitimate health concerns by playing the race card. Hardly a shining moment.

Click to read the story.

Two weeks later, officials in New York city insisted that avoiding Chinatown amounted to “unfounded paranoia.” Fears of catching the disease weren’t based “on science” said NYC officials, but on “misinformation.”

January CNN story may be read here. February story is here. It goes without saying that racism and assaults are appalling. We’d do well to remember that people suffering from very serious mental illness live amongst us.

Again and again throughout February, we were told that racism and the flu were the real threats.

Graphic from the Internet. Creater unknown.

Then, in mid-March, the narrative flipped. Wholesale. Much of the world shut down hard. Corporations and governments told their employees to work from home. Extreme action was needed, we were told. To SAVE OUR HOSPITALS, we were told.

In a few North American cities - notably New York - some hospitals were indeed overwhelmed by COVID in early 2020. That didn’t happen in Canada. How do we know?

Because, as Brad’s story revealed, the first COVID death in his province didn’t occur until June 4th. A press release issued by the Premier of New Brunswick told us:

an individual between 80 and 89, with underlying health issues, died today in Zone 5 (Campbellton region) as a result of complications related to COVID-19. [bold added]

Newfoundland’s very first COVID death occurred on March 30th, and involved a 78-year-old man with “underlying health issues”

Nova Scotia’s first death happened on April 7th, and involved “a woman in her 70s with underlying medical conditions.”

It wasn’t until January of 2021 - 10 months after we were told society needed to come to a screeching halt in order prevent the collapse of our health care system - that Prince Edward Island recorded its first two COVID deaths. “One of the individuals is between the ages of 60 and 79 and the other is over the age of 79 years,” CBC reported.

Across the Maritimes normal medical care got shuttered - thousands of surgeries postponed, cancer treatments delayed, tests rescheduled - for months. School kids missed months of in-class learning, and were subjected to inhumane masking and social distancing rules. Because the authorities were drama queens. Who freaked out. Over a virus that did not come close to overwhelming our hospitals.

From the earliest days of the pandemic it was difficult to know what to believe. In February 2020 the US Surgeon General said surgical face masks were useless at stopping the spread of COVID. A year-and-a-half later that same gentleman insisted indoor masking should continue even for vaccinated individuals.

We were told no one would be forced to take a COVID vaccine. Then they became mandatory across entire professions. The experts flip-flopped. They made mistakes and more mistakes. They spent gobs of money we didn’t have.

All of this would be easier to forgive if they hadn’t been so self-satisfied, so judgmental, so eager to call the rest of us racists and science deniers. It would be easier to forgive if the same people who’d denounced anti-Asian stigma hadn’t zealously promoted unvaxxed stigma soon afterward.

Graphic from the Internet. Creator unknown.

To sum up, we’d endured the

• Nothing to Worry About phase

• Concern is Racism phase

• Flu is Worse phase

• Protect Our Hospitals phase

• Masks are Pointless phase

• Masks Save Lives phase

• We’d Never Force Anyone to Get Vaccinated phase

• No Jab, No Job phase

• Stigma is Bad phase

• Stigma Against the Selfish Unvaxxed is Good phase

It required a powerful force, an extraordinary statement, to dislodge ourselves from the ditch into which our leaders had driven us. Canadian truckers - behind the wheel of their Freightliners, Internationals, Kenworths, Macks, Peterbilts, Volvos, and Western Stars - helped us reset our compass.