COVID is all politics all the time

Vincent J. Curtis

27 Sept 21

RE:  Ontario virus rates lower than expected, experts say.  Hamilton Spectator news article 27 Sept 21.

The “experts” in the medical community are making headlines today and destroying their credibility for the next time.  Take Dr. Zain Chagla and Dr. Kieran Moore, who pretend to know why Alberta is in a health care crisis, but have no explanation as to why Ontario didn’t follow the modelling.

Some facts about Alberta’s “crisis.”  Alberta hospitals are not busy.  But for COVID, they’d be dying for patients.  As at this writing, there are 1061 COVID patients in all of Alberta’s hospitals, and 243 are ICU patients.  Since Alberta, a province of five million, has only 180 ICU beds set aside for COVID, operating rooms have been converted for ICU care to handle the overflow.  Why management decided to take out operating rooms goes unexplained.  Why hospital staff otherwise unoccupied aren’t transferred to ICU care goes unexplained.

Alberta’s “crisis” lies in the management – or mismanagement – of its hospitals.  People aren’t dropping dead in the streets in Alberta.  No media wants to explore the relationship between the medical associations and the Kenny government, which have been in tough negotiations for two years now.  Could it be that individual doctors are making decisions that are intended to embarrass the Kenny government?? (Perish the thought!)  Could it be that progressive media is in league with the idea of embarrassing the “right-wing” Kenny government? (Perish the thought!)

Albertans didn’t throw all caution to the wind with the ending of COVID restrictions – which were no longer justifiable on the basis of the numbers.  A lot of people continued to wear masks.  Social distancing was common.  The largest gatherings in Alberta during summer are rodeos, which are mostly outdoor events.  The Calgary Stampede attracted half a million people over ten days, and a total of 71 COVID cases were traced to it.  And that happened in early July.

Chagla and Moore can’t explain why Ontario’s worst-case scenario isn’t happening, and they don’t know what effect Alberta’s lifting of restrictions had on the actual behavior of Albertans.  But it’s just so easy to blame a “right-wing” government for its policies leading to disaster.

When doctors are still talking about mask mandates and lockdowns, you know they’re talking through their hats.  Mask mandates did nothing to control waves two and three, and neither did lockdowns.  Lockdowns produced a public health crisis of their own in Alberta, namely opioid overdoses and syphilis, which is one reason why Alberta Health decided to change focus from COVID uber alles to COVID as one of several public health problems.

With COVID, it’s all politics all the time, with doctors favoring the side of tyranny.

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