I don’t know where to start, as I reread my notes on Thursday’s press conference, where we were told the return of a curfew, from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. …
So we will have a 2.0 curfew that will treat everyone the same, vaccinated and unvaccinated. The Prime Minister has promised to explore measures that could, perhaps, target vaccine-decalcitrant …
Flat question: this exploration has not yet been done?
Antivaxes have been sweating since last winter, at least. They are anything but surprising.
Therefore, are the scenarios for isolating them already being considered?
Legal opinions, written?
Why is it IMPOSSIBLE to deny them access to public space, to these people, as Mr. Legault claims? The PM did not demonstrate that it was, impossible.
I say this because the grumbling is more and more explicit and made my messages swell, before and during the press briefing of the Health trio: why the antivax are they treated like the vaccinated, in these extreme measures announced Thursday?
This is what my gang, that of Quebecers in good faith, is wondering.
Clearly, these people, the unvaccinated, find a way to get together and get infected – and make up 50% of hospitalizations when they only make up 10% of the population – despite the restrictions imposed by the vaccination passport …
There is no longer any social acceptability for these unreasonable accommodations.
Mr. Legault thinks it is difficult to apply. It confuses obligation of means and obligation of result.
Example: we force the unvaccinated to stay at home. Of course, some will come out. But at their own risk: you don’t have a vaccination passport and you burn a stop sign? Vaccination passport control, fine if you do not have a valid vaccination passport.
And speaking of the Highway Code: you want to renew your driving license, you need your vaccination passport …
The grocery store ? Let the antivax order online. Let them be delivered. No vaccination passport, well, you’re not going to Metro.
Why can they enter the SAQ and the SQDC without a vaccination passport?
I ask the question of work, too: no vaccination passport, you do not work. Directive to employers: zero unvaccinated employees. Ottawa did it for federally regulated workplaces. And the federal government is even exploring the idea of denying employment insurance benefits to the unvaccinated.1.
So, I don’t see why it is so complicated to TRY to confine the vaccinated to one place, their home.
Ah, sorry, wouldn’t that pass the test of the courts?
Sorry, but Bill 21 would not pass the test of the courts without the notwithstanding clause. The government has nevertheless darkened. If at least our PM tried to really limit the movements of deniers, we could find out if the judges have humor towards the most selfish – and contagious – among us in times of pandemic …
But no: the Health trio is still imploring radicalized people to be vaccinated, in the tone of Passe-Carreau explaining a difficulty in life for children.
PHOTO SARAH MONGEAU-BIRKETT, THE PRESS
The Dr Horacio Arruda, François Legault and Christian Dubé
For some reason that I cannot explain, François Legault seems to be afraid of really tightening the screw on deniers.
The only point on which I agree with the PM: they must be treated, even if they are infected and become ill.
As a society, one must not be selfish as they are, selfish, as individuals.
A word about Horacio Arruda, Assistant Deputy Minister of Health and National Director of Public Health. In a column published on Thursday2, I echoed a generalized grumbling in medical and scientific circles: the Dr Arruda multiplies the blunders, in his statements on the science of the virus and in his assessments of the viral danger.
PHOTO SARAH MONGEAU-BIRKETT, THE PRESS
The Dr Horacio Arruda, Assistant Deputy Minister of Health and National Director of Public Health
The PM was therefore asked the question, Thursday evening: the Dr Is Arruda still the right person for the post of National Director of Public Health?
Answer, in a nutshell, from Mr. Legault: “Yes. ”
Oh yes ” ?
Almost everything that Quebec has of scientists who have in common that they are not on the payroll de la Santé – Ministère de la Santé, INSPQ, INESSS -, in short, just about all that Quebec has of scientists who can speak freely, thinks that the Dr Arruda has had its day …
But yes ” ?
Okay, okay.
But where I jumped up was when the premier of Quebec said that Horacio Arruda had kept Quebec “ahead of the parade”. MM. Legault and Arruda recognize themselves in jovialism, you have to believe. We are not “ahead of the parade”. This is spin.
Like so many other places, we’ve had our ups and downs, since March 2020, of course. Omicron hits everywhere, obviously. But the current wave is hitting us more than anywhere else in Canada. And we had disastrous “lows” in CHSLDs. The list of errors is long.
It is starting to be indecent for our PM to say that we are “ahead of the parade”.
The noises I hear from hospitals are not reassuring. Let’s say this is not the time to break a foot, have a kidney stone, or suffer from a heart attack.
The more caregivers will be sick, the more the load shedding will reallocate caregivers to COVID-19 patients, the more the quality of care is likely to deteriorate.
It’s mathematical.
I was going to winterize my bike, install studded tires, all that.
I’ll wait, I think.
A 2.0 curfew, then.
The coming weeks are likely to be difficult, on a human level. The curfew has an undeniable psychological effect, shrinking the walls of our possibilities. I quote a former boss of Journal of Montreal (hi, Guy Perras) who told us, in difficult times: we can do nothing other than put on our iron helmets …
I write this and I remember a passage from Forest woman, the most recent novel by Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette, inspired by the difficulties of the containment of the first wave, in 2020 …
Unlike animals which have eyes on either side of the face, our field of vision is reduced. The gaze of others has therefore been an extension of our own for a long time.
Hence the need to live in a group.
Those interested in human evolution have ruled that we are social animals first and foremost out of vulnerability. We need others so as not to die.
I reread these pretty words, I cash the curfew 2.0 and I tell myself that soon, it will be necessary, at the level of men and women, of friends and neighbors, of relatives and even of strangers, pay attention to each other.
We will have to live in a group, otherwise. Again.
Call our friends, go for a walk with them …
Place a mason jar of homemade soup on their doorstep.
Clear snow from a driveway.
Listen, too. When someone listens to us, really listens to us, it relieves us of certain weight. There will be no shortage of listening needs anytime soon.
This is life: it is us, it is the links that we weave between us. Now is not the time to stop weaving these links. It will be necessary to satisfy this need, that of others, otherwise.
To stick together, not to give in to resignation, and for that, no need of the directives of the State: it will be up to us.
We are not giving up.