“It would seem that Covid is coming back with the Alpha/Delta/Gamma variants but we are opening up anyway and have dropped the social distancing and mask-wearing protocols.” That from Alberta. “We forbid the schools from requiring masks!”

“Vaccinated Canadians can’t come in!” That from the US of A and UK/Britain. New Zealand is closed again. Australia’s Sidney, is calling in the military to help with a resurgence. Thailand, Japan and South Korea are having outbreaks. The US is having a surge in cases amongst the still unvaccinated. And the list of Covid setbacks around the world continues…..but…“well, let’s go to the pub or the restaurant, anyway”.

The Philippines and Vietnam are on the edge of medical collapse. And we may as well just stop watching Mexico and Brazil as they just keep getting worse. Africa? Well, they are not yet at the 2% vaccinated population stage. Britain and France cases are on the rise again.

BC has largely had a good response compared with other jurisdictions mostly due to high compliance with safety protocols and fairly quick acceptance of the vaccine but BC is also rapidly trending upwards.

………and everyone is ‘opening up’…??????

So, what does that tell you? That we are giving up and that Covid is here to stay? That the vaccinated are safe-ish and the unvaccinated are so bloody stupid they can just die? Are we saying that the cost of protecting folks is too high to maintain so let’s just let this plague play out in the bars and cafes, schools and theatres, the big-box stores and the stadiums? Or, are we saying that we have shot our best shot and we have nothing left…?

“Why not just take a flight to to somewhere nice….?”

I have little faith in experts at the best of times, not because of what they know – they know more than me – but more because of what they don’t know – and that ignorance is showing up as great and vast in a rapidly morphing and spreading pandemic. Clearly they do not know enough about Covid. We are being led by freshmen and sophomores at this point. And it appears as if they are throwing in the towel, “Oh, Hell! Go to the pub if you want and take unvaccinated Bubba with you!”

The good news? This is Covid, not Ebola.

The weirdest part of the problem is that there is a readiness in the general population to go along with the madness…….“Say, what!?”

It’s true! I am afraid that even I am manifesting a bit of it…..“Well, I would like to see the grandkids.” “Hey! It’s great that we are having visitors!” “Hmm…maybe a trip to Costco?” “How do you feel about travel this winter?” It’s so incredibly illogical. Those thoughts are close-to-Bubba-stupid (especially given the previous 18 months of experience). Here we are having been isolated and masked, social distanced and with no touching; and here we are vaccinated and watching the virus still spread and we, too, are wondering about – even baby-stepping towards – normalized life. If the house is still on fire, do you go back in to finish your lunch?

“Dave! Relax. It is getting better. C’mon, man, take off that mask and have a beer!”

Well, I, for one, am not so sure that now is quite the right time to let down the guard and, to be fair, I don’t think anyone knows when that will be. So, in the meantime, you may wish to consider keeping up the miserable, ineffective guards that we have been employing just in case. They were better than nothing. Gettin’ on a plane and heading south for the winter should not be part of your immediate planning process…….

…..jus’ sayin’…..