“Perceptions,” by Gerry Warner

Op-Ed Commentary

It seems we’ve come to an existential moment.

COVID-19 restrictions are being lifted or reduced around the world, but is this good news or bad?

I say bad. This pandemic is far from over and if we ease up on the brakes now there’s likely a big crash looming ahead. And who wants that? Unfortunately, it seems, quite a few.

Consider the absurd “Freedom Convoy,” blockading downtown Ottawa and doing the same at border crossings between Canada and the US and threatening to do more. These trucker bullies, only an idiot fringe of all the fine truckers in the land, are threatening to bring the economy to a grinding halt and what good is that going to do for their cause?

Nada. COVID-19 has already blown up our economy in dozens of ways and the deranged “Freedom” truckers are only making the situation worse. If they keep choking off our commodity supply lines preventing other truckers from doing their jobs they will turn the entire country against them. Are they so deluded they think they can take on all of us? If so, their deafening horns have obviously damaged their brains.

But back to the COVID-19 plague, which is really an Omicron plague now and virtually covers the world. Is it inevitable we’re all going to get Omicron now? Will we get herd immunity from that? Will that be the end of these awful times or will it only set us up for the next covid variant which could be far deadlier than Omicron? Who on earth knows?

According to immunologists, Omicron infections can double in two days which is significantly faster than previous SARS infections. “Omicron is flu on acid,” says Christina Pagel, a health-care data analyst at University College London. “We haven’t seen that speed before, and it means you can’t vax your way out of it.”  But could Omicron act as a vaccine itself against its COVID-19 parent?

The World Health Organization and others have suggested that huge numbers of Omicron infections could signal the end of the pandemic. But the situation remains volatile and difficult to model, researchers warn.

“It moves so fast that it gives very little time to prepare any kind of response. So, decisions have to be made under huge uncertainty,” said Graham Medley, an infectious-diseases modeller at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

The message is obvious. Don’t throw away your masks yet, especially if you happen to be in a bar or at a Super Bowl party where lots of people are packed close together. And with jurisdictions like Alberta, Saskatchewan, Britain and some American states dropping their covid regulations altogether the possibility of getting up close and personal with a pandemic virus is getting greater all the time.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said the government’s move to drop most covid regulations Feb. 9 was a careful and prudent plan. “We cannot remain at a heightened state of emergency forever. We have to begin to heal.”

Kenney also said widespread non-compliance of Albertans with the existing covid regulations was another factor in the government’s decision.

But Bonnie Henry, B.C.’s top doctor in the covid battle, wasn’t prepared to act so quickly. She said everyone is tired and wants to see an end to the pandemic but, “wanting it to end and taking the right measures to get us through this are two different things that we need to work on together.”

So, is it really an existential moment with the COVID-19 pandemic on the verge of ending? Or is it all wishful thinking? I don’t know about you, but I’m more inclined to believe the latter.

– Gerry Warner is a retired journalist and a bit of a pessimist.

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