Moving Backwards – Doug Ford has just re-introduced “Two Weeks to Flatten the Curve”

BY SIMONE J. SMITH

Cowardly leadership, disconnected public health officials, hysterical public service unions, destroyed businesses, divided citizens, debt that will never end, mental health catastrophes, drug overdoses, high rates of suicide and a perpetual cycle of lockdowns.

As the rest of the world moves on from the pandemic, and removes many of their restrictions, Premier Doug Ford has turned Ontario into one of the most repressive states on earth.

Is this the province we want?

The Ontario government announced that the province will be returning to “Step Two” of the Roadmap to Reopen, which includes several new public health restrictions.

He says the new restrictions are “time-limited” to “help blunt transmission and prevent hospitals from becoming overwhelmed as the province continues to accelerate its booster dose rollout.

“As we continue with our provincial vaccine booster efforts, we must look at every option to slow the spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant,” said the Premier. “Putting these targeted and time-limited measures in place will give us more opportunity to deliver vaccines to all Ontarians and ensure everyone has maximum protection against this virus.”

Let’s talk about the Omicron variant for a minute.

Our friends at CDC updated their website December 21^st, 2021 (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/variants/omicron-variant.html) with the details they have on Omicron. They explicitly state that data is needed to know if Omicron infections, and especially reinfections and breakthrough infections in people who are fully vaccinated, cause more severe illness or death than infection with other variants. So, they don’t know.

Scientists are working to determine how well existing treatments for COVID-19 work. What existing treatments are they talking about? They claim that based on the changed genetic make-up of Omicron, some treatments are likely to remain effective while others may be less effective. Oh, do you mean like vaccinations? They then go on to say that vaccines remain the best public health measure to protect people from COVID-19, slow transmission, and reduce the likelihood of new variants emerging. You mean, new variants like Omicron? I include this information because our governments are basing all of their decisions on a virus that they know nothing about, which means that once again, it looks like we are being experimented with and on.

Ford says the province expects 1% of Omicron cases to end up in hospitals and the province is expecting as many as 100,000 new cases per day.

In response, Ontario will return to the modified version of “Step Two of the Roadmap to Reopen,” effective Wednesday, January 5^th, 2022 at 12:01am for at least 21 days (until January 26^th, 2022), subject to trends in public health and health system indicators.

These measures include:

• Reducing social gathering limits to five people indoors and ten people outdoors.
• Limiting capacity at organized public events to five people indoors.
• Requiring businesses and organizations to ensure employees work remotely unless the nature of their work requires them to be on-site.
• Limiting capacity at indoor weddings, funerals, and religious services, rites and ceremonies to 50% capacity of the particular room. Outdoor services are limited to the number of people that can maintain 2 metres of physical distance. Social gatherings associated with these services must adhere to the social gathering limits.
• Retail settings, including shopping malls, permitted at 50% capacity. For shopping malls physical distancing will be required in line-ups, loitering will not be permitted, and food courts will be required to close.
• Personal care services permitted at 50% capacity and other restrictions. Saunas, steam rooms, and oxygen bars closed.
• Closing indoor meeting and event spaces with limited exceptions but permitting outdoor spaces to remain open with restrictions.
• Public libraries limited to 50% capacity.
• Closing indoor dining at restaurants, bars and other food or drink establishments. Outdoor dining with restrictions, takeout, drive through and delivery is permitted.
• Restricting the sale of alcohol after 10 p.m. and the consumption of alcohol on premise in businesses or settings after 11 p.m. with delivery and takeout, grocery/convenience stores and other liquor stores exempted.
• Closing indoor concert venues, theatres, cinemas, rehearsals and recorded performances permitted with restrictions.
• Closing museums, galleries, zoos, science centres, landmarks, historic sites, botanical gardens and similar attractions, amusement parks and waterparks, tour and guide services and fairs, rural exhibitions, and festivals. Outdoor establishments permitted to open with restrictions and with spectator occupancy, where applicable, limited to 50% capacity.
• Closing indoor horse racing tracks, car racing tracks and other similar venues. Outdoor establishments permitted to open with restrictions and with spectator occupancy limited to 50% capacity. Boat tours permitted at 50% capacity.
• Closing indoor sport and recreational fitness facilities including gyms, except for athletes training for the Olympics and Paralympics and select professional and elite amateur sport leagues. Outdoor facilities are permitted to operate but with the number of spectators not to exceed 50% occupancy and other requirements.
• All publicly funded and private schools will move to remote learning starting January 5^th until at least January 17, subject to public health trends and operational considerations.
• School buildings would be permitted to open for child care operations, including emergency child care, to provide in-person instruction for students with special education needs who cannot be accommodated remotely and for staff who are unable to deliver quality instruction from home.
• During this period of remote learning, free emergency child care will be provided for school-aged children of health care and other eligible frontline workers.

Yes, and this worked so effectively in March 2020. These restrictions will further cripple retail businesses, gyms, restaurants and cafes, along with shutting down children’s sports and other activities.

I thought that the whole point of forcing people to get the medical injection was to allow us to go back to normal. In September of 2021, Premier Ford assured the people of Ontario that,  “These certificates, they’re the best chance we have to get through these coming months without having to move backwards, but, let me be very clear, this is a temporary and exceptional measure. We will only use these certificates for as long as they are needed and not one day longer.”

Unfortunately for us, that has not been the case. We have returned to the failed policy of restriction and lockdown. Premier Ford has announced that whatever these lockdowns were about in the beginning, they are about something else entirely now. What is that I wonder?

Community, the only way forward is personal responsibility and leadership at all levels. We need leaders who realize that their job is to protect our freedoms, not to take them from us and then loan them out again at their pleasure.

We need to open Ontario, permanently remove all vaccine passports and mandates, provide medical treatments that our citizens have been denied, and demand the immediate resignations of all public health officials.

It is time to take a stand!