I’ll explain in more detail.
We now have two deadlier and more contagious variants of Covid circulating across the globe. The vaccines developed are less than 95% effective. It’s more like 50%, maybe less.
Some believe it’s hardly worth the effort to achieve 50% efficacy.
This is untrue. Viruses mutate quickly and effectively when transmitted from person to person. Becoming infected allows the virus to mutate. Eliminate transmission or widespread infection, and the virus’s ability to mutate into deadlier forms is eliminated.
While the vaccine may not prevent infection, it will boost human immunity that transmission is more difficult. Reduced amounts of covid transmission means less opportunity for the virus to mutate.
That’s how everything works.
The same applies to toddlers and teenagers. (No they aren’t viruses, this is an analogy).
The busier toddlers and teenagers are, the less likely they are to get into trouble. Which is why a good parent keeps their toddlers and teenagers active and engaged in supervised activity.
Same applies to viruses. Left to spread uncontrollably, they will mutate and get worse every mutation. The goal of the virus is to adapt to the roadblocks to replication.
Enough roadblocks and transmission becomes difficult. It can only mutate when it infects a new host.
Even at 50% efficacy rate of vaccines, mutations are drastically reduced. Less opportunity, less mutations. Which is why you still need to wear a mask after vaccination. You may be the unlucky 50% that still contracts the disease.
There are two ways to address the spread of viruses: quarantine and herd immunity through vaccination. That it. That’s all modern science provides us a an option.
Conservatives have completely wiped out the global efforts at containment made by us all in Spring 2020.
They relaxed lockdown far too quickly and allowed a second wave to get established in the populations they govern. Supposedly to save the economy.
They used covid as a weapon to keep people isolated but still highly infected.
The globally supported conservative (far right) decision exacerbated covid transmission. Only in high transmission environments does a virus have opportunity to mutate into a more efficient (deadly, contagious) variant.
The far right gave the virus perfect conditions to mutate.
And they continue to do so. Yoyoing back and forth between partial lockdowns and unrestricted transmission. This is what caused the mutations to occur. And increased the death and illness toll needlessly to “save” the economy. Whether through ignorance or malice is irrelevant.
But it’s certainly malice motivating these decisions now.
At the beginning of the pandemic, the two options available for pandemics were clearly identified to reduce the death toll, mitigate illness, stop hospitals from being overwhelmed, and minimize the economic damage.
We knew it as flatten the curve. Plank it! Stay home.
But politicians like Jason Kenney have modified those objectives. Kenney regularly says bend the curve. And as soon as it is bent a little, he eases up on restrictions. Which allows the curve to grow exponentially again.
This has occurred three times in Alberta, more elsewhere across the globe.
Those decisions created the current mutations in UK, South Africa and Brazil. All of whom were attempting natural herd immunity. Uncontrolled transmission.
Perfect breeding grounds for mutations to occur, which they did and we are now faced with a deadlier more contagious assortment of variants.
Any epidemiologist can identify the best option is to attempt zero transmission.
Any epidemiologist or virologist.
So politicians have the information and always did have the information. Since the beginning of the pandemic.
They may have balked at the impact the pandemic would cause, but 11 months in and millions of infections and deaths later, that information has proven very accurate.
There are no more excuses for politicians to keep partial measures in place. We have several vaccines that are available. We just need the time to produce and deliver those vaccines to people.
Yet many conservatives like Kenney continue to lift restrictions.
This will spread the virus more throughout the community. It will allow the new variants to gain traction and replace the original virus variant. And it will kill many more people and sicken many others, some with lifelong complications.
At this point, it’s deliberate, not ignorance. Politicians who relax covid restrictions now are deliberately putting lives at risk. Willful ignorance & evil intent are opposite sides of the same coin. The outcome is the same, no matter what side the coin toss lands.
Our provincial governments are willfully allowing covid to spread widely and permitting the opportunity for three deadlier variants to spread or a new one to emerge here. All while slow walking vaccination efforts. And then blaming the federal government.
Citizens are left with few alternatives. Stay home if you can. Take extra precautions, if you can’t.
We can accept the decisions of UCP or we can openly dissent against them.
Personally, I opt for the latter.
#FiretheUCP
Immediately! Because they are literally killing us.
And the moment vaccines are available to you, get yourself vaccinated. It protects you and everyone else from uncontrolled mutations.