A Bigger Table - political rant

 

Just over a year ago when word began arriving along with the Covid virus, I paid attention.  I paid attention for a number of reasons.

I am old enough to remember SARS and the devastation it caused in Ontario and other places.  But I am also aware of history and knew that such pandemics become killing machines especially among densely populated areas.  And of course, many of the world's densely populated areas are also areas of poverty with few resources.

Of course my primary concern was my own home.  I'm only human, after all!  But I soon found a website called Worldometers and one of the many metrics it was tracking was Covid.  This website kept me apprised of what was happening around the world - who was managing well, and who wasn't.

We neighbour the United States, and I'd spent enough time in that country and knew a large number of Americans, had read up on political science and the differences and similarities between the two countries to understand that the pandemic was going to be a watershed moment in history.

Over my lifetime, Canadians have been inundated with media generated in the US to the point where many Canadians don't understand how the political system in Canada works.  With the political dynamic in the US slopping over into Canada, I wasn't particularly surprised at the US style conspiracy stories finding their way into my country, too.

I have also been coming to grips, as a white woman, with the racism inherent in so much of our country, which seemed to be being exploited by these conspiracies.

The response to Covid by Canada has been checkered by the fact that health care is not a federal responsibility, but a provincial one.  And a number of provincial premiers have platforms (if you can call racism a platform) that favour business and corporate entities over people, especially brown people.  Even in a province that wants to help, there is a segment of the population that has drunk the tainted orange juice and insists Covid is a hoax, mask requirements are some sort of infringement on personal freedom, restrictions on businesses being open are killing the economy.

I have been appalled by the racism involved in touting the 'China flu' or 'Kung flu' and targeting people of Asian background, especially elderly people, with violence.

Politicians of the 'conservative' bent have done nothing but criticize, even when the federal government does something they previously called for action on, the complaint then became 'you took too long' instead of 'so happy to see you took advice'.  Or even 'better late than never'.

I'm sick of politicians playing devil's advocate who do nothing but complain, but never come up with action to help the situation, instead sitting by and flouting the recommendations by health officers (non-essential travel during Christmas break, for instance) because they are some sort of 'special'.  

"When they show you who they are, believe them the first time" has become all too applicable.

Things are not good right now, even as they get better in Canada.  For those people who are living in a comfortable bubble, I urge you to pay attention to what is happening beyond your reality.  If you, personally, are safe and have the means, I recommend looking for organizations that are actually helping other countries obtain vaccines and other medical supplies.  If you have enough, and can spare something, there are non-profit entities that can use some money.  Last week I donated to UNICEF Canada, in part because they had a matching donation grant from a third party, so my donation was doubled.  It felt like a paltry sum, but if enough people give a little, it can add up to something significant and help others who are literally dying.  Right now.  Another entity I have donated to in the past and will likely do so again is Doctors Without Borders.

The bottom line is this - if the countries who cannot access vaccines do not get them very soon, the level of mutations in the virus will continue.  If the mutations continue, the pandemic will continue in part because the vaccines may not be as effective against the mutations.  (So far it seems that they are, but that can change.)  If the countries who are struggling continue to have very active growth with high illness and death, it means the global economy cannot recover.  It also means that all travel to those countries will have to be curtailed because people travelling from North America to other places can then become infected by those new mutations and bring them home, which will begin the cycle all over again.

Covid is extremely transmissible - which means it spreads very easily.  We have seen this every time restrictions have been lifted and mass gatherings allowed.  We are now standing under the tsunami third wave and countries like India and Brazil (and others, but those are number 2 and 3 in the world - the US continues #1) are having massive case counts and deaths.

At this point I'm assuming that the corporations who make the vaccines have made a tidy profit.  I suggest that it is beyond time to hoard the vaccine and that countries who have a surplus should very quickly start sending that surplus to other countries.  Let the companies who wrote restrictions into their contracts that this could not happen sue the country.  Better to beg for forgiveness than ask permission.

It is time to build a bigger table and invite those countries who need medical supplies including vaccines to the same safety that we have here in Canada.  And make sure that ALL of our communities are also getting the vaccines they need, too.

As has been pointed out, we are all in the same storm but some of us have good boats while others are cast adrift on leaky rafts.  Life lines are needed to help those who are getting ill and dying.

World:  147,605,755 cases; 3,118,992 deaths

US:  32,797,213 cases; 585,941 deaths

India:  17,285,627 cases; 194,797 deaths - with nearly 1.4 Billion people in India, these numbers are going to get much, much worse.

The above numbers are from 11 am, April 25, 2021.  A number of experts say that the numbers out of India are far too low because people are falling ill and dying at such high numbers the official count can't keep up.  Long past time to send medical aid to India...

Stay safe.  Stay well.  Stay Covid aware.