Outside a Tim Hortons, a cluster of 60 year old men gather, chatting and drinking coffee, masks on chins.
Liquor store line-ups extend around the corner, people stocking up for weekend gatherings.
A woman rides the subway to work at a suburban warehouse. She’s feeling exhausted, achy and has chills but had to choose between getting paid or getting tested.
An RV drives down Yonge Street, a signboard on the top scrolls: “mRNA COVID vaccines will destroy your DNA & you will lose your soul!”
Today I ride my bike through the forest, emerging at Sunnybrook Hospital. A parking lot is fenced off. A sign on the fence reads: “MHU (Mobile Health Unit) Entrance. Authorized Access Only.
Cases here in Ontario are rapidly increasing and are mostly “Variants of Concern” that transmit faster, give more serious symptoms and with more likelihood of death. They are going up so quickly with daily numbers having doubled in less than a week. (6,000 new cases in the past two days alone). Hospitals and ICUs are so strained that people have been airlifted to more rural areas to make room for more COVID patients here. And that mobile health unit? It’s a field hospital with over 80 beds to handle overflow from the hospital.
The government has instituted a “lockdown”. There are no travel restrictions, we’re encouraged to stay home. We’re told that stores carrying “unnecessary” items can remain open as long as they operate at 25% capacity or less. Don’t go outside, but if you need to buy some throw pillows, go ahead. If you’d prefer to be more cautious order online and have it delivered. However, not all delivery staff, warehouse staff or factory staff have paid sick time. And with such mixed messaging from the government, people are taking risks. How serious can it be if I can still go to the store and pick up a new video game? Meanwhile, health care providers have been unified in how seriously they’re taking it:
Seeing the field hospital up close is shocking. They’re not finished yet – you can see a shed full of hoses to get water service ready for washing and bathrooms. As I ride home I imagine the soon-to-be residents of these tents, looking across the parking lot at the full hospital. I imagine the healthcare workers now stretched to accommodate another 80+ patients after a year of being stretched and I can’t imagine it. And it was avoidable. Australia showed us, Vietnam showed us, New Zealand showed us, Korea and Thailand showed us. We saw these examples and we’ve made a choice.
I arrive at my apartment building. One of the elevators is down and as a result the lobby is filled with waiting people. An elevator arrives and several people leave. The usual recommended two people go in and then they gesture to the others. Four more people join them in the three foot by five foot space inside. Another elevator comes, another six people board. It takes ten minutes for the back up to clear but I finally am able to get on an empty elevator.
Two hours later our grocery delivery arrives. I give the driver a large tip. I can’t pay for his sick time but hopefully enough of us are giving money that if he needs it, he can take the time to get a test and take care of himself.
Go Outside Today 
So sad to read this, our numbers are low but the Holiday has everyone traveling so I hope we don’t go back up. Vaccinations sites are easy, are they not vaccinating there?
Vaccinations are happening, but not very quickly. I got mine because I live in a priority neighbourhood that’s been hard hit so 50+ are allowed. In other areas 55+ can get the AstraZeneca vaccine at pharmacies, but I believe we’re still at 65+ or 70+ for anything else. It’s been a very disorganized and confusing roll-out with sites not working well either.
Second doses may be a while in coming. They’re talking about it being four months before those come. No solid evidence that that’s a good idea but they’re doing it anyway… Frustrating.
I hope it gets better, this has been a nightmare
I hope everyone prioritize taking vaccine when avialable. Things are really serious in some places.
Me too. Things are quite disorganized here when it comes to that. AstraZeneca’s is available to 55+ in pharmacies. 70+ are done by hospitals and in vaccination centres. In priority neighbourhoods that are hard hit (like ours) they’ve opened it up to 50+.
It’s the same sort of mixed messaging we’re seeing about going places. Don’t go places, but non-essential businesses are open for 25% capacity. Don’t have family gatherings but schools can be open. The result of all of this garbled messaging is that many don’t understand it, and others just do what they want. “How bad can it be? Schools are open and you can go to the mall still.”
(Our neighbourhood’s school just got closed again due to an outbreak…)
Yes, we see confusions all over.
HEre we have to wait for our turn for vaccine but it has been channelized well. I am sure in comming weeks the process will speed up.
I read up on Toronto after getting your comment Saturday. Dreadful mess. It seems that with all our “intelligence” the virus is bringing us all to our knees.
It truly is. I think we’d be a lot better off if the world hadn’t spent the last 20 years (and especially the last four) ruining our faith in the authority of science and the veracity of otherwise reliable news sources.
Another 3,000 cases today – 12,000 in four days. At our current fatality rate of 0.8% that’s almost 100 people. Those that can afford to are relaxing safe at home and having everything delivered to them (for the most part I’m one of them) so guess who’s getting shafted *again*.
I didn’t realize that Canada had also suffered from science denial. It boggles me that it is so pervasive.
Yeah – a bit of that has crossed the border, I think. More prevalent in the more conservative provinces like Alberta, but it’s definitely here.
The craziest is that they are putting a chip in with the vaccine to track you. This from people who carry their phones everywhere!
That one would be even funnier if people weren’t so serious about it. We all made Microsoft jokes to one another after receiving ours.
I need to keep my eyes open for books on this phenomenon. How are people getting sucked in to all of this nonsense?
Do they really not know that their movements can already be easily tracked? Like those Capitol invaders who are surprised that the images they posted proved they broke in!