Starhc said "I follow the rules, and I don't know any people who aren't. But that is changing, not beause people don't care and don't want to keep safe, but because nothing makes sense anymore. We're starting the same third wave that our neighbors are going through. I can't assume our experts are smarter about how Covid spreads than the experts in neighboring provinces who are in the middle of it right now and surely not saying, 'I wish we dragged our feet more on vaccination, and cracked down on outdoor yard visiting, playdates and sleepovers! That would have helped!'
Tweaking the restrictions every few days isn't going to make a big difference because most people are already doing the best they can and will keep doing what they can. We're maxed out without some kind of help. We till have to go to work every day. Kids still have to go to school. If none of those things change, and we aren't vaccinated, we are vulnerable.
People who are doing their best want a government willing to make the hard decisions, not do a tweak here and there and put the rest on us. The bottom line is, they don't want to do anything to make it easier for people to *actually* stay home.
The restrictions just make it harder for most people, while also not making it hard enough on Covid. I know it is a delicate balance but my priorities shouldn't be that different from theirs.
Why can't they make it easier to get appointments and plan to get vaccinated? Why can't they vaccinate more people daily? Make it easier for the people who WORK every day (because they want us working!) to find and book an appointment, take paidtime off work to drive a few hours or wait in line for a vaccine. We need more sites in more places, more times, more availability, clear information and easier access (drive through, walk-in, evenings, weekends)
20,000. That's how many vaccines their own vaccine task force *says* they can do in a day. But evan as the variants are spreading, they're happy to roll out around 7,000 per day and depend on a handful of supersites for distribution. I think it's fair to expect our leaders to do the very best they can, not just make little tweaks and announcements and promises to hold off the variant until they (somehow) get vaccines rolling out in May. "
Despite the fact I do believe that they're acting with best intentions to balance a lot of priorities in getting us through this, I understand frustrations with gov... believe me. I understand the inconsistencies and how one might take mixed messaging out of some parts of the orders. My first reaction was also to wish that more was done in this latest set of orders, but I realized that this is a time to separate feelings about government, separate my personal opinions about what can be done and separate my feelings about what others might or might or might not do.
At the end of the day I can control what I do, a small part as one person but potentially a bigger one as far as setting an example. As much as we want 100% of people doing everything right, this is a numbers game and if even 50% (and hopefully much more) put nose to the grindstone here it’s going to cut down those transmission vectors a lot.
Make sure friends, family and neighbours are aware how much more serious things have gotten in this country and have started to get in Manitoba. Believe it or not some don’t, and others haven’t heard it enough times to have it sink in. Make sure they know about the orders and that we don’t have to stop at the language in those orders in the choices we make to do our part to keep this community safe.
We have a great variety of local restaurants in the community that deserve our support, but that support from our household over this next handful of weeks will be in the form of delivery or pickup. You won't see me on a patio and definitely won’t see me booking a table indoors (wallet is primed and ready to dine like there’s no tomorrow post-Covid... and might even suppress the coupon-hawking beast within
). I’ll be using curbside pickup for shopping where at all possible (so many stores have come a long way with this since this all started). That might mean I'll buy less over these next few weeks, but that shopping will be made up for at the other end. I’ve pulled back on selling a not-so-essential item in the classifieds and will re-list in a few weeks. We have a kiddo birthday coming up this weekend (second of Covid) and we’re having to do differently than we would have just a week ago... but everybody knows why we’re doing it and we’ll find creative ways to make great memories.
As far as Vaccines, through the twists and turns there’s been very good progress in getting to 33.8% of adults vaccinated... but with all due respect if you feel they’re happy with number of doses available and not working every angle the can to get more you haven’t been watching the media briefings. They can only vaccinate with the doses available and that number continues to grow. It was said by Dr. Roussin on Monday that it’s expected to be more than 300,000 over the next four weeks which by my math would average out to somewhere in the neighbourhood of 10,000 a day. I’m not sure what current dose availability is, but the number went up by an amount in that ballpark yesterday and looks like it will again today. Take the 437,831 doses we’re showing now and add 300,000+ to it and we’re in a much better position in four weeks.
Especially after more than a year of this, it's easy to get sucked into a vortex of frustration. Hard to fault anyone when I have to fight off the odd reflex of the same myself, but the finish line really is in sight... we just have to keep our poop together for a handful more weeks, pay attention to any new developments and do what’s in one’s own power to limit one’s own contacts and potential vectors of spread.