We're facing very difficult choices again. The mental health of our kids, or the physical health of their mother.
Face mask and other restrictions will all be lifted end of March break. They'll be going back to school without masks and likely with less cohorting rules. No more masks on the bus either so they would mingle there anyway.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/can-t-we-have-lives-too-high-risk-canadians-feel-forgotten-as-covid-19-rules-lift-1.5820173
My wife is one of those high risk Canadians, the booster shot already had severe effects on her.
Many provinces have cited high vaccination rates and lower levels of viral circulation in announcements overrecent weeks to drop or relax COVID-19 rules,including mask requirements, vaccine passports, capacity limits and mandatory immunization policies.
In response to inquiries about how this shift will affect high-risk individuals, officials in several provinces emphasized that people can still take personal precautions, such as wearing a mask.
Brown, an epidemiologist who researches disability and reproductive health, calls this approach "problematic." "It places the burden of responsibility for protection on the individual rather than making it a structural and systemic responsibility," she says. "That disproportionately negatively impacts people with disabilities."
Nearly one in four Canadians aged 15 and older have a health condition that puts them at higher risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes, Statistics Canada reported in July 2020. Fourteen per cent of adults have a condition that compromises their immune system, the agency said. Several studies suggest that the immune response triggered by vaccines is "substantially decreased" in some immunocompromised individuals compared to healthy vaccine recipients, according to the National Advisory Committee on Immunization.
...
Everyone wants to see a return to "normal," Pettinicchio says, but that can't happen if recovery for some comes at the expense of the safety and inclusion of others.
"We're entering this period of freedom ... (but) that doesn't mean freedom for everyone," he says. "I don't think there's an expectation that these countermeasures will forever be in place. But I do think there's an expectation that the circumstances of (people with disabilities) be taken into account."
Alyssa Denis, an advocate for Canadians with chronic illnesses in Calgary, doesn't think it's so much to ask able-bodied people to take modest precautions that would allow vulnerable members of the population some semblance of normalcy every now and then.
"I strongly feel that society and the government have forgotten about people like myself," says Denis, who has lupus and is a cervical cancer survivor. "It's like we don't exist and we don't matter."
My wife feels the same. The pressure is already coming directly from family. Can we take the kids to an indoor trampoline park during March break, will be good for them. Yes they would love that, but Covid-19 is not gone, it's still here and plenty active in a much more contagious form.
Meanwhile the tools to track the pandemic have mostly been taken away. Hospitalizations have leveled out, not going down anymore and will likely go up again with the removal of restrictions and people going all over the place for March break.
Maybe we need to keep the kids home from school again for a week after March break to see how things go. It worked in Januari where our youngest's teacher caught Covid first week back. Don't know if the school will let us, they were already mentioning the high absenteeism but for some reason forgot to count the online schooling they did instead. No idea if there will be any work put up for online schooling anymore, it was already pretty much neglected in Januari. And when our youngest had to stay home (they send him home for Covid because of a stomach ache) there was nothing...
Why is this still getting worse...
I don't know what to do anymore. Meanwhile, Ford, who cancelled the mask rules for school
https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/ford-will-keep-his-mask-on-in-the-legislature-for-first-few-days-post-mandate-1.5820130
Several school boards have asked to be able to keep their mask mandates in place for a few weeks after schools return following March break, but Ford has said no.
https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/ford-says-school-boards-aren-t-experts-on-masks-expects-them-to-follow-ontario-plan-to-drop-mandate-1.5815819
Asshole.
https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/parents-with-kids-under-age-five-feel-left-behind-with-ending-of-mask-mandates-1.5816905
I guess I should buy a truck and start blocking bridges...
