Get vaccinated, but ending restrictions is a choice we have to make at some point. Covid isn’t going away and even vaccinated people get it. For almost all of them the symptoms are flu-like. We need to find our way back to normal life and trust people to take precautions in accordance with their own assessments of risk. Otherwise there is no guarantee that restrictions, mandates, and digital passports won’t continue indefinitely.
If we’re not willing to demand our freedoms, they can easily be removed.
They can be removed at any time, for that matter. And, we actually have more rights and freedoms than we did when the charter was written into law in the 80s, but I digress.
I'll remind you that you are demanding an end to restrictions immediately; while ICUs are packed with patients and we're having some of the highest death rates during the entire pandemic. That means no vaccine mandates. No mask mandate. No capacity restrictions. Full open everything.
But okay, let's end them today. Then what? Are you qualified to take over as an ICU nurse or doctor when the hospitals are saturated with every antivaxxer who's suddenly able to dine indoors again? or go to a movie theatre? packed sports event? Are you qualified? Are you ready to watch unvaccinated kids die because Paediatric ICUs are full of grown-ass adults who were more concerned with their "freedoms" than the general health of the rest of society? Because let me tell you, a LOT more people will die (and we don't triage out morons). Omicron may be "mild" if you're vaccinated and boosted, but it's certainly not conclusively so if you aren't (the death rates in the US point to this not being so mild). There are at least 2.4 million people in this province who have one shot or less. And that doesn't include the under-5s who still can't get squat. That's still a hell of a lot of people vulnerable to a very rapidly transmitted, potentially deadly disease. It says a lot that you're willing to drop mandates if adults can get fully vaccinated (because you are one, apparently), but it's fine to let kids face this full on without protection.
And FFS, I wish one of you anti-vax/anti-mandate folk would take a second to look into Long Covid and the estimates of 20-40% of people having *long-lasting* symptoms, POTS (Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome), Kidney/Lung/Heart/Brain damage, permanent loss of smell, etc. "Letting it rip" means a lot of people potentially left disabled in some sense or another. But sure, it has a "survivability rate of 97%".
Please stop the "This is all gonna end up permanent if we don't stop it now"-BS. If governments wanted it to be permanent, it would've been done so in April 2020. Instead—golly-gee—we've seen tides of restrictions wax and wane with case numbers. But I suppose your argument doesn't work if you don't try and stoke conservative fear fires of "our freedoms will be taken away!"
