City Notebook: Vaccines are rolling but we have a ways to go yet
By Medicine Hat News Opinion on February 27, 2021.
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant This week provincial health authority began distributing the coronavirus vaccine to a large portion of the general public. After nearly a year Albertans should rightly see this as the beginning of the end of a long struggle and swift and seemingly titanic change. But the end it is not. The value cannot be overstated of a vaccine to guard against the worst effects of a disease that has a sharp fatality rate, and the ability to send our societal support systems into disarray. It’s what we’ve waited for and prayed for during dark lonely times. Even for those who have faired relatively well, we all need room to breath a little easier. It’s also easy to understand the high expectations and anxiety about this week’s roll-out by the province to people over 75. It’s not gone perfectly, and after a year of lead time, expectations are high for something, anything, to go off without a hitch. The very bounds of patience have been stretched to the limits over the last 12 months. It’s not helped the public’s mood that two levels of government have pointed fingers at each other regarding botch-ups in vaccine delivery. But, the Canadian health system is good at such things. Alberta vaccinates one million residents, one quarter of the population, for the flu each fall, with such consistency that the effort is rarely noted as the marvel it is. This will be on track sooner or later. Recall the consternation when the province didn’t schedule vaccinations on Boxing Day? It got rolling soon after. The Alberta government should have recalled how that went when it began lobbing daily criticism at the federal government about deliveries. Now the ball is back in Alberta’s court and the focus in on the ground effort. Weary citizens just want it sorted and done. In the meantime and then during the mass vaccination process, we’ll have to manage our expectations and our actions, which we’ve already done to a remarkable degree. And think about it this way, if you’re young and healthy and 10th in line, you’re young and healthy and “10.” Spring fever Maybe I imagined it, but before the snow on Friday night wasn’t there a hint of spring in the air? Usually that’s a precursor to playoff hockey, but here in the bizzaro dimension, the regular season just got underway. The talk of the town is also the return of Bob Ridley to the airwaves, and a long postponed but no less amazing march to calling his 4,000th Western Hockey League game on Saturday night. There will be no standing ‘O’ at the Co-op Place as crowds are… well, you know… but Ridley’s spent his whole life painting pictures of the action over the airwaves, so tune in, and you’ll be there. A look ahead Council sits Monday to hear presentations about an upcoming sewer construction program and a COVID-19 update. 100 years ago Farmers and organized labour should consider joining forces in the coming federal byelection in Medicine Hat, labour leaders told the News on March 1, 1921. The election, to fill the seat in parliament after A.F. Sifton’s death in office, could help both groups gain political influence as Liberal and Conservative parties remade themselves after the wartime coalition, said Dominion Labour Party official P.H. Wedderburn, of Bowell. “Conditions have changed since the war and it is now realized that farmers and labour are important … and should receive better representation,” he told the News of the potential of a joint nominee. “The eyes of Canada will be on Medicine Hat on election day.” Four new federal government “air harbours” will be built in the coming year, including one at Virden, Man. Utah’s state legislature passed a law prohibiting the sale of of cigarettes and advertisements for tobacco. The Canada Land and Immigration Co. advertised settlement land near Vauxhall for $75 per acre. The News responded to an apparent mocking in eastern papers on the issue of the hiring of a rainmaker, paid $4,000 if he could produce four additional inches of rain this season. “He who laughs last, laughs best,” an editorial stated. Collin Gallant covers city politics and a variety of topics for the News. Reach him at 403-528-5664 or via email at cgallant@medicinehatnews.com 37-36
