Laying It Out: Don’t look back now, we aren’t finished yet

By Scott Schmidt on November 6, 2021.

A number of Albertans were angry with Premier Jason Kenney this week after comments about the fourth COVID wave, because some felt he directed blame toward the province’s top doctor.

But while it’s easy to understand frustration toward the premier for his COVID failures, there’s really no point in wasting it on Kenney’s lack of self awareness.

Besides, the story isn’t much of anything anyway. Kenney said Dr. Deena Hinshaw made no recommendations in August when the Delta variant began to spiral out of control. He says had she done so, he would have immediately called an emergency cabinet meeting to approve any health orders she suggested.

Maybe she didn’t, maybe she did. And maybe he would have, maybe he wouldn’t. None of that changes the fact both pushed a dangerous narrative in reopening on July 1, and by August that decision had already blown up in everyone’s face.

Someone who is undeniably responsible for the #BestSummerEver may or may not be trying to blame someone else who is undeniably responsible for the #BestSummerEver. It’s not exactly a bombshell story.

One of them poured the gasoline while the other lit the match. Does it matter whether someone grew a conscience in time to put the fire out if we’re already knee deep in the ashes?

And even if the premier spends his time attempting to cover tracks of where he’s been, Albertans should probably use theirs to focus on where he’s going next – because we’re all tagging along.

Even though hospital pressure is easing compared to a month ago, about 70% of Alberta’s usual intensive care space is still filled with COVID patients, and hundreds of Albertans remain in hospital battling effects of the virus. Nonetheless, we are finally showing signs of coming out of the worst and are heading in a positive direction.

This is welcome news for everyone no doubt, and if you weren’t completely sick of this virus before summer, surely the last straw came and went during that fourth wave. Albertans might not agree on much these days but at this point everyone shares a universal hatred for life under COVID.

But vaccinations are up (mandates work) and active cases are down (so do health orders) and the Holiday Season is right around the corner. With all this available optimism after an abysmal few months, Albertans will be itching to shed masks, throw out the “Restriction Exemption Program” and prepare for the Best Christmas Ever.

More importantly, so will Kenney. And that should be reason for concern.

Based on everything we’ve gone through, and knowing Kenney even promised as much at the height of the fourth wave, you’d think Albertans could count on a caution-oriented pace toward lifting the mild restrictions we currently face.

But we dream of a world where leaders learn from past mistakes while ours performs the same one on repeat for 20 straight months, so you’ll forgive my skepticism if I struggle to trust his ability to stay the course. Every time has been the same; we have a chance to push cases down to zero, or extremely close, and before we can accomplish the goal, Kenney swoops in wearing a homemade hero cape, bets lives on an ill-advised reopening plan, then waits for his long due Nobel Prize in Alberta Economy Rescue.

One must assume Kenney sees the falling case counts with a salivating mindset of, “When can I be Superman again?” Even if he actually meant it a few weeks back when he suggested leaving health orders as is until 2022, it’s imperative Albertans avoid giving him reason to change his mind.

More than 30% are still unvaccinated, most of whom are children, and every single transmission offers the virus a chance to mutate. Waves five, six and seven are still very possible, and if we let our guard down too early once again, the fifth will arrive in time to ruin another Christmas.

For the majority of Albertans who have done their part to protect themselves and others by getting vaccinated, you deserve your lives back. But in order to keep that, we have to also keep the masks on and the vaccine exemption programs in place, and we have to keep testing and we have to keep tracing.

It’s not a big ask at this point, and it sure beats the alternative. If you have your vaccines, life is basically without restriction anyway – aside from a mask, which, at this point, is hardly the worst aspect of a global pandemic. And if you don’t, and you’re not in elementary school or one of the extreme few who can’t receive one, nobody owes you indoor dining, so close the YouTube tabs, get your shots and join us in a world where you can do stuff.

A lot of people died while many others will suffer long-term effects, all so we could keep missing opportunities to get beyond this. The good news, thanks to vaccines, is we shouldn’t need to shut the province down to get there, as long as we don’t get anxious again and undo what we are currently doing.

We still need vaccines for children, while many adults await a second shot, and Alberta still hasn’t reached that 70% threshold the UCP (wrongly) suggested was sufficient for reopening – four months and five days after they did it anyway.

We aren’t at the finish line yet, and we can’t get there faster by shedding what got us this far. The people who don’t understand this will loudly pressure Kenney to forget this fact for a fourth time.

If winter comes with a fifth wave of COVID, it’ll no doubt be because he listened.

Scott Schmidt is the layout editor for the Medicine Hat News. he can be reached at sschmidt@medicinehatnews.com, or follow him on Twitter at @shmitzysays

23
-22