COVID 'Lines of Fracture'

"Anything that lasts this long is going to create a sense of fatigue with people in terms of staying vigilant and doing what they were doing really well in the early days of this."

"But it's a lot harder to get people to continue to do it. And, when you see that many of the folks who make the rules aren't following them themselves, it makes it harder to justify continuing doing it."

David Coletto, professor of political management, Carleton University, CEO, Abacus Data 

"People are exhausted emotionally, physically, and many people are suffering economically. That weighs on an entire community, and we're now seeing some real lines of fracture that are quite different from what we saw in the first stage of the pandemic. There was a real united front then; everybody in this together, little questioning of decision-making, little questioning of the authorities and certainly what I would call a consensus among our political elites."

"But now, with the economic consequences and fallout, and just the length of the pandemic, we're seeing that it's starting to wear on everybody. And so now we're starting to see cracks in that sphere of consensus."

Josh Greenberg, professor, director School of Journalism and communication, Carleton University

In the previous 24 hours, the province of Ontario reported 61 additional deaths caused by the coronavirus and a one-day total, escalating day-by-day, of 3,945 new reported cases. In the capital Ottawa, 90 cases representing half of those identified, occurred among those aged 29 and under, 18 in children nine years of age and under, 28 occurring in ten-to-19-year-olds and 44 in people aged in their 20s. Dispelling the popular conception that only the elderly and immune-impaired are susceptible.

"Why are so many people living in, with such concern, in such dread, and taking such precautions for something, for a virus, a coronavirus, that is more like the common cold than it isn't?"

"I will not be silenced."

“I will always remain free, it is my life to enjoy not at the whim or discretion of others, it is my home to welcome those I choose. Never will the government determine who I can welcome into MY home, it is mine not theirs.”

Randy Hillier, independent MPP, Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston

Randy Hillier posted this photo to social media showing a large holiday gathering.

 

Back in November MPP Hillier was charged under the Reopening Ontario Act for organizing an anti-COVID-19-lockdown rally outside Queen's Park, the provincial legislature in Toronto. On December 17 he posted a family photograph with himself at home in his dining room surrounded by extended family members, irrespective of lockdown regulations promulgated earlier in the week. Just a jolly, happy family holiday gathering. He's not alone. Medical heads of hospitals, government legislators, people in authority have been jetting off to holiday locations, lockdown be damned.

Mr. Hillier's provocative messaging, arguing democracy is on trial with leaders avoiding debate and ruling by edict while he states his belief that risks the COVID virus poses have been overstated and measures to combat it have been the cause of infinitely more damage than the virus itself has elicited a response. While he is busy citing the economy, people's mental health, faulty testing, asymptomatic cases and deaths occurring for the most part among the elderly and those with chronic health conditions, a local physician in his riding has taken remedial action to dispel Mr. Hillier's contention that the virus is comparable to the common cold, or the flu.

 

A family practitioner in Sydenham, north of Kingston, Ontario in Mr. Hillier's riding -- Dr.Jeanette Dietrich -- has an online petition in circulation, now bearing close to 4,000 signatures. Among the signatures are those from numerous medical professionals. Dr.Dietrich accuses MPP Hillier of spreading misinformation, misusing scientific references, while urging others in the community and beyond to ignore what he has to say. 

 

"It's frustrating for all of us in health care who are working very hard to try to get the message out. I have patients saying to me all the time that they are doing their utmost to protect themselves and they do not want to get this disease -- so, yes, it's frustrating when you're trying to care for these people and you feel you're fighting against this other tide of misinformation, instead of everyone working together to encourage people to do the best they can to follow the guidelines and recommendations." 

On December 23, Ottawa had just 19 cases and was heading toward a zone that would have lifted the current lockdown imposed just before Christmas. Those restrictions, however, failed to persuade people to continue self-isolating, and during the holidays many followed Mr. Hillier's example, with the predictable result that new cases began popping up and Ontario began veering into the kind of case-heavy territory that would mandate even stronger responses, including following Quebec's example of enacting a curfew. 

Toronto saw 2,260 new cases, 641 in Peel Region, 357 in York Region, with a total of 4,983 people having died from COVID-19 effects in Ontario, and 215,782 testing positive for the virus throughout the pandemic's course. An alarming increase in hospitalization is taking place, with 1,483 COVID patients requiring treatment in hospital, and 388 in intensive care units province-wide.

Pfizer Vaccine   (Shawn Thew/Pool via AP)

"If we do not reduce the number of close contacts that enable COVID-19 transmission, our hospitals will not be able to maintain services, and the number of deaths will increase. This is a collective task, one where we need to support not blame each other through this darkest time", stated Dr.Vera Etches, Ottawa's medical officer of health. Grey being the highest tier of the province's colour-coded COVID-19 framework, involving full lockdown as opposed to 'control' measures in Red zones.