Every Jew Is A Target

"In the video you also see her choking me for a second before getting pulled off and that was what I was referring to when saying 'I was just assaulted'."

"I thought that was the end of it, but she came at me again and that's when the video cuts out. She choked me for a second time, kicked me and shoved me to the ground using the force from grabbing my hair."

"I was on the floor for the entirety of the next stop getting beaten all the while her hand never left my hair and her grasp was so strong that the clump of hair was ripped out."

"I noticed that while I was attacked, before and after I hit the ground, only one couple tried to help me." 

"I now understand that every Jew is a target." 

Unnamed Jewish Montrealer, 23-yr-old nurse 

"Jews are eating kids!"

"You're a Jew. I smell the kids."

"It's OK for her to eat a kid but I can't choke her down?"

Diana Smith, assailant 

A young Montrealer who happened to be an orthodox Jew now living in New York was choked, kicked, thrown to the floor and had the hair from her scalp pulled away by another passenger on a subway train in New York. The 23-year-old, a registered nurse by profession, took a video of the assault as it initiated, with her smartphone. The afternoon C train on May 31st was packed with commuters. A female who happened to be a large Black woman, after assessing the young woman as a Jew, turned about to face the aisle then shouted "Jews are eating kids!"

 

Leaning toward the young woman her assailant spoke directly to her: "You're a Jew. I smell the kids." The  woman whose sheer size overwhelmed the petite nurse physically shoved her, leading the onboard crowd to collectively gasp and prompting some of the passengers to intervene to draw the attacker away from the smaller woman. The video records the shock of the assailant at others disapproving of her violence: "It's OK for her to eat a kid but I can't choke her down?", she protests.

 

Posted on X by Combat Antisemitism Movement, the video became the subject of a New York Post story, leading to a discussion over the rise of antisemitism in New York City, under a mayor who overtly champions the 'cause' of Palestinian nationhood and constantly vilifies Israel. 

 

Agreeing to speak about her experience to the news media, the woman asked to remain anonymous. She was agreeable however, to sharing videos and photographs during the discussion. She also pointed out her despair that as she was being endlessly mauled, out of the subway car hosting a multitude of onlookers, only one couple made an effort to come to her aid.

 

Her attacker was identified as Bronx resident Diana Smith whom the New York Police Department confirmed as the assailant, listing the charges she is likely to face: assault, criminal obstruction of breathing and aggravated harassment, all in the context of hate crimes. It was left to The New York Post to reveal that the woman has a history of mental illness and police run-ins. She is yet to be indicted by the Manhattan District Attorney.

 

Clearly, the charges will be contested on a plea of the attacker not being guilty of the listed charges on the basis of mental illness. Like so many other similar instances of Jews being accosted, threatened and assaulted wherever they live in the diaspora, charges are laid and criminal prosecution is confounded by claims of mental illness, leading to withdrawn charges or the ensuing penalty hugely minimized in deference to someone's mental health leading to a psychotic incident.

 

The victims on the other hand? Stiff upper lip, Jews. 

 

 

"I honestly feel terrified and I've been just running on fear and adrenaline. I have not been able to sleep properly or have much of an appetite."

"I feel sick that people can watch another human be attacked and do nothing. That they can hear dehumanizing words and say nothing."

"Physically, I know I will be OK. Emotionally though, these scars will never fade." 

"It's stuff I saw on the news but not things that actually happened to people just on the subway home. I now understand that every Jew is a target. It isn't about Zionism, it's about Judaism." 

"People have hated and persecuted us for years. As Jewish people, we have seen where this leads."

"We said 'never again' after the Holocaust -- and yet."

Victim of New York Subway Attack 

Engulfing New York With A Socialist Tidal Wave

"I don't think that we should have billionaires because, frankly, it is so much money in a moment of such inequality."

"[New York is] the wealthiest city in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, and yet one in four New Yorkers are living in poverty." 

"Globalise the intifada [is] a desperate desire for equality and equal rights in standing up for Palestinian human rights." 

"I have already to start to get used to the fact that the president will talk about how I look, how I sound, where I'm from, who I am, ultimately because he wants to distract from what I am fighting for." 

"Why is it that there are five or six fast food restaurants in a five-block radius, but I can’t find anywhere where I can actually afford to buy groceries?"

"What this [proposed] network of municipally-owned grocery stores would provide is a guarantee of cheaper groceries and a recognition that food is a non-negotiable for New Yorkers."

Zohran Mamdani, Democratic candidate for mayor of New York  

Mamdani made history last week as the first Muslim American to win a mayoral primary race in New York City   Bloomberg via Getty Images

"What you've built goes far beyond New York City." 

"You've captured the imagination of progressives everywhere with a blueprint for how we can win: with hope, with values, and with the belief that politics can be a force for good."

"We're watching -- and we're inspired."

Marit Stiles, Ontario NDP leader  

He is 33 years old, has held American citizenship for all of seven years. And he has won a primary to be the Democratic representative in a ballot for mayor of the wealthiest, most populous city in the United States, a huge proportion of which are Jewish New Yorkers. He is also held to be a rampant antisemite, although he denies it. He does champion the 'Palestinian cause' and faults Israel. He represents the most progressive of the democratic movement in the United States and he feels he is able to diagnose all the ills of American society and in the process change the culture to reflect what many call a communist ideal.

 

 

 

Openly socialist, he champions the very essence of far-left causes, beloved of radicals that cling to the socialist ideal. His sudden appearance as the successful nominee for the city's November mayoral election has been a shock to many and a celebratory event to many others. At the present time he appears favoured to win the city government mayoralty. This is not just any American city; it is the most vitally important financial and cultural centre anywhere on Earth. Seated as mayor this man has the potential to become the most influentially prominent of American politicians.

 

Andrew Cuomo, once lionized as New York's progressive mayor who impressed Americans during his  tenure with his leadership before falling into disfavour, appeared not to have stood a chance against this personality cult campaign he was unable to compete with, a vibrant personality prized by the young and disaffected, and those for whom life's expenses were a drain on their expectations of the future. 

 

His supporters celebrate his promises of free transit, public daycare and government services to New Yorkers, all paid for by draining the wealth of rich New Yorkers. Law and order, as far as he is concerned can look after itself, with a reduction in the number of NYPD police. And nor will prisons be needed under his administration, since solving poverty will also solve the commission of crime. The 'progressive prosecutors' and public disorder solutions will carry on as before. 

 

Skilled in non-English languages, Mamdani was able to reach out  to those for whom English is not their mother tongue, in a city and a country increasingly beset with illegal immigration and migrant penetration. His attention to foreign conflicts greatly appeals to many of that segment of the population in this sanctuary city that takes Emma Lazarus's 'New Colossus' more seriously than ever: "Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free".

 

His winning political ways scrutinizing far-off conflicts makes him a critic of Israel, refusing to condemn the phrase "Globalize the Intifada", with all its glorious connotations of destroying Israel, and handing the territory vacated over to the Arabs who call themselves Palestinians in favour of inheriting by force the ancestral homeland of ancient Judea. Mamdani's supporters and admirers are also those who admire and support Hamas, big surprise.

 

In the best progressive manner conceivable, the prospective New York mayor supports the use of public funds to subsidize transgender health care, supports sexual minority rights, typifying modern left-wing populism with its aspiration to tax the wealthy under a government planning to seize power to manipulate the economy to its liking. And that liking extends to rent caps, subsidized public housing and free city government services. 

 

In the process the new city council under its new mayor will succeed in driving out capital with its hostility to private wealth management, along with its averse attitude to law enforcement. The smiling man that now basks in the adoration of New York's disaffected whose cost of living agony demands rescue, is prepared to introduce socialism on steroids to the most interesting, dynamic city in the world.  

 

New York mayoral candidate, State Rep. Zohran Mamdani (D-NY) speaks to supporters during an election night gathering on June 24, 2025. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

 

 

Grisly New York Subway Murder

"New Yorkers came through again. [The case is] one of the most depraved crimes one person could possibly commit against another human being."

"[The woman's clothing] became fully engulfed in a matter of seconds."

"[Body cameras worn by the officers caught a] very clear, detailed look [at the suspect and those images were publicly disseminated."

"Officers were on patrol on an upper level of that station, smelled and saw smoke and went to investigate. What they saw was a person standing inside the train car fully engulfed in flames." 

New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch

The incident unfolded at Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue Station in Brooklyn   Getty Images

 

A woman seated inside a stationary subway train in New York City was approached silently by a stranger. The woman appeared to be asleep. The man who moved toward this woman had clear intentions to destroy the life of someone he knew nothing about. He is now in police custody considered for the time being to be a 'person of interest' in a crime. The woman is dead. Incinerated. 

 

The police are investigating whether the unidentified woman was a homeless person. And attempting to establish who the man is and what his possible motive could be.

The man had been apprehended by transit police who had received a report from three high school students who had seen images of the suspect from surveillance and police bodycam videos which police had distributed widely. The three identified the man, recognizing his image. Their assistance in identifying the man ultimately led to his arrest.

According to Police Commissioner Tisch, what is known is that both the woman and the suspect were on a subway train and no interaction had taken place between them. They rode to the end of the line in Brooklyn on Sunday at around 7:30 in the morning. Surveillance video from the subway car showed the man 'calmly' walking toward the victim when the train came to a stop. The woman was seated motionless and might have been sleeping.

The man retrieved a lighter from a pocket and proceeded to set the woman's clothing on fire. Officers at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue subway station on a routine patrol detected the odour of smoke and  saw it rising from the subway car. They headed directly for the car to discover a woman standing in the middle of the subway car, within a blazing fire consuming her clothing and the woman herself. Emergency medical personnel, the fire extinguished, declared the woman dead at the scene.

The suspect, meanwhile had not left the area. He had seated himself on a bench on the platform of the subway, close by the train car. Following a 911 call from the teenagers identifying the man, transit officers realized the man was present on another subway train, radoieing ahead an emergency alert to the next station. Officers at that next station kept the train doors closed while they searched every car, ultimately apprehending the man without incident. When he was taken into custody a lighter was found in his pocket.

New York police released images of a person of interest in the incident, later announcing they had charged him with murder  New York Police Dept. via Reuters

The man has since been publicly identified as 33-year-old Sebastian Zapeta. The charges against him include that he had fanned the flames that resulted when he set the woman's clothing on fire, waving a shirt that caused flames to fully engulf her. He faces charges of first and second degree murder, along with arson, for the attack. According to an immigration official, the man had entered the U.S. illegally in 2018. He was detained and deported. He once again illegally entered the U.S.

"Brothers ... We Are Going to NYC to Slaughter them Inshalah"

"Keep no beard and take the appearance of the kuffar."

"If were [sic] successful this is going to be one of the largest attacks ever on Jews outside of the Israeli territory in recent times."

"Our purpose is to sacrifice oursel[ves] so that the ... muslimeen can wake up and support the State 

[Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant: ISIL]."

"Brothers ...we are going to nyc to slaughter them Inshallah [if Allah wills it]."

"[If any of you] looks like an Ashkenazi Jew [do not] shave [their] beard or mustache [and] bring a Black coat pant and a white dress shirt [and] conceal ur phones when u go inside 'synagogue' and make videos."

"If u look like a Hasidic jew u can get in any time with a torah in the hand and [their] jew ou[t]fit."

"[Purchase] some good hunting [knives] so we can slit their throats."

Muhammad Shahzeb Khan

 

While Khan's co-conspirators were warned not to attract the attention of authorities before their planned onslaught in New York City with the purpose of violent carnage to kill as many Jews as possible, by clearing away facial hair that might arouse suspicions and lead to the failure of their terror attack, that advice went into reverse when he instructed them to use facial hair in a manner that would duplicate that of Jews to enable them to have access to Jewish centres or synagogues where Jews congregate, so they could be accepted on face value as Jews before launching their attack.

 

The Federal Bureau of Investigation via FBI special agent Khajae Hester posted a criminal complaint in a New York Court September 4, detailing the scheme that Khan prepared for his plan to lead off the largest terrorist attack in the United States since 9/11. Text messages and encrypted chat, unfortunately for Khan and fortunately for his intended victims, went to undercover FBI agents who had gained Khan's trust, portraying themselves as eager to partner with him in lethal terrorist attacks against sites in New York City crowded with Jews -- any Jews and all Jews. 

The Pakistani citizen, 20 years of age, was arrested last week in the Quebec town of Ormstown while he was en route to New York with the intention of entering the United States. Various conversations Khan had exchanged with those he understood were co-conspirators but who in reality are two undercover officers and an FBI informant, were released in documents presented at court. The linkage between the FBI informant began last November with Khan meeting the undercover officers on an encrypted online social media platform in July, when he spoke of creating a "real offline cell" for an ISIL-inspired terror attack.

Khan was drawn to New York City, as having the largest number of Jewish residents outside of Israel, believing it was very "unprotected" with Jews "walking around" everywhere, ripe for attack. In preparation for the attack, Khan suggested that his co-conspirators should visit the target area, dressed in garb that resembled outfits worn by Hasidic Jews, since their target we to be "ultra orthodox hasidic Jews world headquarters". 

The planned date of the attack was to be October 7, as the first-year anniversary of the Hamas terrorist attack on southern Israel's farming communities where a raging bloodfest of rape, torture, mutilations, murder and hostage-taking created a hell on earth for ordinary Israeli civilians living near the Gaza border. The symbolism of an expression of Islamist death-wishes for Jews wherever they live as enemies of Islam ripe for slaughter, as a gift from the faithful to the basic tenets of their religion.

His plot revealed, and the man under arrest facing three charges in Canada and extradition to the United States where he faces a charge of attempting to provide material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization, the government of Canada is now being asked for answers from their Parliamentary opponents as to why, in the space of under two weeks, two such apprehensions of Islamist terrorists somehow having bypassed Canadian intelligence inspections, were allowed to enter Canada and from that base, plot vicious terrorist attacks in Canada and the United States on behalf of the Islamic State.

Coincidentally at the very time that Islamists living in Canada as landed immigrants and citizens, as well as refugees and illegal migrants have been marching in the streets demanding that Canada censure Israel for the conflict in Gaza that Hamas terrorists initiated, with sadistic savagery. Where decades of infiltration by Palestinian and Arab academics in Canadian universities have been enabled for underground antisemitism to teach a virulent curriculum of oppressor and oppressed which Israel and Palestinians are meant to represent respectively, indoctrinating student populations who become themselves raging 'activists' in support of terrorism.

Anti-Israel protesters are seen shortly before being evicted from their encampment at the University of Toronto on July 3, 2024. Photo by Jack Boland / Postmedia News

"Canada Will Welcome You"

"[Some people may find it] shocking [to see migrants put up in  hotels, but it's] certainly better than seeing them in the streets."
"Maybe there is a middle ground between the hotel and the street. But what is the middle ground? Putting them up in community housing that's already sorely lacking?"

"I find that those who say Canada is 'rolling out the red carpet' for migrants are going too far."

"I get the impression that it's extremely lucrative for certain people -- like for the buses and taxis in Plattsburgh that travel to Roxham Road. [I look on it as a form of] human trafficking."

Mayor Estelle Muzzi, St-Bernard-de-Lacolle, Quebec

"Every time there's a bus that arrives, there's somebody going to Roxham."

"Sometimes I pick up one person, sometimes it's five. They sometimes come in by bus for free from New York City because the mayor paid for everything. But once people get here, they got no goddamn money. So sometimes I take them for free."

"I grew up in poverty, I'm sensitive to it. I understand these people's desire to try anything and pay everything in the hope of a better life."

Tom, taxi driver, Plattsburgh, N.Y. Greyhound terminal

A family of five enters Canada from the U.S. at Roxham Road. Photo by Dave Sidaway / Montreal Gazette

The buses arrive, from New York City where authorities there persuade migrants who have been bused by authorities in Texas and elsewhere on the border with Mexico, to New York City to relieve the strain on their own cities, to agree to travel a little further on NYC's dime, to take refuge in Canada, where they would be welcomed with open arms. They could always cite Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's offhand invitation for refugees to consider coming to Canada which would welcome them with open arms.

 

Refugees who crossed the U.S.-Canada border at Lacolle on Feb. 23, were processed and were moved by bus to their next stop. Photo by Dave Sidaway /Montreal Gazette

But that was before the unstoppable influx of migrants, and he was reacting to then-President Trump's crackdown on migrants flooding the U.S.-Mexico border, just to show how sanctimoniously superior  \he was compared to Trump. Now, after years of tens of thousands making their illegal way across the border from the U.S. into Canada, the provincial premiers are becoming beyond annoyed and expressing their opinion of the strain on social welfare resources that they've been forced to deal with.

 

"To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you", invited Mr. Trudeau, and since then 100,000 migrants have crossed into Canada. Quebec no longer absorbs the migrants since it began complaining that too much strain was placed on its social support and healthcare system. Redistribution of asylum claimants from Roxham Road has taken place, to cities in Ontario: Ottawa, Niagara Falls, Toronto, Cornwall, and others. 

Zulema Diaz (R) and Maryangel Diaz, two Latino women who crossed from the U.S. border to Roxham Road in Quebec, order coffee at a hotel, in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada March 7, 2023. REUTERS/Carlos Osorio

 

People escaping poverty and crime in Haiti and Central America, violence and persecution in the Middle East, lack of opportunities in Africa, don't realize that there are people living in poverty in Canada with shrinking incomes and a huge rise in the cost of living. Medical/hospitalization services, welfare, assisted housing, are all stretched to their limits. Canada is a land of opportunity for some, but by no means all its indigenous and immigrant population.

Now, a fee of $50 or $70US will pay for a trip from the bus station to the closest, easiest illegal crossing -- Roxham Road -- from New York to Quebec where migrants carry their belongings and illegally walk across the border to Canada preparing to make an asylum claim. They are intercepted by the RCMP explaining that they've passed a legitimate border crossing. There, if they present themselves, they will be turned back reflecting a border agreement with the U.S. that neither will accept a claimant who originated from the other side, considered a 'safe haven'.

 

Asylum seekers, who state they are from Turkey, walk down Roxham Road to cross into Canada from the U.S. in Champlain, New York, U.S., February 28, 2023. REUTERS/Christinne Muschi

 

Once the RCMP officers hear the words ''refugee claim', the migrants are escorted to a central receiving area from which they will be transported to hotels. They will be fed and sheltered at government expense. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada spent $136 million on 'temporary accommodation in the last 2-1/2 years for asylum claimants entering through Roxham Road for meals, accommodation, transportation and security and another $551.5 million to provinces and municipalities.

If the government agency determines the migrants are eligible for an asylum claim, they are provided access to 'social assistance, education, health services, emergency housing and legal aid' as they await the IRCC's determination on their case, a process that can take years, reflecting significant backlogs. Backlogs encompassing people going through legal channels in the immigration system who find themselves waiting longer as a result of the illegal migrants' claims.

According to RCMP agents, a growing number of migrants have been arriving by way of Florida where they fly into the U.S., pay to take a minibus for the long drive north to Roxham Road. The bus route to Plattsburgh is a five-hour drive from New York City, It has become a booming route since New York City began giving out free bus tickets to migrants who agree to relocate elsewhere, including those wanting to cross into Canada.

Onward, Migrant Horde!

"We found that people had other destinations, but they were being compelled only to come to New York City, and we are assisting in interviewing those who seek to go somewhere else."

"Some want to go to Canada, some want to go to warmer states, and we are there for them as they continue to move on with their pursuit of this dream."

New York City Mayor Eric Adams

 

"A lot of the Americans used drugs there. I feel like Canada will be safer. It is a much quieter country than America."

"It is very difficult to get papers in America. I need to work, so I am going to Canada."

Migrant Manuel Rodon, 26, Venezuelan

 

"The military gave me and my family free bus tickets"

" I am going to Canada for a better quality of life for my family."

Migrant Raymond Pena, Venezuelan

 

"Word has spread among the migrant community [that Canada - where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau touted the country's] proud and longstanding tradition of welcoming people seeking safety [is the place to go]."

“Mayor Eric Adams’s administration pays various companies that run programs for migrants that include ‘re-ticketing’ so they can travel to other cities, a City Hall source said."

New York Post

Recent immigrants to the United States talk to city officials in front of the Watson Hotel in New York, Monday, Jan. 30, 2023. The immigrants, mostly from Venezuela and other Latin American countries, had been living in the hotel until recently, when they were told to leave the temporary shelter. Photo by Seth Wenig /AP

 U.S. States adjacent the border with Mexico developed a strategy whereby they bus illegal migrants that enter their states, deep into the heart of the United States, to Democratic states that have been sanctimoniously condemnatory of their Republican brother-states unwilling to absorb the ongoing presence of increasing numbers of seemingly unstoppable illegal entrants to the United States. To solve their own problems partially and to stamp 'pay-back', bus loads of migrants have been arriving in New York City which now claims it has no space left to house and care for the migrants.

And while New York City is understandably enraged over the perfidy of Texas sending illegal migrants onward to become their problem, the city has discovered a nifty new way of alleviating their own problem. By doing precisely what Texas has been engaged in. Only they're not sending the migrants back to Texas, they're floating the benefits of entering Canada to claim asylum there where they can find a new prosperous and secure life in a country built on immigration.

Immigration, that is, not illegal entry of unauthorized migrants. The way to enter any country as a desired destination is and always has been legally. Applying for visas, applying to become an immigrant. Canada invests millions in accepting immigrants from all over the world. It has an economy dependent on a labour force, but an aging population, one that is not replacing itself by natural means, with a steadily falling birthrate. Immigration to Canada has been averaging a third of a million people annually. 

Asylum seekers talk to a police officer as they cross into Canada from the U.S. border near a checkpoint on Roxham Road near Hemmingford, Quebec, April 24, 2022. REUTERS/Christinne Muschi

 

 Canada has its own problems in absorption of such huge numbers. Settling them in is extremely costly on the social welfare system, the universal medicare system, and the fact that there is insufficient public housing for people as things stand now, and housing is scarce and prohibitively expensive. The health care system has taken a beating since the pandemic and is having problems catching up to the level of service considered minimal. Adding tens of thousands of unwanted people entering illegally to declare the need for haven comes at a rather awkward time, to say the least.

But those buses from New York taking passengers representing illegal migrants to the border with Canada keep coming. And only now is it being revealed that delivering passengers by cab companies who take over as the buses debus the passengers, to enable them to access illegal entry border areas, bypassing official entry points continues. To the sum of an average of 39,000 annual illegal entries to Quebec alone, in the past several years.

Taxi drivers wait for migrants at the Plattsburgh terminus with signs indicating they will drive to Roxham Road. (Romain Schué/Radio-Canada)

Reports have emerged that migrants resort to tearing up their American immigration documents as they travel from Plattsburgh, New York, to the Canadian border. Christine Frechette, Quebec's immigration minister, "surprised" to discover the plan hatched by New York City, turns to the federal government to reach a solution to the problem at Roxham Road, used as an unofficial border crossing south of Montreal, enabling tens of thousands to cross into Canada to claim asylum. These asylum-seekers are not turned away; by Canadian law they complete documents that will be assessed and either accepted or rejected. In the meanwhile, they are able to live in Canada, assisted by social services.

In cities like Toronto, temporary housing for the homeless is being compromised as are other levels of social services by illegal migrants requiring similar assistance. If New York City finds itself overwhelmed by the burden of caring for tens of thousands of migrants whose human needs cannot be ignored, it must realize that cities like Montreal and Toronto face the same dilemma; disingenuously Mayor Adams claims to be just 'helping' the migrants get on in life . The idea being, to pass on the problems rather than face them and strategize a solution.

 

Luggage from migrants fills a pathway at an illegal crossing point from Champlain, N.Y., to Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, Que.. Quebec's immigration minister says she's surprised by reports that the City of New York is helping to provide free bus tickets to migrants heading north to claim asylum in Canada. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP Photo/Charles Krupa

 

 

The New Omicron COVID Presentations

"We are still catastrophizing COVID. The emotion and fear are so overwhelming."

"We have somehow made when you have a positive result equal disaster in a lot of people's minds."

"It's very difficult to try to break through this."

Dr,Martha Fulford, infectious diseases specialist, chief of medicine, McMaster University Medical Center

"[Canadian doctors see a lot of COVID in emergency departments] And it's all Omicron."

"The cases coming to the emergency room are basically all comers [ranging from mild symptoms, no shortness of breath but worried people who want to be tested -- up to those with seriously] robust [pneumonia]."

"Why that scares me is that it tells me that this virus is as bad a player as any other before it. It can be a milder virus, but it can also be quite severe."

"You don't want to spread panic, but you also don't want to be blase about what can be a very dangerous virus."

"Most people are coming [to emergency] because they feel very unwell. Most are using emergency services appropriately. We want to continue to get the message out there, if you have mild symptoms, you should stay home to decrease the risk of exposure to other people, particularly our emergency room staff. But of course, if you are ever concerned you come right into emergency, and we'll always be here. Not just Humber, but any hospital."

Dr.David Jacobs, radiologist, Humber River Hospital, Toronto

"We aren't seeing as many patients gasping for air. Thankfully the COVID patients aren't as sick. BUT there are SO many of them."

"But for most, COVID seemed to topple a delicate balance of an underlying illness [diabetes, for example where a COVID infection can trigger serious ketoacidosis, potentially fatal]. It's making people really sick in a different way."

Dr.Craig Spencer, emergency doctor, New York City

 

"We're not seeing a lot of admissions for respiratory failure, we're not seeing a lot of patients being put on high-flow oxygen being intubated."

"What we are seeing is people who are being admitted because they are extremely weak, dizzy, a fall risk. [Respiratory distress and respiratory failure are not encountered as much]; That's  not so much an issue thi8s time."
"We're not seeing a huge number of COVID pneumonia [patients] and people requiring intensive respiratory support. We're not seeing that very much at all."

Dr. Eric Legome, emergency sites, Mount Sinai Health System, New York City

A number of scientists have expressed concern that while Omicron appears to be milder, it is highly transmissible, meaning hospital numbers and deaths could rise rapidly without intervention. Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images

 

New strain, new symptoms, new presentations and a sigh of relief; concerns over yet another mutated COVID virus hammering health systems, exhaled. But wait; there's the signal issue of infectability and sheer, overwhelming numbers of new infections overwhelming health care systems,  upsetting the balance of 'less threatening--more infectious' against 'less infectious--more dangerous', and the outcomes level out. The sheer volume of infections mitigate against relief and produce serious cases flooding ICUs and causing deaths. With SARS-CoV-2 you just can't win for losing.

Imagine, if another strain were to appear just when Omicron appears to be cresting. A strain with the qualities of both. Say, Delta picking up about 10 Omicron mutations. Mightn't that result in a far more dangerous strain; the threat of Delta's more serious outcomes allied with far greater infectiousness. Well, it's been named Deltacron and it has surfaced in Cyprus. And given the lightning speed with which Omicron shoved Delta aside as the dominant strain in a matter of weeks, the world has yet to assess how threatening this new strain will be.

 

One step forward, two steps back has become COVID's overwhelming presence in our lives. As matters now stand, emergency rooms in Canadian hospitals are being overwhelmed by endless numbers of people suspecting they have been infected with COVID, showing symptoms ranging from that of a mild cold to severe COVID pneumonia, surfacing mostly in the unvaccinated and the vulnerable. Front line doctors report arrivals in hospital with minimal symptoms driven by anxiety.

 

A health-care worker wearing PPE transports a patient in the dialysis unit at the Humber River Hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic in Toronto. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

 

The public is confused, with no clear idea how to respond if they've contracted COVID. Explosive growth has been seen in hospitalizations with the advent of the hugely contagious Omicron variant. Ontario has directed its hospitals to put off non-emergency surgeries, to brace for a potential "tsunami" of infections in coming days and weeks, as daily case numbers explode. Still, January 2022 is not a reflection of March 2020, when no vaccines were available.

Doctors and health-care workers in New York City during the first SARS-CoV-2 wave were trailblazers -- where now hospitalizations soared beyond 10,000 this week for the first time in 20 months. Back in March 2020 lung inflammation was the first wave's major issue when people were suffering respiratory failure. As with earlier waves there are some people who present short of breath, requiring supplemental oxygen, but they're now a distinct minority. 

 

According to new research Omicron infects and homes itself in the bronchi, not as deep in the lungs as per Delta. That difference appears to explain its spreadability and less severe outcome.

Bit as with previous strains, it is the unvaccinated that appear to make up a disproportionate number of the sickest patients with COVID. Severe cases of Omicron are little different than those seen in the Delta infection heights and the first wave. The difference now is vaccination status, immune status and age grouping. Again, as with all strains of COVID, it is the elderly who are the most vulnerable, alongside the immuno-compromised. 

Among patients presenting in hospital emergencies and hospitalized most are there because of COVID, and a lesser but comparable number are hospitalized as an incidental diagnosis; admitted for example for a broken leg or appendicitis or to deliver a baby and they happen to have COVID, explained Dr.Jacobs."Of those in the ICU their numbers are "Much much lower than we've had with previous waves".

Because COVID is the universal threat, people search for clear guidance "And it's very hard for them to know and access reliable information. They want treatment, they don't know what's available for treatment and there is very little public guidance around this", stated Dr.Andrew Morris, professor of medicine at University of Toronto, an infectious diseases specialist at Sinai Health System in Toronto.

A drive-thru testing site in Baldwin Park, Calif., on Monday. The Omicron variant became dominant in the United States last week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Credit...Bing Guan/Reuters

New York's Borrowed Military Hospital Ship

"Our nation has heard our plea for help here in New York City."
"There could not be a better example of all of America pulling for New York City than the arrival of the USNS Comfort."
"We needed this boost. We needed this hope, this beacon of hope. [To see the ship entering city waters and] coming here to save the lives of New Yorkers in our hour of need."
"It's a wartime atmosphere and we all have to pull together."
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio

Seth Harrison, The Journal News    Navy hospital ship USNS Comfort sails past the Statue of Liberty, entering New York Harbour on Monday.

Monday saw a large continent of New Yorkers head out to New York Harbour, against all cautions urged by their mayor, local government and health authorities, to witness first-hand a historical event; the arrival of an immense floating hospital to give hope and a large helping hand to a metropolis whose medical community has been put to an arduous test of determination and professional over-capacity struggling to cope with an emergency brought on by the emergence of a pathogen that has visited and devastated many countries of the world, with no evident signs of slowing down.

The gleaming white ship arrived with the intention of giving respite to an over-extended hospital system with insufficient ICU units to handle the breathtakingly onerous and too-deadly zoonotic that first made its appearance in Wuhan, China, resulting from Chinese traditional cuisine using live wild animals for special dinnertable dishes and pharmaceuticals. Animals that host viruses that managed to make the leap from species such as bats, civet cats and pangolins to find homes in human bodies where they replicate unceasingly as unbelievably infectious agents.

The USNS Comfort, sailing up the Hudson River to dock at a midtown Manhattan pier, spells both relief for the New York medical community and hope for the city's eight-and-a-half million population. The thousand-bed hospital is scheduled to begin treating non-coronavirus patients, as well as those requiring surgery and critical care, according to the navy. The novel coronavirus that has devastated the city with respiratory illness will now have the full focus of its medical community, with the USNS Comfort assuming care for all other patients.

Almost half of the country's more than 144,000 coronavirus illness and over a third of 2,500 deaths in the U.S. are accounted for in New York City. In a revolving cycle of incidents of the COVID-19 virus, the epicentre went from China to Italy and Spain, and now the United States. The dubious distinction of being the country with the most cases in the world now falls to the U.S. Construction of a 68-bed field hospital in Central Park has been initiated with plans to commence its use almost immediately.

"If we do things together well -- almost perfectly -- we could get in the range of 100,000 to 200,000 fatalities", stated Dr.Deborah Birx, coordinating the White House coronavirus task force, in a 'best case' scenario that is in and of itself mind-boggling in scope. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had projected that 200,000 to 1.7 million people could die, and between 160 million and 214 million could be infected, according to a report in The New York Times.

Kathy Willens, AP   New Yorkers peer through a fence at Pier 90 as navy hospital ship USNS enter New York Harbour