Thoughts of the day.

When you get the opportunity to get a COVID vaccine and you’re medically able, please do.

Vaccines are an incredibly effective weapon against disease. Here’s a fun chart for your viewing.

Graph illustrating the effectiveness of three vaccines in the US; red dot indicates start of vaccination – From Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.

Notice how when vaccines for each of these three diseases officially started being implemented into the United States, society stopped being plagued by them.

Not only are vaccines extremely useful for preventing sickness, or lessening the severity of sickness, but they’re also effective at slowing spread of disease. If enough vaccines are administered… well, I know I said it before but there’s a reason why no one in the western world has been subject to the polio vaccine in the past 30 years.

Also, to anyone who’s claiming certain vaccines are dangerous because it has a risk of blood clots, every single woman on earth can attest that birth control has a much higher risk of blood clots than what’s been reported for those who take the vaccine. I don’t think I’ve ever seen mass hysteria against women taking birth control for fear they might get a blood clot. I’ve seen people say ‘Don’t take birth control because babies are precious gifts’ but I’ve never seen someone create a widespread protest of birth control because of blood clots. Why’s that? Because modern medicine and science are good things.

Also, NSAIDS can cause blood clots. Those are Aspirin, Naproxen, Ibuprofen… most of what you can find on the shelf at your local drug store. Antidepressants can also cause blood clots.

Have a little faith in science, modern medicine, history and what vaccines have done for society, and in health care workers. If you don’t, there are A LOT of medications and treatments that you really ought to stop taking, benefiting from the science of.

Life Lessons from Me

It is not appropriate, acceptable, okay, or EVER warranted to tell a woman she’s beautiful in a professional setting. It’s not now, it never was and it won’t ever be. That’s not a compliment.

Women do not go to work to be eye candy. They don’t want comments about their appearance made in the workplace.

Women work long and hard to reach the levels they reach in their professional careers. When a man is willing to interrupt a meeting to refer to a woman as beautiful, what he’s doing in that moment is telling her that no matter her education, no matter her work experience, no matter her skills, her intelligence, her professionalism and her ability to change the very face of the company, workforce and world, he will never see her as an equal. He won’t ever see her as anything more than a shell.

A woman’s appearance has not a single fucking thing to do with how well she can do her job.

Just don’t do it. Just don’t comment on a woman’s appearance in the workplace. Please don’t. EVER.

Stupid people in public office part 2

A senior public servant at the Public Health Agency of Canada accepted an all-expenses-paid holiday to Jamaica courtesy of Air Canada Vacations in November, even as her agency has been advising Canadians since March to avoid non-essential travel to combat the spread of COVID-19.
Dominique Baker, the acting manager at PHAC’s Office of Border and Travel Health, flew with a friend to the upscale, all-inclusive Royalton Blue Waters resort in Montego Bay in mid-November.
Courtesy of The Gobe and Mail

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?

I cannot even begin to explain the frustrations I have with the behaviour displayed by Canadians working in public office, believing they’re above the guidelines their very fucking offices are implementing.

This is… this is… this is nuts.

In her ‘off time’ from her day job, Dominique Baker is a social-media ‘lifestyle influencer’. I hate that term. The very people we elevate as a society to hold influence over people are the people who seem to make the worst decisions, have zero morality, common sense or decency and… believe there’s a standard for us normal folk and a different standard for themselves.

How does she still have a job?

How is it not a conflict of interest that, in her ‘off time’ she’s accepting all-inclusive, paid for vacations from one of Canada’s largest corporations in the middle of a global pandemic? She literally works in the office that manages the federal regulations that have been handed down to Canadian with respect to international travel for the past ten months.

How is Air Canada paying for her holiday not being treated as a secret lobbying effort? They paid for her to take an international vacation just as Canada entered the worst month of COVID of 2019, knowing full well what office she worked in and what position she held within the office that manages the federal regulations on international travel.

And again, HOW DOES SHE STILL HAVE A JOB? She’s working for the government. She’s making three, if not four, times the salary of the average Canadian, she exhibits this behaviour and it’s totally okay?

Now, and only now, that this is public knowledge, she posted a short video to her Instagram today, exclaiming that this was a safe trip, but it was the wrong time to go. Comments are limited to come from only people that she follows, so of course it’s all of her friends kissing her ass and telling her they love her for owning up to her mistakes. From what I can see, her video is the farthest thing from owning up to her mistakes.

Also, she said “If you’ve been thinking about getting away, I urge you to stay home until it’s safe.” That’s rich coming from someone who’s already back from her trip, only encouraging practicing safety now that she’s made national news, and just fifteen seconds prior assured us that her trip was completely safe.

Meanwhile I’m hear in Calgary, haven’t seen a soul outside of video chat. It’s worth noting that since November when numbers started rising here in Calgary (and all over Canada), more than 3,000 surgeries and treatments deemed non-essential have been postponed due to the COVID pandemic. In her home province they’ve been averaging 1,500 – 2,000 cases per day and I cannot even begin to fathom how many people have had their treatments and surgeries delayed because of it. Field hospitals are being built in parking lots across this country because our health care system is overrun, past capacity and cannot be sustained with current facilities.

But it’s okay, because she was super-super safe, and there was noooooooo conflict of interest whatsoever in her accepting an all-inclusive paid vacation to Jamaica as Canada was tightening travel restrictions and quarantine time?

I HATE PEOPLE.

A headache and a half

On December 22nd I went to my mailbox expecting to find a Christmas card from my brother with pictures of my nephew inside. Instead of a Christmas Card with photos of my nephew, I found a bill. A bill that I didn’t want, wasn’t expecting and should’ve never gotten.

In August of 2019 I had some medical appointments in a province that I was not living in. The way that Universal Health Care works in this country is that, you can go to the doctor in any province and that bill from said doctor will be sent back to your home province for your home province to pay. The province never sent the bill back to my home province at the time. They just… held onto it?

Apparently they found out where I am and how to get a-hold of me now so they’ve sent me the bill, plus a year and a half worth of interest for this bill not being paid, to the tune of several thousand dollars.

Yeah. I cried. I definitely cried.

I haven’t thought about these appointments since August 2019. Opening up a bill three days before Christmas and finding out you’ve been accruing interest on a bill that’s been in your name for a year and half that you never knew existed? It sucks.

This is entirely an issue of the province and not of me. You don’t have to pay to see a doctor in this country if you’re a Canadian citizen. So, now begins the long, drawn out process of trying to get this bill sent back to the province. I was told that the process could take 4-6 months, and warned that because this bill is already a year-and-a-half old that I could get sent to collections if it does take 4-6 months to get resolved.

I’m not stressed about paying this, because I know that I don’t have to. I know it’s not my responsibility and that being caught in the middle of inter-provincial pissing match is not my fault. What I am stressed about is this bill staying in my name for another 4-6 months, possibly being sent to collections while I’m trying to get it resolved.

This is a headache and a half.

Ugh.

‘Measures not restrictions’

Our Premier came out of hiding yesterday for an unprecedented showing of just how much of a fucking moron he is.

To the surprise of no one with a brain, the Premier stood in front of national television cameras (47 minutes late) to gaslight Canada into believing he’s taking adequate measures to control the spread of COVID in our province. Which, I would like to add, is still the province with the most positive, presently active cases in the country. The provinces ranking second and third for most active cases have three times, and double the population of our province, respectively.

Refusing to call them restrictions, because they’re not, the new ‘measures’ he’s ‘putting into place’ are effective Friday. The funny but not so funny story is, they’ve already been mandated at the municipal levels since July. And yet here we are.

Effective Friday both my city and the other major city in this province have a mask mandate for all indoor public spaces. Both my city and the other major city in this province mandated that at the municipal level in July.

Effective Friday social gatherings are no longer allowed… except in restaurants, pubs, bars, movie theatres, casinos, water parks, and the mall. A thinly veiled effort to keep people in public, spending money. You’re not allowed to meet your family at home, but if you want to go out for dinner, have-atter. Oh, and you might as well make a night of it and stop at the waterpark some good clean fun before you go home.

Effective Friday stores are required to operate at 25 percent capacity. Because nothing screams ‘I’m trying to help you keep your lights on’ like ‘I’m going to limit the customers you can see in a day, so just make them buy more when they’re in your store’.

Effective Friday hotels are required to only see guests by appointment only. I’m honestly not sure what planet he’s living on but I’m pretty sure the hotel industry has been operating with reservations since the beginning of time.

Also, to go with the ‘appointment only’ measure… all hair, nail, waxing salons, barbers, etc… are required to operate by appointment only. Because, you know, they haven’t been. Up until now you’ve been able to casually walk into any salon in this city and ask for a four hour colour, cut and perm appointment and they sat you right down to get started.

Churches are no longer allowed to operate at 30 percent capacity, they’re required to operate at 1/3 capacity and there are zero exceptions to this.

Oh and fitness classes are cancelled until further notice. If you want to workout, you cannot go to a class, you’re going to have to go into the gym and share the weight and cardio equipment with every other Tom, Dick and Harry who refuses to wipe down equipment like the gym was meant to be used for.

Perhaps his biggest measure of the announcement, the one he’s most proud of, effective Friday all concert venues and conference centres are closed, indefinitely. Because, you know, concerts and conferences have been going on as though it’s business and normal and that needs to be stopped. Concerts can absolutely not happen any longer.

The economic and mental health impacts of staying at home are far too restrictive for the people of this province to be able to live freely. People need to be able to go out and infect each other if they so please. The premier hopes, though, that with these measures, he’ll slow the earth-shattering depletion of our health care system minute by minute.

Oh, and if you’re someone like me who suffers from anxiety and being in public right now, just stay home, he says. The mental health implications of stay-at-home measures are far more important than the mental health implications of the deadly virus currently running rampant (un)checked throughout the province.

He finished by once again reminding us that if we just all ‘work together’ and do the right thing, the spread of COVID will slow. He’s been spewing that line since September when he had 700 cases. Perhaps he just doesn’t watch the news and isn’t aware of the 15,000 presently positive cases (and climbing by the thousands daily).

It seems like we’re in for a world of further hurt in this province with this moron at the helm. What’s really sad is that the way our law is written in this province, the chief medical officer has absolute power to overwrite his ‘measures’ and actually put restrictions in place to slow the spread. She won’t though.

My biggest takeaway… if you want to see someone who doesn’t live in your home, just go to the casino. Or maybe the mall. Actually, the mall is a really good idea because then you’re inclined to also shop local, right? Right?

Lucky us

Nov 23, 2020 – Empty Aisles all over again

We officially have the highest positive COVID case count in Canada. We also have the second highest percentage of infections per capita in Canada.

We also have a premier that hasn’t made a public appearance since November 9th. I wonder if he really believed the words he was saying when he said that ‘People will do the right thing for everyone’, or if he was just spewing his regular bullshit. I reckon he was just spewing his regular bullshit. Either way he’s been in hiding. Maybe he was getting plastic surgery and needed to recover. Maybe he lacks the necessary leadership skills required to see the general public through a pandemic. Maybe he just doesn’t care that hospitals are at 135% capacity and he has been at home playing animal farm because he gets paid whether or not he shows up for work.

Rumour has it he’ll make a public appearance today. People are saying restrictions are coming. I will believe that when I see it…

In the mean time, people are panic buying already. I went to the grocery store right before it closed last night, thinking if there was any sort of a chance any restrictions did come today, I wanted my Pepsi and a couple of staples before the restrictions were announced and people went crazy. I was met with empty aisles all over the place.

More COVID, le sigh.

The only time I’ve left my house in the past several weeks is to just drive. I don’t get out of my car. I don’t really do anything other than drive… to see sights that aren’t my house, even if it’s just ten minutes.

The truth is, my anxiety is keeping me from doing much of anything these days. One of my guilty pleasures in life is Pepsi (it’s 100% better than Coke so don’t even try to argue with me on that one) and I can’t even get up the nerve to walk into a gas station to get some. I won’t go into the grocery store, and since you have to order $35 dollars worth of stuff on Instacart before they can process your order, I’ve been going without until it’s time to get groceries.

Yeah, I know… no Pepsi. Boo-freaking-who, what a horrible problem.

Honestly, stay at home isn’t awful. And it hasn’t been awful. The problem is the fear.

The government in this province has just decided that if they ask people nicely to stay home then restrictions aren’t necessary. As such, we’re the only province in the country without a mask-mandate. We’re also consistently breaking our COVID positivity rates each day. Tonight on the news they said that there have been more confirmed cases of COVID in the past three days in this province then there were in the first three months after the pandemic was officially declared by the WHO.

I mean… I guess we’re winning at something right? Testing positive?

I’m too anxious to go anywhere. I’m too anxious to do anything.

Every time our Premier opens his mouth I’m reminded of the saying ‘it’s better to have someone think you’re an idiot than to open your mouth and remove all doubt in their mind’. He’s an idiot. He is. He won’t mandate masks, the simplest, easiest fucking thing to do during this pandemic, because he believes it infringes on people’s basic human rights to live freely. While the rest of the country is in various stages of lockdowns and closures to try and slow the spread and not put such a strain on their health care system, he’s advocating for the laying off of 11,000 health care workers and to putting portable buildings in hospital parking lots for overflow. Some hospitals in this province are at 135 percent capacity and his response is ‘They went into health care to help people, so now’s the time for them to step up’.

No. You fucking moron. No.

You wouldn’t tell everyone to set fire to their homes because firefighters go into fire fighting to put out fires.

We’re consistently pushing over 1,000 cases per day, and that’s with the ‘voluntary measures’ they trust the public will follow. They have so many positive cases at the moment that they cannot even contact-trace. They’ve said they’re going to hire 400 people to do contact tracing to get a better hold on where spread is coming. Because, you know, he did promise ‘JOBS, JOBS, JOBS’ when he was running for election. At least he’s holding true to one of his fucking promises.

I can live without manicures and hair cuts. I can live without window shopping. I can live without the gym. I can even live without seeing family at Christmas. But, we’ve reached a 6.9 percent infection rate. Why do we have a play a game of how many people can we infect?

I’m worried people are letting their guards down with all of this news about a vaccine. The truth is, while a vaccine may come in early 2020, it’ll be months and months before regular folk are able to get it. Health care workers will get it first, as they should. Seniors and high-risk professions will get it next. Then politicians. Then, you know the most privileged of society. It could be July or August before the majority of the population is able to get it. Hearing a press release that a vaccine is coming doesn’t mean that we get to let our guards down now.

The bottom line is that I don’t think I’ll be going anywhere soon.

Hopefully in three years when the next election rolls around people will remember how thousands of health care workers, and specifically emergency room doctors, begged and pleaded with the government to put some restrictions in place that would stop people from getting sick and the government turned to the television and said ‘People have a right to live freely and get sick if they so choose’ and ‘That’s why you went into health care so stop complaining’. Okay, I’m paraphrasing on that ‘get sick if they so choose’ part, but it pretty much was a giant kick in the teeth to anyone who’s a health care worker in this province.

If you can’t tell, this stuff makes me really angry.

Doctors are saying they’re nearing a point where they’re going to have to choose which people to save and where to divert their resources because they’re stretch so thin. The government is like ‘Meh. I don’t have it so I don’t care’ and the general public is just like ‘Meh. Let’s go to a party’.

Okay, I’m done ranting now.

If anyone knows how to talk some sense into the human race, please let me know. Also, and this is so dumb, if anyone knows how to get Pepsi without going into a store, without needing the $35 order minimum, please share your wisdom with me.

Okay, one more thing.

I realize my ability to stay home comes from a place of privilege. I realize that a lot of people in this world work jobs that don’t allow them to stay at home. I just also know that we have had large subsidies to help people get through this pandemic in Canada and that the option is there for more, if the government were to decide to enact on it. The federal government offered $2,000 per person per month. The provincial government offered $1,000 on top of that. They imposed rent freezes. They imposed regulations stopped any landlord from being able to evict someone from a rental property during lockdown. The banks postponed mortgage payments and credit card payments for clients. I guess, I just… I think if they really wanted to look out for everyone, if they really wanted to act like the elected leadership they are, they’d do more than tell health care workers they’re complaining and it’s not that bad.

Also, I didn’t start this job I’m at now until the end of May (just a few days before June) so I went through three months of lockdown using these government subsidies to get by. So I’m well aware of what it’s like.

Okay, I’m really done now.

Sorry for all of the complaining.

Rant, rant, rant

A physician was on the news tonight to say that the time to act for a circuit breaker lockdown as a measure to slow the spread of corona virus is now. He went on to say that we cannot expect, nor even hope for, people to do the right thing for the greater good. He said that if the past few months have taught us anything, people aren’t going to do what’s right for everyone, they’re going to live for themselves.

I agree with him.

We’ve had more than 700 cases a day for weeks now, lately earning 900 – 1,100 a day.

It’s clear that people don’t give a rats ass about this pandemic.

Point proven if you watch YouTube. People are using positive tests for COVID as clickbait to get views. One family, known on YouTube as 8 Passengers, celebrated the father getting COVID by having him purposefully infect all of their children. Not only that but they sent their children to school after the father was diagnosed, before they were, forcing an unknown number of children from their kid’s schools into isolation and laughing about having done that in their video.

People are inherently selfish.

They don’t seem to care about anyone but themselves.

Can you imagine being a health care worker right now? Working your ass off every single day to try and keep people alive to hear that people are bragging on YouTube about how many people they exposed themselves too? Watching the government say that restrictions infringe on people’s rights to live freely? More like restrictions infringe on people’s rights to infect others freely.

More than 400 health care workers signed a single letter to our provincial government asking him for some restrictions to slow the spread of the virus. The government’s response was to make last call for alcohol in bars at 11 o clock, make sure places of worship can only operate at 1/3 capacity. Meanwhile, the premier himself happens to be in isolation because he couldn’t even follow his own guidelines and social distance.

But people will do better.

People will do better, right? Right?

Stupid vacuum

The Dyson Vacuum in this house has stopped working. The Dyson Vacuum that belongs to the landlord, I feel the need to add.

I’m sitting here worried that I’ve broken an $800 vacuum.

I’ve read the support center of the Dyson website. I’ve watched at least a dozen YouTube videos of people explaining how to fix it. I’ve taken it apart and put it back together. It’s still not working.

I feel so defeated when it comes to things like this. I just cannot fix it. I don’t know how. Despite trying to tell myself that I can do anything I put my mind to, I really cannot.

I’m aware this is a first world problem. I guess life is good if all I’m worried about is a stupid vacuum.

Well… shit

Yesterday, in this province, we broke the record for positive cases in a single day since the start of the pandemic. Today we broke yesterday’s record.

I would like it stated, for the record, that I am NOT for this ‘well if we all catch it then we’ll be good’ mentality. As someone who lives with an autoimmune condition, I really would prefer to not ‘risk it’ and hope for the best. Maybe that’s just me, though…

Healthy people need to realize that they’re harming everyone if they have a nonchalant attitude about this. Cancer patients are being told they can’t have their treatments because it’s too much of a risk. Surgeries, necessary surgeries are being postponed because it’s not safe. People who need to rely on the health care system are being told that they can’t because selfish people need to throw wedding receptions and retirement parties.

Enough, I say. Enough.