Silence. There is an awkward silence around the question on the total lifting of restrictions now that the world has had enough of COVID-19. The silence could be caused by the muffling of the sound of voices because of the masks we have to wear, or it could be caused by fear of uttering something totally true and valid, but very unpopular and cancel-worthy. I ask this because as Ontario prepares to lift all its restrictions by March 2022, there are crickets in BC. There is nothing that would please me more than to breathe in actual oxygen inside a store, mall, etc without my restrictive mask. I have had enough of breathing back into my lungs the CO2 I just expelled into my mask.
There is certainly a deafening silence from China, which has been silent about their participation in the global catastrophe that is COVID-19, denying that the virus came from the laboratories of Wuhan and has already been accused of hiding crucial early information about the pandemic. While the World Health Organization (WHO) sent teams to investigate the lab-leak and gave China the seal of approval that no such leak occurred, many scientists say that there still needs to be further investigations that need to be done as these findings were not one hundred percent conclusive.
There is silence from the WHO who set this up in the first place. The first and last time I saw Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was when he dropped the bomb on all of us in 2020, and that’s about it. I would hate to be in his place in history – to be the harbinger of bad luck, the messenger of death for many – physically, mentally, financially, globally. The good doctor is not even a medical doctor, the first WHO chief to not be an MD. He has a doctorate in philosophy and a MSc in Immunology of Infectious Diseases, which he used extensively as a minister of health back in Ethiopia. When one comes to the public eye, one undergoes public scrutiny, and what has been unearthed of Dr. Ghebreyesus is not comforting. Yet, he brought this whole thing down on the world, and now we cannot seem to find him anywhere.
There is definite silence from those who have been saying there are no effects to the vaccines, and that a booster shot is now needed, especially when countries like Canada discover that they bought too many vaccines that a lot of people do not want, and so give a third dose – why not? A few months ago, when vaccine passports were made mandatory for entering public places, people with severe allergies were told to get vaccinated by their doctors or allergists due to some possible effects of the vaccine on their medications which may lead to complications – many months after some have already had their vaccinations administered at random vaccination sites. The warning came after some patients had allergic reactions to the vaccines and complained to their doctors. Most recently, reports on COVID 19 causing infertility have also come up, as well as infertility linked to the vaccine itself. While studies are still pending, and longitudinal studies are unavailable due to lack of time, reactions to the vaccines are coming up left and right, and now those who were quick to decry vaccine refusers are no longer talking.
While we were always excited to see Dr. Bonnie Henry on television at the beginning of this pandemic to give us an update, now, we dread seeing her. The daily news always has a counter of COVID cases, deaths, etc. but no recoveries. It’s as if the negative news is more important than the positive ones, and the statistics that we are given is deafening. It’s as if the media purposefully wants us to know how bad it is in numbers, since a lot of folks today cannot count beyond a thousand, and it does this so it can scare people into submission and agreement with everything they report. Gone are the days when people asked questions, demanded the truth, and had healthy conversations with people who had opposite opinions and ideas.
So, when I ask, when the pandemic will be considered over, will anyone answer me, or will there just be more statistics thrown at me despite Canada already reaching its vaccination numbers? Or, will there be another “variant” that will make us restart the whole process? Or, will we have to wear masks forever? Or…