I’ve been thinking a lot lately about a scene from the first “Austin Powers” movie. Maybe you remember it. Mike Myers’ character has just fought his way into a secret facility. He’s commandeered a steamroller and is rolling toward Dr. Evil’s lair. Suddenly we see a wide-eyed security guard scream in horror as the steamroller approaches.
Cut to a wide shot. Turns out the steamroller is still a dozen yards away. And the steamroller is, of course, moving very slowly, as steamrollers do. The guy could easily move out of the way. But he doesn’t. He just watches it come, screaming all the while. Eventually he gets crushed.
Good gag. And, it turns out, a really apt metaphor for the way Premier Doug Ford’s government has acted at a bunch of points during this pandemic. After the first wave, the negative outcomes of COVID-19 in Ontario haven’t snuck up on Ford as much as they’ve slowly approached from a distance while the premier has mostly just stood around and waited.
I worry it’s happening again — that there’s another steamroller on the way.
Here’s what the scenario could look like. Ontario’s public health units have done a bang-up job of getting us vaccinated. But there’s a stubborn percentage that won’t get the shots. With variants circulating and Ontario reopening, it seems plausible this unvaccinated part of the population could give us escalating case counts and — the real red flag to worry about — increasing hospitalization numbers.
If that does happen, a return to general lockdowns would be really hard to take. Those of us who dutifully followed the rules for more than a year and got our shots at the first opportunity will rightly raise hell if this government moves to restrict us again. The obvious thing to do instead would be restrict activities based on vaccination status.
Leave the province largely open for people who have received their vaccines. Limit activities for those who have made the choice to leave themselves more vulnerable to a virus that could overwhelm the hospital system again. And protect those, like young children and people with legitimate diagnosed health conditions, who remain vulnerable to COVID-19 and aren’t able to get vaccinated.
But — whoops — Ontario doesn’t have a good way to do that. And a real solution does not seem to be forthcoming, with Ford ruling it out. The only physical proof I have of my vaccination record is a couple of paper receipts. No app. No card. No passport. Nothing I could quickly scan or tap upon entry to an event or business.
Maybe I’m overly worried, but I don’t think so. Just look at Toronto, where Toronto Public Health reports more than 70 per cent of the total population has at least one dose, and more than 60 per cent have two. But the gap between first and second doses is closing, and the number of Toronto residents receiving a first dose has slowed to a trickle.
Authorizations that would allow kids under 12 to get vaccinated would help goose the number. But realistically it’s hard to imagine Toronto’s vaccination rate across the entire population gets higher than 80 per cent anytime soon.
Reaching 80 per cent would be a solid achievement, but consider what it means in terms of real numbers in a city as dense as Toronto.
It means approximately 597,682 unvaccinated people in our city of almost 3 million. It means if you get into an elevator with five random people, odds are one of them will be unvaccinated. It means at a nightclub with 250 people inside — as is permitted under stage three regulations — around 50 could be unvaccinated. After the Blue Jays make their triumphant return to Toronto this Friday, their crowds of 15,000 could be expected to include 3,000 unvaccinated people.
At maximum capacity and an 80 per cent vaccination rate, a packed TTC bus would have an expected 11 unvaccinated people. A packed subway train would have 216.
Perhaps those kinds of numbers aren’t enough to lead to a scenario where hospitalizations increase as the virus continues to spread. But would you want to bet the economy on it? Doesn’t it make sense to at least be ready and able to implement a system that gives businesses and institutions a way to check vaccine status?
With the city’s whole darn recovery at stake, Mayor John Tory should be making this demand daily. And if Ford really refuses to budge, and if Prime Minister Justin Trudeau isn’t offering a solution either, the city should consider every option to implement something at the local level, working with other GTA municipalities and the tech community. Don’t let intergovernmental squabbles get in the way. Just please do something to make sure there are options beyond a general lockdown.
There’s another damn steamroller slowly coming toward us. Don’t just stand there. Move.
Article From: The Star
Author: By Matt Elliott
