In Manitoba Today recently, we have learned the hard way what it means for a health care system to be overwhelmed. Our Premier and Chief Medical Officer of health have been warning about it. Now we know.

Manitoba, a small province, recently had 8 deaths from Covid-19 one day. 28 Covid-19 patients from Intensive Care Units in Manitoba have been transferred out of Manitoba for health care, because our health care system can’t care for all Manitoban’s needing health care. 1 Covid-19 patient died while being transferred to Ontario.

The Winnipeg Free Press reported about a young woman who had lump detected on her lung in March, but she has not been able to arrange for surgery because the medical staff and facilities are too busy to handle her case. My wife Christiane has a brain aneurism which was detected in January and it is urgent that she get surgery because it could burst at any time, but  so far she has not been able to arrange a date for surgery.  As the Winnipeg Free Press said, “thousands of Manitobans are waiting on procedures for conditions that aren’t currently life-threatening, but are significantly affecting quality of life.”

A cardiac surgeon recently said a cardiac patient died waiting for surgery that was delayed on account of Covid-19 issues. He said 5 other patients died under similar conditions.

According to Dylan Robertson of the Winnipeg Free Press, “In the first wave, Manitoba delayed at least 5,300 surgeries, though some estimates have the figure closer to 12,000.” Manitoba has already been postponing elective surgeries for quite some time. As Robertson added,

“Doctors across Canada have warned that delaying care is causing mental health issues, putting people on painkillers that could breed addiction and risking children outgrowing the period for surgeries needed to prevent life- long problems.”

Imagine the horror you would feel if you brought a loved one to the hospital and saw her or him flown out of province for care.

Think about the pain and suffering of people who don’t die or perhaps are not even in the hospital yet suffer from the effects of Covid-19. I know people in that situation.

Yes, I think we have learned what an overwhelmed health care system looks like.

In my next post I will explain how different churches are dealing with it.

Winkler, the Manitoba city with one of the lowest rates of vaccine uptake, in part because of defiance, now has the highest rate of Covid-19. Is this justice or just the natural result of the defiance of science? Active cases of Covid-19 in Winnipeg and Manitoba have bumped up considerably after a few weeks of low numbers . Manitoba has become the hot spot for Covid-19 in North America. Malak Abas in the Winnipeg Free Press pointed out how Winkler recently had an anti-vaccine rally. Was this the superspreader event? Or has God abandoned his fans? Someone once said the worst thing about Jesus was his followers. He might have a point.

Winkler and its surrounding area is well known for it religious zeal among conservative Christians in particular. Sort of like Steinbach. These two towns compete vigorously for the crown. Winkler does not like to be called part of the Bible Belt. Nor Steinbach.  Why is that? Should they not be proud of the label? Mayor Martin Harder of Winkler says that some of his people see wearing a mask as a sign of submission? Submission to what? Science?

India has been in the news a lot lately about its horrific problems dealing with Covid-19. This is what Sumit Ganguly said about it in the Winnipeg Free Press:

“India’s coronavirus crisis is stunning to behold. In northern India, bodies are being cremated in public parks because crematoriums have exceeded their capacity. Elsewhere, officials have suggested that families bury in their backyards relatives who succumbed to COVID-19. Despite being the world’s largest producer of vaccines, India has fully vaccinated less than two per cent of its 1.3 billion people.”

Shortages of the antiviral drug remdesivir have people begging friends and relatives on social media to locate supplies. Family members drive each other to multiple hospitals in the hope of finding a bed. Recently, 22 COVID-19 patients in a hospital died when its oxygen-generating facility sprang a leak. The daily rate of infections has reached more than 300,000, and epidemiologists believe the country will peak around mid-May with more than 5,000 daily deaths.

For a while India managed to hold the effects of the pandemic in check despite the fact that it has serious health infrastructure problems that are well known. Harsh lockdown measures worked very well.  Then, with rash over confidence,

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government abandoned its caution and, in a series of stunningly reckless decisions, invited the second wave that is now crushing the country. This colossal failure of policy-making has many forebears: general callousness, crass electoral considerations and sheer ineptitude. For a government that first assumed office in 2014 with a promise of sound technocratic governance and an end to political paralysis, the second surge represents an astonishing abdication.”

After seeming to put the virus in its place, Modi charged into a full political campaign attending rallies without a chance of social distancing and in situations where few of his faithful followers wore masks. Does that sound anything like what happened to our neighbour south of us during its recent elections?

The Prime Minister also allowed a massive Hindu religious festival to be held that usually attracts more than a million pilgrims. It can last for 3 months. It was easy to see why he did that. He wanted deep Hindu support in the election. Obviously, it did not take much for this to turn into a super spreader event.

There was another stunning series of events around the vaccines produced in India. India is one of the largest vaccine producers in the world, if not the largest.  It also has valuable experience with vaccination drives. Yet India went on another campaign of vaccine diplomacy in which it offered vaccines to its neighbouring countries and countries in Africa. That may have been laudable, but it prepared Modi’s own country for disaster. India began to run out of vaccines.

The results as Ganguly reported were pretty ugly:

“Now that public parks are becoming temporary crematoria, patients are lying on the sidewalks outside hospitals, and ambulances (when available) lack oxygen, Modi’s associates have resorted to more drastic, albeit familiar, tactics: they argue that the government’s critics are merely seeking to sow nationwide discord. Delhi is now pressuring social media outlets such as Facebook and Instagram to take down posts that are critical of its handling of the crisis.”

I won’t criticize Modi for his generosity to other countries, but I do criticize him for his over confidence and desire to gain international approbation at the risk of the lives of his citizens. Unsurprisingly Modi is running into a lot of criticism from his countrymen.

In Canada we are proud of our country. Many of us think it is the best place in the world to live. This view is being challenged however in one of our richest provinces—Alberta. Why is that?

Recently Alberta has been swamped by new Covid-19 cases. The numbers don’t sound as high as Alberta, but that is because India has a much larger population. If you closely the comparative numbers they are interesting.  The Winnipeg Free Press reported this way:

“According to Health Canada, that brings Alberta to 289 active cases per 100,000 people this week, which is the highest in the country. The next worst off is Ontario. Alberta’s rate is 70 per cent higher.

It’s a third wave unrivalled in Canada, and propelled by what experts argue is a miasma of lacklustre policy, political unwillingness to alienate the province’s libertarian fringes, and dependency on a flagging oil industry that was struggling even before the pandemic”.

 

According to Cornell University, “on Wednesday the prairie province saw a higher one-day increase in cases relative to population than anywhere in the United States, save Michigan, a state currently battling a major surge.” As if it is not bad enough being worse than 49 of the American states, it seems Alberta is even worse than India!

“On Thursday, Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi pointed out the rate in his city — 500 per 100,000 people — is higher than that in India, where a fresh wave has largely overwhelmed the health-care system and depleted hospitals of critical supplies, such as oxygen.”

The Premier of Alberta, Jason Kenney seems reluctant to offend his right-wing base. As a result, retail, churches and patio dining remain open I Alberta, with some capacity restrictions, as Alberta resists the sort of harsher lockdowns being imposed in Ontario with lower per capita rates of Covid-19. This may sound familiar to Manitobans.

Alberta, like Manitoba, has had to faced litigation from churches and other parties similarly demanding lifting not increasing restrictions. Both provinces have Conservative leaders who appear reluctant to challenge churches while those churches in turn think the rules are too strict. It is not easy being a Conservative Premier in Canada during a pandemic. Can Manitoba be far behind?

Recently the mayor of Morden, Brandon Burley, was barbecuing burgers for himself and his son in his back yard, when a number of cars all blasting their horns, pulled up onto his driveway outside his family home. The drivers were upset. Very upset. They hurled insults and even threats at the Mayor.

What upset them? Covid restrictions and the Mayor’s support of those restrictions that had been imposed not by him but by the provincial government.

As Malak Abas of the Winnipeg Free Press reported,

“It was the final straw for the 39-year-old father of four who, for months had watched the crusade create a divide in the city he represents. He said, he “saw red” and lashed out at the group, something he is not proud of. But he’d had enough.

 

The deniers had a tough time convincing the Mayor that Covid-19 is not real. In part this was because Mayor Burley had contracted Covid-19 and knew whereof he spoke. He knew first-hand that Covid-19 is real. Last November he tested positive for the virus. Today, he is still dealing with its ‘miserable’ effects. It took over a month before he was able to climb a flight of stairs without having to stop to catch his breath. He still can’t run a block without getting winded, and much of the food he once enjoyed now has a sulphuric odour and taste.”

Morden and Winkler, twin cities of the Bible Belt of southern Manitoba,  have now taken over from Steinbach as the hotbed of “freedom rallies.” Some of the events there have attracted more than 100 supporters. As Abas reported,

Demonstrators with signs reading, ‘Away with Masks,’ and ‘Stop the lockdown’ have become common sights in the region. The demonstrators oppose pandemic-related restrictions and lockdowns, arguing they are more harmful than Covid-19. Some deny the virus exists. Others assert restrictions are violation of their freedom and human rights.

Mayor Burley believes a rise in Trumpism as a political ideology in southern Manitoba, and a fundamental misunderstanding of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms are behind the protests.

What interests me, is that there is growing evidence that in Canada, as well as the United States there seems to be a merging  of the forces of white supremacy, right wing ideology, anti-vaxxer doctrines, and Trumpism. These forces seem to be growing in strength and militancy. They seem to have a holy cause—freedom from government interference with their liberty to do as they please, no matter who is harmed in the process. To me it seems that this is there commonality.

As Abas reported, “Anti-lockdown protests have become a threatening presence, he said, noting public spaces, including big-box stores have become battlegrounds between weary employees and anti-lockdown protesters.”

Martin Harder, the Mayor of the other twin city, Winkler, said he has been trying to get to a middle ground with these opposing groups since the pandemic began. As Abas reported, “My focus, is how in the world do we live with each other when this is over?  Martin Harder said. “It’s tearing families apart, it’s tearing businesses apart, it’s tearing communities apart.”

Randy Smart, Senior Pastor of Bergthaler Mennonite Church in the region, which has been following government restrictions, though not entirely with enthusiasm, says,

“He believes Covid-19 skepticism exists in the community, in part, because people who settled in Winkler faced unjust governments in other parts of the world. ‘I think one element that is probably unspoken, not in Bethel, but in the community is this lack of trust in government,’ he said, describing Winkler residents as ‘hard-working and generous.’  ‘So people who’ve had exposure and awareness of government tyranny in other places, they’ll come here and they say, ‘Oh, no…now the government is going to tell us when the church can open and when the church can’t open.’ “

I think Pastor Smart makes a good point. Distrust of government and an automatic suggestion that if the government wants us to do something it must be bad, are creating havoc with attempts by the government to impose health restrictions “for the good of Manitobans.” We have experienced decades of distrust in government here in Canada just as they have in the United States. They are a much more violent country then we are, so it is understandable if our levels of violence here have not been as great. But the ill-will towards government is strong here too. That is very unfortunate, particularly in a time of pandemic when trust in government is needed to achieve public goals.

I come from a very religious community. At least a lot of people profess to be religious. Vaccine hesitancy has been occurring in a number of communities and some of them are also purportedly very religious. I might even say many of them.

I really cannot understand what religion has to do with vaccines.  Just like I cannot understand why it is a political issue either.  In my view, we should decide whether to take vaccines based on the best science available, even though that science is imperfect. I think it is the best tool we have when making such decisions.

Recently, a woman near Winkler, another religious community told CBC news, why she was not going to take the vaccine. The woman replied, “I trust in God. I trust he’ll get us through this.”  I wonder if she takes the same attitude when she drives a car. If she needs spectacles to drive safely, would she leave them at home when she drives because she trusts in God? Does she lock her door when she leaves the house or does she trust God to keep the burglars away? Does it show a lack of trust to lock the door?

What does God have to do with it? I would say nothing.