Things could look a lot worse in Manitoba than they do. As Tom Brodbeck said in the Winnipeg Free Press:
“Almost 80 percent of Manitobans over the age of 12 are now full vaccinated, most people are wearing masks in indoor public places and proof-of-vaccination is required to access many public places.
Without those measures, we would still be huddled in our homes, cut off from friends and family and wondering how this pandemic would ever end. Potentially, case numbers would be soaring and intensive care units would be overflowing–as they are in provinces such as Alberta and Saskatchewan where vaccine mandates and public health measures were rejected for political reasons until recently.”
These two provinces have been decimated by the 4th wave. Manitoba, which imposed stricter health restrictions has been faring much better (so far!), though in the 3rd wave Manitoba needed help from those same 2 provinces (and Ontario) for its intensive care patients. In contrast to these two provinces, since July 2, 2021 Manitoba’s test positivity rate has fallen by more than half to 2.3% from 5.4%. The number of Covid-19 patients in hospital has dropped to 71 from 163. As well according to Brodbeck, Manitoba has the lowest per capita case of new infections in the country west of Nova Scotia at 58 per 100,000. Yet things are much worse in both Saskatchewan and Alberta. As Brodbeck reported, “By contrast, new infections in Saskatchewan and Alberta (the two provinces with the lowest vaccine uptake in the country) are more than 8 times higher.”
People who deny the effectiveness of the vaccines have to get more and more creative every day to justify their intransigence.
Brodbeck put it this way: “The evidence is indisputable: vaccines not only save lives and reduce severe illness, they are allowing the return to normal living.”
That does not mean the battle is over and we can return to ignoring the pandemic as so many are urging. But it sure does demonstrate that the vaccines can lead us out of the wilderness if only enough of us agreed to take them. Vaccines are even allowing hospitals to permit some of the surgeries and other medical procedures that have been held up. This is is why Chris still has her surgery set for September 29, 2121 (tomorrow) and we are hoping things continue this way. Her life has been on precarious hold since January.
Brodbeck summed up the situation in Manitoba this way:
“…the measures have allowed the vast majority of Manitobans to resume living in safe, largely virus-free environments with friends, family and other members of the public. If that isn’t freedom, I don’t know what is.’
I want even more freedom, but I am very grateful for what we have got now. The way to get more freedom is not by protests in front of hospitals, or elsewhere, but by having more people get vaccinated.