Big drop in Covid patients shows Ontario needs to move faster in opening...

How many times have you seen posts on social media talking about "Covidiots" and saying things like: "Get ready for the second wave"!!! 

I know I've seen lots.  Every time there was a lockdown protest at Queen's Park, or when people gathered at Trinity Bellwood park, and again now with all the BLM protests.  Back seat epidemiologists and self styled experts on infectious diseases have been saying for the past two plus months that all these happenings would lead to a surge in Covid patients overwhelming the health care system.  

But it hasn't happened?  Why not?  

Why are the number of patients being treated for Covid-19 down to just 673 in Ontario, a province of about 14.5 million people?  That's a huge drop from May 25th when I started tracking the numbers.  On that day the Ontario Hopital Association reported 878 patients were being treated.  

I'm not an epidemiologist, nor an expert on infectious diseases either, but I am literate enough to read through all the data and science that's been reported.  And what that science and data says is that the "deadly coronavirus" everyone keeps talking about should more aptly be called the "mostly benign coronavirus".  

Now, I don't wish to be unkind.  For some the cornavirus is absolutely deadly.    For older individuals with underlying health issues like diabetes, cardiovascular and kidney diseases, to name just three, then Covid-19 is anything but benign, it is a major health issue.  We've known this since at least the middle of March when reports first started coming out of Italy.  For a small percentage of the population Covid-19 can attack the body in a number of different ways, and it can kill.  

Many of the younger set knew this back during Reading Weeks and March Break.  That's why they flocked to beaches in sunny destinations and partied like generations before them.  They dubbed the coronavirus the "Boomer Remover".  While that isn't strictly accurate for students of demographics, euphemistically it's pretty much on the mark.  

What the data and the activities we've seen reported is telling me is that people have gotten the message, they know who's at risk.  The large Victoria Day gathering at Trinity Bellwood was overwhelmingly younger people, same with the lockdown protests and now with the BLM movement.  I'm not seeing very many older people out and about.  Which is as it should be.  And those who are putting themselves at risk of getting infected, even though Covid is overwhelmingly benign for them, they must be staying away from the compromised and vulnerable by and large.

Well done.  

It might seem an over the top comparison, but for me it's not that much different from peanut allergies.  To protect those who are vulnerable schools have pretty much completely banned any products with nuts in them, to keep the vulnerable safe.  But we didn't shut down the entire selling of peanuts, those who aren't allergic can still get peanut butter, peanut brittle and any other peanut products, just don't put them in your child's lunch bag.

As a society do we really need for everyone to isolate themselves? 

Do we need to toss millions of people out of work and onto goverment welfare, eliminate life saving support networks, close schools, churches and other activities for everyone?  Why are we heaping so much pain on misery on so many people for a disease that is only serious for a tiny fraction of the entire population?

Can't we rescue people from the agony and despair of job loss and removing so many of society's safety networks while at the same time isolating and protecting those individuals for whom Covid-19 is serious?  I think we can, and at a fraction of the cost we're paying in a futile effort to keep everyone from getting infected.

The kids who went down to Fort Lauderdale and Daytona, to lockdown protests and Trinity Bellwood, and now to BLM demonstrations....they've gotten the message.  Its time for our governments to get it as well.