Grasping to Understand The Reasoning Behind How Alberta Is Handling Covid

I have to admit that I find it incredibly difficult to even begin to understand how, in this day and age, Covid has become what it has.

I honestly believe that good old common sense could have very well prevented a global pandemic. So many things could and should have been done differently to stop this virus in its tracks.

Pre-pandemic, during cold and flu season, or when any bug was floating around, it made sense to stay home if you were sick. It also made sense to maintain proper hygiene. Socializing with people who are ill, is just asking for trouble.

Individuals can do so much in stopping the spread of viral infections. From day one we could have been practicing self-isolation and taking extra hygiene measures to kill the virus not only on our bodies but on touch surfaces as well.

We should have been focussing on self-care. We could have beefed up our diets with extra immune-boosting foods. We should have looked at our underlying health issues and done whatever we could to ensure that our bodies were in peak health. If we weren’t already active, we should have started exercising.

In our province, there had been major shortfalls in our health care system for years before Covid came along.

Wait times for what are (but probably shouldn’t be) considered elective or non-urgent surgeries were already ridiculously long.

Smaller communities were struggling to attract doctors.

Our provincial government was cutting the wages of doctors and nurses already claiming the economy was under pressure. They were busy cutting services and closing beds, leaving the system struggling to provide quality care long before we came into a state of emergency.

Government officials conveniently don’t mention any of that when they give their reports or make announcements regarding restrictions. It’s so much easier to blame the pandemic rather than accept some responsibility for the strain on our healthcare system.

Then there’s the lack of honesty and transparency, as well as a multitude of broken promises and ridiculous guidelines that make no sense.

At the very beginning of the pandemic, on Saturday, March 13th, our Minister of Public Health publicly declared that they would not consider closing schools, except as a very last resort. The very next evening schools province-wide were closed.

They waited until 6:00 pm on a Sunday evening to make the announcement. They left families clamoring to figure out childcare so they could go to work the next morning.

They claimed it would just be a couple of weeks, an extended Spring Break, but it dragged on until fall. Many parents ended up losing their jobs because there was no one to care for the children.

As much as people complained when restrictions were put into place, those restrictions did help ‘flatten the curve’. Unfortunately, over and over again, they lifted the restrictions before the virus was eradicated. They then cried foul, blaming anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers, when case counts started to climb yet again. It was far too easy to foresee what the outcome of ‘Open for Summer’ would be unless you are naive or a politician.

I was somewhat surprised when they decided that contact tracing and close contact isolation were no longer needed. Now they are cutting the mandatory quarantine times from 10 days down to 5.

They’ve even changed their testing procedures. They’ve restricted PCR testing, encouraging people with symptoms to use rapid tests at home and requesting that positive results be reported, but it isn’t mandatory.

They are claiming that wastewater testing will give them a clearer picture of the viral spread and will allow them to get ahead of outbreaks. How is this method of testing going to determine who exactly is carrying the virus or has been exposed? I can’t see it providing the detailed results needed in what they want us to consider a state of emergency.

This could have quickly and easily been eradicated in March of 2020. Non-essential international travel should not have been allowed. There have to be records of people that had traveled prior to us becoming aware of the virus. They and all of their contacts should have been quarantined and tested.

Had they nipped this thing in the bud before it had a chance to spread across the country, it would have eventually run its course. A handful of people may have gotten sick. We might have still needed to keep borders closed or at the very least require quarantine and testing for those needing or choosing to travel, but there are 30 456 people in Canada that very likely would not have died.

There’s no way I can wrap my head around how they can justify the so-called measures they are taking to stop this virus. The more I look at it, the harder it is to find any rhyme or reason to what they are or more precisely, are not doing to eradicate Covid.

This story was originally published on Medium. Since the time of original publication, Covid cases here are higher than they have ever seen, even with their lack of appropriate testing. Only frontline workers, those in continuing care settings, or those with severe symptoms are being tested with PCR tests. Rapid test kits have been unavailable for some time now.