It appears the nightmare scenario we were hoping to avoid is here.
Children in Inuvik are now at-risk of getting sick, after the results from two years of diligence from the community vanished overnight.
Much anger has been volleyed towards the GNWT on how they’ve handled communication with the Delta in the last two weeks. Much of it is warranted, though I feel Premier Caroline Cochrane should be commended for her courage to admit, without a second of hesitation, that she was not aware of the Inuvik Warming and Homeless Shelters closing and changing course to rectify that when I asked her about it during an Oct. 14 press conference.
Admitting you made an error, especially in the face of intense public pressure, is a trait sorely lacking in most of our political leaders and I think Cochrane deserves credit for acting as the premier and not in her own self interests.
Communication breakdowns and high profile inquiries aside, the GNWT has done pretty much everything it could to keep Covid-19 out. It’s easy to blame this on the GNWT’s bewildering bureaucracy, but in reality we wouldn’t be here right now if not for religious congregations, ill-advised rodeos and Stampedes insisting on going forward in Alberta, widespread anti-vaccination movements across the country and federal political candidates building their election campaigns around anti-vaxxer rhetoric. If the rest of Canada had contained the virus, it wouldn’t be here today. We still don’t know how it got here.
One thing I think we’re all sick of hearing is being reminded to wash our hands and get vaccinated. It’s probably a safe assumption just about everyone who could be convinced to get vaccinated because it’s in their own self interests to be immunized and it’s the fastest way back to normalcy has already done so.
Perhaps the biggest casualty of the Covid-19 pandemic is our illusion enough people will do the right, sensible thing when presented with evidence. Obviously we all are guilty of wishful thinking, and the lessons we’ve learned about ourselves in this pandemic should inform future decisions on other existential crises facing our species, such as climate change and poverty.
In the interim, the GNWT is going in the right direction pulling back to Phase 2 and implementing the Proof of Vaccination program. Hopefully it will have the same results as we’ve seen in other parts of Canada, resulting in a spike of vaccinations.
Of course, we can expect the anti-vax groups to insist our attempts to work around them is a violation of their rights. Ironically, by pushing so hard against the things that minimize community spread, the anti-vax movement is making a strong case for the authoritarianism they’re so deeply afraid of.
With so many potential vectors, the pandemic continues to find ways to worm around any defenses we put up — putting our businesses, careers, children and families at risk. Eventually, governments are going to be stuck having to crack down because nothing else has worked, or continue to punish people who have followed public health guidelines from the start so anti-vaxxers aren’t inconvenienced.
This level of patience is not sustainable. Anti-vaxxers need to stop this madness and get their shots or governments will eventually have to get tough.