Trudeau Is Right About One Thing – “This Sucks!”

A Brief Commentary by Niagara At Large reporter and publisher Doug Draper

Posted December 17^th, 2021 on Niagara At Large

With the new Omicron variant of COVID-19 spreading like lightning across Canada and the United States, Canada’s Prime Minister advised during a news conference this December 15^th that “now is not the time to travel.”

“I understand that sucks,” continued Justin Trudeau before urging us to be especially careful during this holiday season.

Indeed, after a few weeks of hope earlier this fall, with daily COVID-19 case counts down and restrictions being eased for crossing the Canada-U.S. border, we now seem to be heading into the perfect storm.

Barely a month after first hearing about something called Omicron – a reportedly new, more highly infectious variant of the COVID virus that many be strong enough to punch through two doses of vaccine – Ontario’s daily case count as jumped from more than 2,400 this December 15^th to 3,124 the following day, and growing. And that’s before Christmas and New Year’s Day which could be super spreaders.

Meanwhile, Canada and especially the United States continue to play host to a critical mass of people who, for whatever reason – refuse to get vaccinated, making them easy targets for a virus looking for hosts it needs to survive and to mutate even more.

It is becoming ever more disheartening for those of us who have taken the vaccines and practices the mask-wearing and all of the other measures infectious disease experts and health professionals have recommended for the protection of all.

When this pandemic first dug in in our region of the world in early 2020, there seemed to be so much community spirit out there with people honking horns and putting signs on their lawns, praising front-line workers. But so much of that mojo seems to be gone as we even learn about incidence of health workers, patients and parents with children being harassed by anti-vaxxers in front of hospitals and vaccination clinics.

How much more of this can we put up with? People are cracking up as the great divide continues between those who will wear the masks and take the vaccine and those who won’t.

I have never felt more despair over where we are going and I am sure I feel it in many others in our communities.

Going on almost two years into this COVID-19 nightmare, I fear we are in for even darker times.

You have never been more right Mr. Prime Minister. This sucks.

• Doug Draper, Niagara At Large

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