Stay at home order April 8, 2021
The province and some public health units have announced a stay at home order for 4 weeks. The GTA is the most populated region in the province, and makes sense that test numbers are up, and disease numbers are up. Shelter in place applies to everyone including ESSENTIAL workers outside of regular work hours. We will attempt to deal with your urgent problems in a remote fashion. We hope to resume regular services in a few weeks and after our immunizations are complete. Please keep the essence of this order in mind when you make a request.
It would be useful to recognize some of the costs that these measures bear on our health as a whole. Wether it is the pandemic or measures to control covid there are no winners in this difficult situation. We have seen suicides, overdoses, heart attacks, psychiatric illness, obesity, diabetes, addictions and other conditions increase significantly.
All deaths are sad and many are tragic. Perspective in really required. In Ontario, the death rate has hovered with a slow increase over the years.
On average about 2300 persons die in Ontario each and every week. About 900 are from cancer, heart disease and stroke. About another 900 are from “other” causes which include suicide, accidents, overdoses, etc. Lower respiratory diseases account for about 150, and the average numbers dying from Covid or dying with a positive covid test varies from 60-100, the majority over age 60. If we need to dwell on death numbers, than please also remember all those that are dying from all causes and the families they leave behind.
Of interest, I was surprised that I could not find a single case of a child or infant dying of covid in Ontario since the pandemic onset. I hope this provides some assurance. It certainly should provide us plenty of time to reflect and review the science before requiring any sort of mandatory vaccination in that group.
Another point of good news, is that we have learned more effective treatment algorithms with better outcomes in those few who progress to covid disease.
We still seem to be resistant to discuss solutions out of the box, and rely on cut and pasting policies from other parts of the world.
We have become more obese as a society, more prone to turning to alcohol and drugs, enduring financial hardships and suffering from anxiety, depression and other illness. We have family units that have become estranged and numerous potential bonds broken and vital support networks lost. Reach out remotely to someone. It does not seem that things will ever be same as they were, but a new balance of some sort will most likely emerg.