WildPath

Wondering if they will trust the pill treatment by Pfizer once it becomes available. Judging by monoclonal antibody treatment only being available to the unvaccinated, I'm sure they will get first priority once treatment options like the Pfizer pill become available. I think many of them say they won't go to the doctor if they become sick, funny thing is - gasping for each breath kind of changes your commitments.

No "mandatory" vaccinations, but highly reduced privileges for the willingly unvaccinated. Make society as safe as possible for the vulnerable and those who care about other human beings, let the unvaccinated bear the weight of the pandemic for once. Actually make an attempt at enforcement. Triage protocols that place unvaccinated people near the bottom of priority lists for ICU/hospitalization. Ease the burden on healthcare workers so they actually have some quality of life and maybe unfilled positions won't be the norm. Fix the healthcare system rather than seeing the pandemic as an opportunity to prove the public system can't work so privatization looks beneficial. Plan ahead? Use science instead of politics. Be proactive and see what restrictions make sense rather than "wait-and-see" which leads to more suffering and stricter lockdowns. I haven't gone out too much, so I can't confirm, but I've heard vax checks have been somewhat spotty. Friends only asked for self-check when flying, not being checked when going into restaurants and not checking ID with the cards happening frequently. Is this true or do people find they are checked properly most of the time? Omicron-specific vaccines are apparently coming from Pfizer in March. Hopeful for 6 months - 5 year vax coming in July (it was supposed to be March-ish, but turned out ineffective). Take-at-home pill treatments should be getting more available in the near future as well. Unfortunately testing capacity will be very important for treatments as they need to be administered in the first few days of treatment to be effective. People often don't wear masks properly. There's no way it would be possible to enforce anti-vaxxers to wear a mask properly.

Winnipeg Police Service issues declares state of emergency, public and private organizations having difficulties operating because of large amounts of staff catching Covid, other jurisdictions having severe problems and requiring additional restrictions...... But hey, let's take some additional time to monitor it, but don't gather with family for Christmas, bar is okay though... No reason for a presser, continue as normal, nothing to see here.

I would be surprised if this is true. Hospitalization and ICU admissions generally lag spikes in Covid infections. Infections have been spiking for a while and now we are starting to see hospitalizations jump. I believe the stats indicate that Omicron has to be at least 5x less severe to create the same load on the healthcare system as we had before Omicron. WHO said more study needs to be done, but it appears less severe and should not be labelled as mild. I've known a few people with Omicron, all with pretty difficult symptoms, but none requiring hospitalization. I still find it strange how our government is planning for Omicron based on the absolute most optimistic view. There's clearly a delay between infections and hospitalizations, but barely anything done to mitigate increased load on hospitals beyond hoping Omicron is mild and doesn't cause a health care strain. We've abandoned the precautionary principle and people should demand answers from the government if their optimistic views don't come to fruition.

Last I heard they were hoping for a vax for 6 months to five years for this summer. It was supposed to be early 2022, but the trials were showing it wasn't very effective. Sure hope my 9 month old doesn't have to wait 4 years. I believe the FP had a story about a vaccine being tested in Manitoba (as well as other areas) for kids as young as 6 months.

I have heard that some teachers have tried to bring their own air purifiers and such into their classroom and have been told they are not allowed to use them due to possible interference with the school's HVAC system and air currents. Unfortunately there is also likely to be pushback because we seem way behind the research on airborne spread by still emphasizing 6 feet distance as a safe zone for example. I have made something similar for personal use (with only the one filter) to try to protect my baby when we were getting loads of smoke from forest fires and adapted it for use for Covid filtering. Upgrading to the cube design seems like a pretty good idea as the initial upfront expense would pay back due to increased life expectancy of the filters.

I have been teaching remotely- Seesaw, Teams, etc since March of 2020. I would like to think my practice as a remote teacher as well as our whole remote learning program has made huge strides since then. I think a big reason remote learning often fails is because it is suddenly thrust upon teachers with little notice (like we might see today) and with little support. Our program has been developing steadily to the point that we have extra-curricular opportunities and students and families that really appreciate it. Its not the same as in-person learning and there are things that just can't be done the same. Unfortunately our hospitals are beyond capacity and healthcare workers are stressed beyond the limit for a few years running and we didn't make any plans ahead to flatten this "curve" to ease the burden on hospitals.

I think part of it is waiting to see what other places do so we have an excuse for action/inaction. At a time where leadership, foresight and planning are desperately needed, citizens of Manitoba have been left high and dry. We've known a large Covid wave was coming for a long time, but little has been done. We've come up with a dubious and short-sighted plan to try to keep the economy - reducing isolation times when Covid is contracted, but don't have a plan for the 'keeping people alive with a functioning healthcare system' side of things. Priorities...

In my experience, as a teacher in Winnipeg, both have been true - we've had a teacher surplus within the city where it is really difficult to find a job unless you have a connection. This has meant many teachers spend years subbing which pays really poorly in Manitoba. I am one of the few fortunate ones that hasn't had to do subbing and Winnipeg colleagues are frequently surprised with this. Because of the pandemic and many teachers leaving the profession and subs not bothering to take jobs, there has been a severe teacher shortage, even in Winnipeg, at times during the past two years. Specialists frequently cover classes when teachers are sick and admin has even had to sub for teachers. This isn't just inner-city or less desirable jobs within Winnipeg, but even amongst the most desirable schools to work at in the city. I have even been cold-called by a principal desperate to have a teacher take over a term position despite not applying for it. I believe it was kindergarten which I had no experience in. I had no connection to the school/principal. This would have been unheard of before the pandemic. There are likely still some qualified teachers without jobs before, but as Mark says, they may not be up for handling the job. While I was working in the physical school system, there are some subs that are so bad, the neighbouring teachers basically have to watch two classes that day. All schools I've been in have preferred sub lists to try to eliminate the chaos of a sub that isn't up to the task.

Definitely. I left classroom teaching at the outbreak of the pandemic because of a health condition. Winnipeg is having it rough with teacher shortages, but I'd imagine rural is even worse and northern MB is worse still. I'm not connected to the teacher who passed away on Christmas, but it was reported that she was triple vaccinated and otherwise healthy and only had symptoms around December 20th. I think closing school would have an effect, but it wouldn't stop the spread. Not by a long shot. Judging by ages of cases, I believe schools have been the biggest spreader over the past few months. Many kids being asymptomatic, but spreading also shows lower numbers at younger ages, but higher at older ages. I think Omicron and weaker vaccine effectiveness against Omicron will balance the numbers out more, but I'd imagine kids are still big spreaders. Unfortunately Omicron is also affecting them with an increase of hospitalization in kids over 50% in December alone (US numbers). I think its disgusting that more isn't done to close bars/nightclubs/etc. when our testing capacity is maxed out and we don't know how many cases there are. Our hospitals are at the max to the point where non-Covid patients are dying unnecessarily. I also think its time to consider bumping down unvaccinated Covid cases in terms of ICU/hospital priority.

Didn't know if I should put this in Covid or Politics, but I have some problems with the way PC MLA's have been handing out masks. https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/rural-manitoba--liquor-marts-to-offer-masks-575994022.html "They are readily available for sale at many commercial operations, so we don’t really want to compete with them too much," Central Services Minister Reg Helwer said." When I got mine from Audrey Gordon's office they mentioned that it was a gift from Audrey. Apparently Jon Reyes was taking down emails and home addresses when giving out masks along with handing out his business cards with boxes of masks.

I think this is a valid argument. I have had students that lack technology or a supportive household that make remote learning a poor experience for them and I feel there is little I can do. On the other hand, I know of places that kids/families have basically given up on school because of the Covid risk. This is especially prevalent on reserves. I know of one school in particular that gets roughly 15% of the kids they would normally have because they are concerned about Covid in their community. This is before Omicron too. Many schools are going with community members without post-secondary education teaching just to have a body in the classroom. Many reserves on schools close completely whenever there is a single case in the community. Prevalent health issues and lack of proper healthcare when there is an outbreak on a reserve has been devastating multiple times during the pandemic. I'm not sure where to find the data, but I remember there being a pretty strong correlation between remote learning and decrease in cases/severe outcomes when accounting for the lag between exposure/infection/severe outcome. I cannot believe the line "Covid isn't spreading in schools" as Roussin & Co. have said multiple times. There is no part of me that can believe students are only getting Covid outside of school and somehow are immune from spreading it as soon as they walk inside the door. The big thing is, remote learning is inconvenient and harms the economy when parents need to stay at home. Unfortunately, I think this is changing the message given to the public. Cases are being under-reported and the government has even changed the definition of an outbreak to make things look better than they are. I personally know of teachers that have had to argue with health officials regarding close contacts and have been overruled. There was a teacher(triple vaxxed) in WSD that caught Covid at school and died on Christmas day. Not many days after the principal sent the message out to families about the teacher passing, the principal also passed away. I do not know if the principal's death was related to Covid, but it is clear that school staff are at risk as well. I'm not sure what the staffing plan will be when teachers are exposed other than reducing the amount of time they need to isolate.

I've finished reading The Premonition by Michael Lewis. Really interesting stuff for how Covid was mishandled. One of the experts in the book discusses how bad schools are for spreading viruses. I believe he refers to them as living petri dishes. Nowhere else in society are people as close consistently. He read the statistics on how physically close kids are in the classroom, on the bus and in the hallways and did not believe them so he went to his kids' school and brought measuring tape. In the US, twice as many kids ride the bus daily as people taking public transit. He said the most effective containment measure for viruses is closing schools. It should be the first option and for some viruses may be the only requirement. This is all from a medical perspective, not a social perspective. I teach remote learning to a class of medically-advised students. These are kids who are at high risk of death and severe health complications from Covid. These are kids who haven't really been able to see friends for the past two years. The more Covid that is spreading in the community, the more anxiety and risk these kids and families face. The more our medical system is under duress, the more dangerous it is for these kids to go for medical procedures, which they unfortunately have more than the average kid. Many students and teachers hate remote learning. For some kids, its all they have. I think closing schools for a period to give our medical system a chance to deal with what is on its plate right now would be really helpful for a section of society that is at medical risk and can't get vaccinated.

The whole lack of preparation, yet again, is really frustrating. We can't even know the actual numbers because we aren't prepared to test for that many. This is despite saying we would see cases in the 1000s weeks ago. The continual playbook of hope for the best, plan for better than the best.... Despite this, and already having hospital backlogs, the new restrictions are pretty pathetic. This is what giving up looks like on a governmental level.

KN95 masks are being given out at Audrey Gordon's PC office on Fermor. No lines. I happened to be headed to my doctor's office and noticed people getting boxes from there. A few buildings over long lines for liquor mart. I haven't been able to find any information on this or if they are available through other PC party offices. They did mention that it was a gift when they gave me the box of masks at the door.

Definitely the safer thing to do. Any passenger vehicle should be able to stop in less distance than a semi, so the chance of hitting them from behind isn't too high. Unfortunately choosing to follow a semi when going on #6 rather than pass can add quite a lot of time to your trip since it can be several hours before you get to the destination. Safe is better than sorry, but this is also creates a danger when another vehicle comes from behind you and needs to pass you and the semi. Still agree that its better to remain patient, but it is really hard to do sometimes.

I used to work in the northern region. When there's snow on the highway, visibility can be very poor. Lot's of semi-trucks that shoot up snow and make for white-knuckle driving. When stuck behind a semi, you have to make the choice to follow slowly with low visibility for hours on end or cross your fingers and try to pass the semi with zero visibility and just hope nobody is coming the opposite way. I drove a big truck very capable on gravel/snow/ice, but all that didn't matter when you literally couldn't see 30 feet ahead and you're passing a 60+ feet truck + trailer. One of the reasons I decided to move back to the south - I just couldn't take the stress and the risk to keep making the drive in winter.

Might be a good way to lower test positivity % for Southern Health too.

From what I've read on Omicron is that previous Covid infection does little to provide immunity. Pretty much everything I've read on Omicron strongly cautions that nothing is conclusive and further study is required though.

There are reports that a lot of the KN95 masks that are being given away are expired. Why does this not surprise me? For those of you that get free masks, check inside to see the production date. I believe there is information inside the box that says they expire a year from production date. I was fortunate to buy a box of N95's the day before news of Omicron broke. https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/free-kn95-masks-in-many-manitoba-liquor-stores-go-quickly-some-masks-expired/ar-AAS5E2J

Agreed. But it is at least (marginally) better than announcing summer is going to be fantastic and then turning invisible when problems arise. Maybe the key to surviving in politics is setting a ridiculously low bar. We'll know by seeing the results of the next elections in the prairie provinces.

I think Kenney is a horrible premier, but I don't really see too much wrong with the video posted. He sounds like he's actually willing to take it seriously and he understands that decreased severity can still be trumped by increased transmission, especially when it comes to the health care system. Seems like he actually listened to health experts.

This is what has been keeping me as locked down as I have been since the start of the pandemic. Waiting till my 8 month old can get vaxxed. See how it turns out with producing an Omicron-specific vaccine for the little ones. On the plus side, I got my booster today! One of them cares the other one doesn't.

A guy who thoroughly loves the league. I don't think he would feel the need to change to 4 downs or merge with XFL and adopt their rules in order to make the game more exciting. Same thing with Bob Irving, no need for gimmicks to sell the game. Both have a true love for the game.

I played very low level university hockey and that ceremony reminded me of the awards ceremonies we had. Really disappointed in the lighting and the amateur vibe in general. Players/fans/others involved deserved better. Hard to be taken seriously as a league when we can't do better for the best in the league. Here's John Candy trying to sell Argo's tickets at the awards in Winnipeg when CBC used to do them: