104. COVID-19 Curious

Today they have suspended the use of the Astrazeneca (AZ) vaccine, out of… you got it, an abundance of caution. When it comes to my life or death, I appreciate that.

An abundance of caution and (by the way) increasing (now apparently not so) ‘rare’ blood clots. Vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia. VITT.

It is curious how Canada finally came to that decision in May, as our system was flooded with Pfizer vaccines. It’s convenient now to suspend AZ. Politically convenient.

Back in March, AZ was suspended by Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Bulgaria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Nethelands, Indonesia, Cyprus, Portugal, Lativa, Slovenia, Sweden, Luxemboug, Thailand….

Oh Canada

103. COVID-19 The new hello

We used to say, How’s it going?

Now we say, Have you been vaccinated?

Then we ask, Which one? (vaccine)

That is the way out of this. One vaccine at a time.

102. COVID-19 Listen carefully

People are hesitant to take the AstraZenica vaccine. They don’t appreciate the possible side effect of severe blood clotting and possible death.

Politicians and some medical officials are frantic, because they need to get us all vaccinated. So they say “Take it. It saves lives. Guaranteed.” What this wording doesn’t say is that this means it may save someone else’s life (as they won’t get COVID19 from you) but it might not save YOUR life.

Listen carefully. They don’t say “Take it. It will save your life. Guaranteed.”

Why not wait for the vaccine that will save everyone’s life? We don’t know. I suspect, because there’s not enough to go around. Because the government doesn’t want to take a contractual hit from AZ. Business and altruism seldom collide.

Some medical officials are now speaking out. If you can wait, wait for the good stuff (Moderna, Pfizer). You know, the one that doesn’t kill anyone.

Yet.

Who knows what we will find out down the road.

We are literally in desperate times!

101. COVID-19 as paced out by The Office

Late March 2020, surfing through TV shows and I spot The Office. Great show! I had been through the series twice already over the years. Probably a good choice to laugh a little during these stressful times, I thought.

I watched a few episodes.

April 2021, no button pops up for "Next Episode". What?? What??? I have watched all 209 episodes. AGAIN? WHAT??

And I wasn't binge watching. I wasn't doing a marathon. I wasn't planning on watching them all. And I have watched loads of other things too. LOADS.

THIS is how long the pandemic has been. 😮

100. COVID-19 An Abundance of Caution

2 years ago, in a pandemic crisis context, if I were to hear health officials saying they are making a change due to an abundance of caution, I would assume they are ahead of the curve, they are over cautious, and they don’t want anyone to die. They’ve got this.

Today we hear the “abundance of caution” refrain every day. In the COVID-19 context, it means, we went ahead, we approved the vaccine, people have died. We are now pausing the vaccine, out of an abundance of caution.

Tell that to the families of the healthy young people who died from the vaccine.

Those are brown(ish) people in the Health Canada advertisement. I know it would be going too far to suggest they want the racialized folks to go first. So I won’t even mention it.