[PinkLucy]

just an idea , but maybe Admins can start a poll
Q: has Covid 19 reduced your working income in 2020 and 2021

Or we could check StatsCan https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/210301/dq210301b-eng.htm and https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/11-631-x/11-631-x2021003-eng.htm (scroll down for economic impact)

 

[slickpete83]

Or we could check StatsCan https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/210301/dq210301b-eng.htm and https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/11-631-x/11-631-x2021003-eng.htm (scroll down for economic impact)

great info
but i was more refering to people on urbantoronto forum to get general feel, as your view on lockdowns might differ if you had your income reduced greatly

 

[zang]

i had both vaccines due to work

but aren't you a little bit worried that if the government can mandate a vaccine now , what prevents Pfizer from lobbying the government in the future to mandate other vaccines we don't really need just to drive up their sales and profits for share holders. Politicians are easy to buy out

and why can't people ask these questions without being called crazy

Don’t think you’re crazy, but why do you think Pfizer and the government are suddenly going to be in cahoots? I have two family members at Pfizer, and another who worked regulatory for Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Janssen Ortho and a half dozen other pharma companies.

The government and drug companies are like oil and water. The government holds the approval keys and controls drug prices, so it’s not viewed as friendly to pharma. The government calls the shots, not Pfizer.

Second, there’s a *lot* of competition in Pharma. One company isn’t going to swoop in and have sole control of a market for very long, were they to somehow get the government to capitulate in the first place. Competition means lower prices.

Third, NACI would make the call for any kind of mandated vaccine, and they’re relatively arms-length and driven by evidence.

 

[zang]

great info
but i was more refering to people on urbantoronto forum to get general feel, as your view on lockdowns might differ if you had your income reduced greatly

Sure. The largest contractor (80%+) of my work was a medical education company that primarily ran in-person medical conferences. After the pandemic hit, the owners tried to expand their less-profitable online conferences, but eventually sold off the company. The next company kept me on for a while, but within three months they were merged with a different company who then decided they would no longer use outside contractors. I’ll note that decision was made only after refusing to pay outstanding invoices for several months, and my threatening to take them to court over breach of contract and non-payment. That was in April of last year.

I haven’t been able to find a client requiring anywhere near that much work since.

So yes, my income dropped dramatically directly because of event restrictions and it hasn’t recovered since.

And yet, I’m still in favour of lockdowns and restrictions when required because I recognize that they exist to save lives.

 

[picard102]

Ease up with the oppressive ideas.

Good new chum, none here.

 

[lenaitch]

i had both vaccines due to work

but aren't you a little bit worried that if the government can mandate a vaccine now , what prevents Pfizer from lobbying the government in the future to mandate other vaccines we don't really need just to drive up their sales and profits for share holders. Politicians are easy to buy out

and why can't people ask these questions without being called crazy

To be clear, "the government" hasn't mandated vaccines - they have mandated vaccination in order to do stuff. The federal government approves new prescription drugs national and regulates certain activities and businesses, but the administration of healthcare is largely at the provincial level.

I'm curious why any government would succumb to lobbying to spend money on something that isn't medically or socially necessary. Vaccines are a public health, not personal or insurance, expense

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

To be clear, "the government" hasn't mandated vaccines - they have mandated vaccination in order to do stuff. The federal government approves new prescription drugs national and regulates certain activities and businesses, but the administration of healthcare is largely at the provincial level.

I'm curious why any government would succumb to lobbying to spend money on something that isn't medically or socially necessary. Vaccines are a public health, not personal or insurance, expense

Second that - in fact, governments had to be raked through the coals and fight tooth and nail to provide catastrophic drug coverage - medications that cost a few neat 100K per pop - and had defaulted to generics for everything else whenever they get the chance.

AoD

 

[tiffer24]

Ontario is reporting 68 new COVID deaths today. 1,104 deaths have been reported for the month of January 2022. Almost all unvaccinated.

 

[gibsonm]

To be clear, "the government" hasn't mandated vaccines - they have mandated vaccination in order to do stuff. The federal government approves new prescription drugs national and regulates certain activities and businesses, but the administration of healthcare is largely at the provincial level.

I'm curious why any government would succumb to lobbying to spend money on something that isn't medically or socially necessary. Vaccines are a public health, not personal or insurance, expense

You’re getting into semantics. Making it very hard to do normal activities and losing employment is coercive by any metric.

I think the feds are trying to maintain a dated narrative because they’ve procured so much PPE and signed so many contracts. They can’t turn around the ship fast enough, so we’ve all had boxes of PPE and rapid antigen test kits dumped on us. The screening and testing leads to isolating asymptomatic positives and their household members, making it hard to staff workplaces. Dysfunctional.

Canada is definitely in a bubble of fear porn and learned helplessness. The public seems paralyzed. Most people don’t want to make any big plans for travel or community activities because, like the mouse that gets electrocuted at random and eventually lays there in resignation, Canadians are always waiting for the next directive. Dysfunctional.

Britain and much of the US have figured it out. Many European countries are figuring it out. Trudeau is deflecting criticism by calling anyone who disagrees with the old narrative extremist or racist. People are starting to see through it.

 

[APTA-2048]

You’re getting into semantics. Making it very hard to do normal activities and losing employment is coercive by any metric.

I think the feds are trying to maintain a dated narrative because they’ve procured so much PPE and signed so many contracts. They can’t turn around the ship fast enough, so we’ve all had boxes of PPE and rapid antigen test kits dumped on us. The screening and testing leads to isolating asymptomatic positives and their household members, making it hard to staff workplaces. Dysfunctional.

Canada is definitely in a bubble of fear porn and learned helplessness. The public seems paralyzed. Most people don’t want to make any big plans for travel or community activities because, like the mouse that gets electrocuted at random and eventually lays there in resignation, Canadians are always waiting for the next directive. Dysfunctional.

Britain and much of the US have figured it out. Many European countries are figuring it out. Trudeau is deflecting criticism by calling anyone who disagrees with the old narrative extremist or racist. People are starting to see through it.

You're the one that's delusional. If anyone is in a bubble, it's you.

You claimed yesterday Canada is some totalitarian dictatorship. I don't know what else to say.

I already told you restrictions are being lifted in 3 days. You ignored that.

Different countries don't have to move all at the same pace.

 

[lenaitch]

I suppose I could cite per capita death rate by country that shows we are about 1/3 of the US, UK and most of Europe, but that would no doubt incite questioning of data interpretation, reporting rates, etc. so why bother. Besides, most of the restrictions that everybody seems to be blaming on the federal government are actually imposed at the provincial level.

The more a nation is socialized, it is a given that its citizens surrender choices in areas such as public education, public health, etc., but at least we have the ability to elect our governments that we seem to eventually dislike anyway.

I do feel for businesses and workers who have been impacted, especially those, like restaurants and bars who have been caught up in shifting rules that impact their ability to keep stock and supplies, as well as the educational system.

It is curious that pretty much everyone one of us is walking around carrying other vaccines that were mandated in our childhood.

 

[gibsonm]

You're the one that's delusional. If anyone is in a bubble, it's you.

You claimed yesterday Canada is some totalitarian dictatorship. I don't know what else to say.

I already told you restrictions are being lifted in 3 days. You ignored that.

Different countries don't have to move all at the same pace.

My guess is that you’re not dealing with managing pandemic protocols in frontline work every day. Being in a bubble means not having to work in the trenches where the results of restrictions are experienced directly. I can tell you that most workers (including everyone I work with) are burnt out from implementing these policies and are more frustrated by the inane mindless bureaucracy than they are by being worried about serious illness from Omicron.

 

[zang]

You’re getting into semantics. Making it very hard to do normal activities and losing employment is coercive by any metric.

I think the feds are trying to maintain a dated narrative because they’ve procured so much PPE and signed so many contracts. They can’t turn around the ship fast enough, so we’ve all had boxes of PPE and rapid antigen test kits dumped on us. The screening and testing leads to isolating asymptomatic positives and their household members, making it hard to staff workplaces. Dysfunctional.

So, the government wants to keep lockdowns happening, spend more money on EI/CWLB/etc. because *we have bought too much* PPE and drug contracts? That is truly delusional.

Most PPE will be good for quite a while afterwards. Several years expiry at least. Hey, maybe they could use it to replace the *expired* stockpile we had long before the pandemic started?

Canada is definitely in a bubble of fear porn and learned helplessness. The public seems paralyzed. Most people don’t want to make any big plans for travel or community activities because, like the mouse that gets electrocuted at random and eventually lays there in resignation, Canadians are always waiting for the next directive. Dysfunctional.

*Sigh* You forgot to use the word "sheeple".

Maybe, just maybe, other human beings are respectful of a majority of scientific and medical experts and their opinions?

Britain and much of the US have figured it out. Many European countries are figuring it out. Trudeau is deflecting criticism by calling anyone who disagrees with the old narrative extremist or racist. People are starting to see through it.

"People"; the mysterious "people" who mysteriously never turn up in polls despite being a silent majority, huh?

 

[APTA-2048]

My guess is that you’re not dealing with managing pandemic protocols in frontline work every day. Being in a bubble means not having to work in the trenches where the results of restrictions are experienced directly. I can tell you that most workers (including everyone I work with) are burnt out from implementing these policies and are more frustrated by the inane mindless bureaucracy than they are by being worried about serious illness from Omicron.

So you addressed nothing I mentioned in my post and just threw out stupid assumptions.

I'm working everyday. I have to wear a mask at work and while commuting on the bus. Big deal. When I deal with customers at work, they have to wear a mask. Again, big deal.

So many people are burnt out from the pandemic, but many actually realize why restrictions are still necessary. Seriously. Talk to people that work in the hospitals. Talk to people who drive the buses and trains. None of my friends at the TTC can fathom why someone would give up their well-paying job at the TTC because they don't want to get vaccinated.

Most of the grief employees face is from poor customer behaviour. Whether for selfish reasons, ignorance or stubbornness, people don't want to follow rules. Refusal to follow simple rules like wearing a mask gets frontline employees assaulted. Is that the fault of the rule or is that the fault of the idiot who thinks they're right for spitting or punching an employee?

And again, I'll reiterate my original point: restrictions are going to start to be lifted in 3 days.

 

[Rimsky44]

You’re getting into semantics. Making it very hard to do normal activities and losing employment is coercive by any metric.

It's actually not that hard. Just get vaccinated. They made a choice.

The screening and testing leads to isolating asymptomatic positives and their household members, making it hard to staff workplaces. Dysfunctional.

What are you proposing? Just don't do tests so that it spreads even more, meaning our hospitals can be even more inundated, just so that it's easier for you to staff your workplaces?

Canada is definitely in a bubble of fear porn and learned helplessness. The public seems paralyzed. Most people don’t want to make any big plans for travel or community activities because, like the mouse that gets electrocuted at random and eventually lays there in resignation, Canadians are always waiting for the next directive. Dysfunctional.

Britain and much of the US have figured it out. Many European countries are figuring it out. Trudeau is deflecting criticism by calling anyone who disagrees with the old narrative extremist or racist. People are starting to see through it.

If you want more freedom and want to stay in Canada, move to Alberta. If you hate Canada so much and admire US/UK polices, move to the US or UK, just an honest and helpful suggestion. There are severe shortages in labour in both countries, especially with Brexit impacting worker supply. You'll probably be happier for it, since you seem to hate what's going on here.