Covid Journal, May 5, 2021
Get Vaccinated
I got my Astra-Zeneca Covid-19 vaccination yesterday.
I feel fine.
While I ‘entertain’ the idea of debating certain things, I also feel the time for debate is AFTER we’re back to some sense of stability and ‘normality’. When we’re all alive after we’ve had our vaccinations, we can return to picking at inconsistencies and trivial details that at a certain moment in time, kept us going.
I still feel a massive, international inquiry is necessary. I would like to see our world leaders discuss, address and try to save our planet from important issues like the growing influenced of oligarchs, tax avoidance by the world’s millionaires and the control of public policy by corporate interests and not the majority public.
Most importantly, we have to save this planet.
The recent Trudeau budget gave me some hope that we might be pivoting in the correct direction, but we’ve got a lot of work ahead to marginalize wasteful production, carbon-producing industries and more.
We need to ‘balance the books’ so to speak with respect to how we treat ALL members of society. Covid amplified the shoddy way that we treat our elderly, but it’s also created a new ‘pandemic’ of sorts with mental health issues for teens and young adults. As we gain more understanding of the wrongs of our ways, we’ll need to create a plan that also seeks to help ALL people with disabilities. The last year has been a true struggle for those people that are supporting disabled loved-ones and as a society, we need to lift some of the weight off the shoulders of these heroes.
On the topic of heroes, we have to correct the ridiculous imbalance that exists between front-line workers that are saving the day for us EVERY DAY and give them better financial, emotional and institutional support for their efforts. We cannot save our society when we’re only offering part-time wages with no benefits and no pensions and while billionaires rake in profits at obscene and unprecedented levels.
The good news from all of this mess is that populism has been proven to be a failed model and its leaders are grossly incapable of solving any problems. People like Erin O’Toole has found it nearly impossible to corral his herd of cats, Doug Ford has failed immensely to address real issues in Ontario, as have people like Jason Kenney and other right-wing idealogues that want to ‘take Canada back’ from some ethereal spectre that JUST DOESN’T EXIST.
We have to start looking forward to a society that we SHOULD be, and not what schemers think it might be.
An Array of Options, A Limited Selection
We still put all of our eggs – 3 of them to be precise: Astra-Zeneca, Moderna and Pfizer – in a single basket and seem to be running from vaccines created in countries such as Cuba, China, India and Brazil.
While I’m glad that these and other countries haven’t laid their independence at the doors of western pharmaceutical companies, I’m disappointed that our governments aren’t seeking out these options for Canadians.
Perhaps in time, we’ll finally implement our own Canadian-made solution and production cycle, but that will likely be a long time coming and will be faced with many obstacles, most of which will be put in place by pharmaceutical profiteers.