A COVID UPDATE

I have not posted any information about COVID-19 in a couple of weeks. My brain and heart have not been in the right place to even think of COVID outside of my clinic time. It's still out there but I can't think of anything worse than war. There are conflicts and wars all over the world at any given time. Most of these are civil wars or wars that do not involve powerful countries that are armed with nuclear weapons. The suffering, devastation and loss of innocent human life goes on everyday in these countries. Perhaps we have become too de-sensitized to the horrors of these conflicts. Perhaps there is just too much suffering in the world to keep track of. There is a scripture verse that I go to in my mind quite frequently now. John 16:33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” Jesus speaks these words. My religion has been stolen by extremists recently but they have not stolen the incredible example of selflessness and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Whether you believe he is the son of God or not, His story is so compelling. I strive to live by his example and believe me, that is not easy in our world today. My father was raised in German occupied Holland. He could barely speak about his childhood. When I was young, every once in a while we would watch a WW2 movie together. As I grew older, I couldn't stomach the scenes of torture, murder, starvation and suffering. And now, these same scenes play out all day long in real time; scenes that involve people that are just like us. Just like us. That's the difference. These aren't people who lived 80 years ago or people whose countries have been terrorized by war for decades. These are people just like us, just like our sons and daughters and their lives are being decimated in what seems like an instant. It is so close to home, so close to our hearts that we feel their terror and we grieve with them. I grieve with them. I cry for them. My heart aches for them. I pray for them: for more strength, more endurance, more courage and more determination. I pray for their leaders, for their president and for their beautiful, colourful, ancient culture. For their democratic place in this world and for the end of tyranny, anarchy, narcissism, racism, injustice and cruelty in the hands of powerful people whose focus in this world is to hold more and more power and wealth through oppression and war. We all suffer at their hands. Their greed threatens the existence of all of us, not just the people of Ukraine. It is remarkable how a pandemic that was recently terrorizing us is now, for most people, a walk in the park in comparison. But while we are distracted and devastated by this unprovoked war and the senseless attack on innocent people, we have come to the end of the Omicron wave. 85% of us have had two doses. Some regions have reached over 90 % double vaccinated ( well done Guelph) and in these highly vaccinated communities where more and more have received three doses, hospitalizations, ICU admissions, new daily cases have all dramatically declined. There has been a significant reduction in Global cases with our national cases dropping to 108/100,000 ( Ontario is 92.3/100,00). Reproductive values have dropped worldwide with Canada's R value dropping to well below one at 0,87. https://www.imgrund.ca/global-rt My favourite go-to website shows all numbers declining except vaccination rates that still continue to climb despite the protests and background noise and nonsense. https://covid19-sciencetable.ca/ontario-dashboard/ Scroll down on the above page to the graph entitled 'Estimated Rate of COVID-19 Cases per 1 Million Inhabitants per Day in Ontario'. That's a thing of beauty. Now scroll down to 'Test Positivity and Number of COVID-19 Tests in Ontario'. And finally, take a look at the graph, 'Daily COVID-19 Hospital and ICU Occupancy in Ontario'. All of these graphs show precipitous increases and then precipitous drops in all numbers. We decimated the Omicron wave. We crushed it. We did that. That's the power of good people working together for the good of all. Anything is possible. It is time to lift restrictions. It is that booster dose that really protects you from becoming seriously ill or requiring hospital/ICU admissions. From what I am seeing, Omicron is leaving folks with unusual and serious long-term symptoms like brain fog ( in the children and adults) and serious cognitive declines in people over 60. That booster is all important. Should we take masks off in public? That will soon be a personal choice based on your own risk assessment which I hope to review in detail in upcoming posts. I will be keeping my mask on in public spaces until the summer and only if we continue to do so well in our fight against COVID-19. For now, keep that mask on, get boosted and if you pray, pray for the people of Ukraine. Donate on their behalf. Unite as a community, all divisive issues put aside, to focus on the much greater needs of others. Happy Sunday. Anne-Marie

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