, 02.09.2022 02:42 PM

My latest: when the Omicronvoy truckers win

Okay, you guys win.

No more masks. No more vaccinations. No more social distancing. No more vaccine passports.

Get rid of ’em all. You win.

Whether you’re a freedomer up in Ottawa, with your kids tucked beside some Jerry cans of diesel in the cab of your truck, or if you’re a Liberal backbencher nobody has heard of before and who decided to speak up only after concluding you’re unlikely to ever be in cabinet, you win. We give up.

Just forget what millions of doctors and nurses have been saying about COVID-19 — about how transmissible it is, how it’s a shape-shifter virus, one that requires us to accept that it can’t be beaten overnight.

About how it is so deadly — killing at least six million people so far — and how it has made more than 400 million people really, really sick.

Forget about all that. Forget, too, that the real experts — not the ones on Twitter with a Viking for a profile picture, and the name “Freedom” followed by a lot of numbers — sound scared, really scared, that we are pretending that the war against COVID is won.

When it isn’t, and when it has killed at least 35,000 men, women and children in Canada so far — the equivalent of the entire population of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, or Grand Prairie, Alberta, where the governments just lifted basic pandemic protections.

Forget about all that. Forget, as well, what it does to you when you get it — which you still really, really could. The chances of which are greater than ever before, because we’re apparently getting rid of masks and vaccines and mandates.

There’s three stages to it, really, when you get COVID.

Sandra Pearce is an American respiratory specialist. She’s been on the front lines of caring for patients with COVID since the beginning.

Here’s what she says you can expect.

In the first stage, Pearce says symptoms range from mild to severe — and can include fever, chills, cough, shortness of breath, fatigue, muscle or body aches, headache, loss of taste or smell, sore throat, congestion, runny nose, nausea or vomiting, and diarrhea.

Half the time, she says, people are asymptomatic, meaning they are spreading the disease without even knowing it.

In the second stage, the virus has crept into your lungs, freedom fighters, and it causes pneumonia. That’s when you will have trouble breathing, chest pain and even confusion.

“When you’re constantly coughing and can’t take deep breaths, your oxygen level can decrease,” Pearce says.

At this stage, she’s seen a lot of people who can’t even walk across the room without getting winded. COVID is starting to kill them.

Stage three is the worst, of course, but all those truckers and nobody MPs in Ottawa know better.

In stage three, Sandra Pearce says, your body starts to shut down. This is the stage when your lungs go into what is called a hyperinflammatory response, which usually leads to sepsis and total organ failure. It’s ugly. It’s painful.

Often, in this stage, they’ll put you on a ventilator because you can’t breathe on your own anymore. Sometimes they’ll stick a tube through your rib cage, because too much pressure has built up in your lungs.

“This is when we call your family because it may be the last time you’re able to talk to them,” Sandra Pearce says.

She adds: “I’ve cried. It’s hard to watch when they are close to the end.”

But those folks up in Ottawa — waving Confederate flags and swastikas, and blaring their horns all day and all night, and pissing on the War Memorial — they know better than experts like Sandra Pearce. They say it’s a hoax, or it’s overblown, or it’s Justin Trudeau’s way of controlling all of us for a Great Reset or One World Government. Something like that.

So they’ve won. Because they’re afraid to get a little needle. Because they don’t like a little bit of inconvenience. Because they are disinterested in treating the lives of friends and family with reverence. Even though life should always be revered.

So, you’ve won. Get rid of the masks. Get rid of vaccines. Get rid of the things we know help to protect us and those we love. Get rid of all of that.

And when you are in an intensive care unit in a hospital somewhere, drowning in your own bodily fluids, gasping your final breath, someone like Sandra Pierce will be looking down on you. And she will be crying.

But me? I won’t be.

— Warren Kinsella was chief of staff to a federal minister of health

25 Comments

  1. bob says:

    80 % or more of population has been vaccinated. What have we got to worry about?? As Mr Lightbound says, we are more divided now than ever. Pathetic. Oh and don’t forget to mention that almost 40% of those 35,000 deaths occurred inQuebec.

    • Steve T says:

      So you are basically saying that you’re happy with the 80% doing the heavy lifting, so the 20% freeloaders can attend the protest and pretend they are the heroes?

  2. Tyler Alyward says:

    Warren, I don’t know if lifting restrictions are the correct way forward or not, but there is definitely two paths emerging. Many countries around the world are throwing out all of their Covid restrictions, others are making plans to do so. I spent 3 weeks in Florida over Christmas, and after 2 or 3 days, one forgets the rest of the world is in panic mode. Bars, restaurants, grocery stores, and beaches were all full, with only rare sightings of masks and no attention paid to social distancing. Florida has been wide open since May 2020, including schools. They are 18 out of 50 in deaths per million residents. I don’t know for sure that we can really say which path was the best. Hopefully, whichever way Canada and the provinces go, history will show that on balance, we chose correctly. I’m not sure that it’s any more than an educated guess at this point.

  3. the salamander says:

    .. Again.. very well said..
    This kind of stuff ain’t refutable

  4. It would appear those that are vaccinated will probably be okay. I’m not sure what demonstrable results further lockdowns could provide. We don’t need to throw everything out the window, but a gradual reduction and return to normal would seem to be the rational thing to do. With respect to the small percentage who refuse to act responsibly, well….there are people who won’t get vaccinated just like there are people who demand to be able to ride their Harley without a helmet. I’m sorry Warren, but you can’t fix stupid.

  5. Gilbert says:

    The pharmaceutical industry can always find doctors to say what it wants. There are amazing doctors (Dr. Yeadon, Dr. Malone, Dr. Bhakdi, Dr. Montagnier, Dr. Stickelberger) who are not receiving financial rewards from the pharmaceutical industry.

    Flu cases in 2020 and 2021 were unusually low. The inventor of the PCR Test, Dr. Mullins, said it shouldn’t be used to diagnose anything.

    Supporters of the PM seem to think he loves them, has their best interests at heart and values their health above everything. I disagree.

    • The Doctor says:

      So it’s all a conspiracy, with Big Pharma as the evil puppetmasters. Is George Soros somehow involved as well? The Bilderberg Group?

  6. William Macdonell says:

    The truckers can read science articles as well as you Warren, and while your story is touching it’s rather disingenuous relative to the reality of the larger population. The truckers are well aware that less than 2% of Covid infected get hospitalized, and less than 1% died…. The flu kills anywhere from 2000 to 8000 per year… that’s 6000 to 24000 deaths in the same time frame as Covid. Should we be doing lock downs and vaccine mandates for the flu? The science is in on lockdowns, and they are useless, preventing less than .02% of all Covid infections and preventing less than .001% of deaths according to the last John Hopkins study, and it was a huge sampling. Yet the economic damage will make us suffer far longer than Covid. Forcing people to vaccinate is not who we are as Canadians, and while I myself am triple vaxxed, its a persons constitutional right to be stupid, and it’s the responsibility of all Canadians to defend Section 2, 6, and 7 otherwise what are we Warren? What are you, a lawyer and a person with a voice, if you don’t defend those rights, no matter how hard it is to do sometimes? I have lost 12 associates, friends and a family member to this fucking plague, but it doesn’t change the fact that our government has trampled over our rights as Canadians. No debate, no plan, shoot from the hip science, politicization, and a left wing leaning medical community that would have us all wrapped in bubble wrap… The government did what it had to do in the beginning Warren, and that’s understandable, but to abdicate governing, sitting in the house, running the country with proper debate for over 1.5 year, not even a proper budget in 2 years, and a official opposition that might as well uniformly cross the floor for all the use they’ve been, all while just limply using section one to avoid democratic rule, and no Canadian should accept this, vaxxed or not.

    • Robert White says:

      We should be analysing the lack of adherence to Informed Consent legislation currently on-the-books since the Second World War. In addition, this is not a naturally conceived zoonotic transmission Coronavirus as it is novel Corona and as such it is denoted nCoronavirus which is retrovirus recombinant rDNA tech as proposed antidote is mRNA gene therapeutics.

      Sars-2-nCoV-19 was manufactured at Fort Detrick Maryland U.S. Army Biosecurity Level Four laboratory in August of 20019. The engineered Gain-of-Function bioweapon was then tested on a herd of pigs penned outdoors on that compound whereby it leaked via wind currents and vectored to neighbouring rural farm stocks of animals residing adjacent to the rural federal BSL-4 in Maryland.

      Once the bioweapon leaked it was then deployed offensively post-Wuhan Military Games 2019 via an embedded IO within the American contingent of the Wuhan Military Games as the team left Wuhan province.

      My lobby group warned the Government of the United States of America not to play around with Gain-of-Function weapons of mass destruction back in 2014.

      http://www.cambridgeworkinggroup.org/
      Robert Gordon White Carleton University

      I was formally educated in Behavioural Medicine by Canada’s current Chair of Neuroscience Professor H. Anisman Carleton University back when I was doing my Experimental Psychology Honours B.A. with a major in Personality Theory/Clinical Historiography.

      As a CANUCK I, for one, don’t accept the outright assault on my Charter Rights & Freedoms either, but Warren is fighting that other side of the coin which is as much a part of debate as my lobby group is IMHO.

      You have solid arguments.

      RW

  7. Lorne says:

    I think it is time to realize that we are going to get it at some time. I am triple vaccinated and so are all of my family members that are located across three provinces. Several have contracted covid despite all the separation and masking. We have done our part and complied with all mandates and rules. But we are getting weary. Especially weary of the daily proclamation that our hospital system could be taxed beyond capacity, despite being not.

    Two years is enough. Omicron is not delta. We have to get to some semblance of normal. I will probably wear a mask even though it isn’t required but the repercussions will be felt for years. Some may never recover financially.

    Before I get jumped on about those that will never be the same health wise, I feel for them but a shut down economy won’t cure that.

  8. Bill Malcolm says:

    Well, Gilbert, this is the the standard right wing nonsense we’ve heard about for two years. Doctors who don’t understand the biochemical intricacies of PCR tests are a dime a dozen, and Montagnier believes in magic at adistance. Nutters can always find doctors who think a course of lettuce and tomato will cure depression — I had to intervene on an employee’s behalf against that quack. Just luck that my father was a psychiatrist and gave me a clue. Remember, in any graduating class of MDs, someone finished at the bottom.

    If PCR tests are no good, funny how it is that all the people who’ve croaked of Covid in hospital have tested positive with it. Riddle me that, Batman of the right wing fuddleheads.

    The automated batch testing machines for PCR testing available for over a yeat now are way beyond what we had two years ago. Then the CDC had to send out standardized kits of Covid juice to calibrate the early test methods. That hasn’t been necessary once the instrumentation people got seriously on the job, and the CDC recalled the calibration kits. But the anti-vaxxers dredge up stuff that is not only outmoded but was incorrect even at the time they promulgated it, simply because it suits their warped minds. They talk through their hats because that’s all they have to wear. They have not the first clue about scientific methods, so “rely” on rogue docs for “back-up”. Probably can’t boil an egg and survive on fast food.

    I’ve read the BS the self-claiming “inventor” of mRNA tech technology has written. He’s 35 years out-of-date, about like asking Rutherford or Curie in 1910 if an atomic bomb would work.

    Gilbert, you’re totally full of sh!t. Think for yourself before you copy and paste trash. Misinformation, SoCon MPs braying like jackasses, extreme right wing white supremacists who’ve made fools of dullard truckers and used them as a shield for their nefarious attacks on society. Got zero time for any of these fakes, non-thinkers and outright fools and bigots.

    I’m not too impressed with the “efforts” of police either. They seem to favour truckers over the country and the requirements of their jobs. Are the armed forces as wavy? A few years ago, a Proud Boy cell from the Navy disrupted a Mik Maw First Nations ceremony in Halifax, and got but a mild telling off. Why treat arseholes with kid gloves?
    Lock ’em up.

    The country is ours to be lost or saved. Hands up if you want to be ruled by the adult versions of the Grade 5 bullies who stole little kids lunch money at recess. Telling the CPC to act like true Candians instead of fomentors of horse manure would be a fine start. They use the House rules in the Commons to utter lies and BS. And the Liberals/NDP/Bloc seem unable to get the Armed Forces out to knock some heads together. Officers swear allegiance to the Monarchy, and need to remember what side their bread is buttered on. Which is the great majority in this country who are being very badly used.

  9. Bill Malcolm says:

    I see the New Zealanders don’t piss around like pussies the way we do. And the police don’t quaver at doing their jobs.

    12o or so numbnuts anti-vaxxers camped out at their version of the trucker convoy on their Parliament grounds were arrested. Hundreds of other fools got sent home. Enough of the right wing horseshite brigade.

    If the Kiwis can do it, and they’re part of the Commomwealth with Queen as head of state, so can we.

  10. PJH says:

    Thank you, Sir…….It will be interesting to see who “wins” in the end….It certainly wont be the Conservative Party of Canada, It certainly wont be Pierre Poilievre, who may win the leadership of the Conservative Party in part by hitching his electoral wagon to the mob, but unfortunately for M. Poilievre his strident vocal support for said mob will ensure he will never be Prime Minister…..He and the Party will be soundly defeated when PM Trudeau feels it is safe to call an election. Perhaps when the Conservative Party is burned to the ground…sane, rational, thoughtful, electable leadership of HM Loyal Opposition can again be achieved….a win for all Canadians…..

  11. RKJ says:

    I just returned from a quick business trip to western Ohio – meetings and a trade show. I learned the new name for Canada: “Truckistan”. This line was delivered with an Ohio smile. Reflecting my own views, and with a nod to my survival prospects, my rely was “am with the truckers, but sadly some wackos are coming out of the weeds and getting all the media attention”….

    This is a time for pragmatic decisions. Over 85 percent of adult Canadians, including truckers, are vaccinated. For those who forgot, we are all rapidly learning our economy can’t function without transporters. My own extended family is actively involved in the rural Ontario lumber and livestock industries, with trucks crossing the border weekly. We need all transporters.

    As I recall, several weeks ago, the prime ministers staff sought to protect him by announcing an extension of the vaccination mandate. This decision was overridden. We are now dealing with more of his unctuous blather. Sure, we wish all Canadians, including truckers, were vaccinated. However, one in 6 or 7 Canadians are not, for their own reasons. Many of these resisters will slowly come to their own vaccination decision without being coerced. Mandates seeking to force vaccinations simply get people more angry, on both sides.

    While it is convenient to trash the media, I will note the Globe and Mail has two articles recognizing the pragmatic approach, written by Robyn Urback and Konrad Yakabuski. While we all may be seeking “confirmation bias”, reading only what we wish to hear, I found their comments to be apt and helpful.

  12. Warren,

    Thanks and sorry for the inconvenience.

  13. Steve T says:

    The stupidest part of this whole thing is that 90% of truckers are vaccinated and still doing their job, which basically makes the 10% complainers irrelevant to keeping the Canadian supply chain rolling.
    The 10% didn’t like that, so they decided to blockade the borders to make their phony narrative come true.

  14. Leo Fleming says:

    The Omicron, given its transmissibility, is the Covid of the future. It’s not going away. So unless you’re prepared to get boosted every 3 months for the rest of your lives (with ever decreasing efficacy with each boost), then it’s time to re-evaluate the situation. We need to completely do away with mandates and passports and all the other nonsense associated with this, not because of the truckers, but because that’s what the science says. I’ve got 2 shots on board – I have long term T and B cell immunity, which will keep me out of the hospital. If you’re healthy, getting a third or fourth ad infinitum is being done to avoid a couple days of headaches and the sniffles, if that.

    I, frankly, don’t believe that these mrna vaccines are as safe as advertised. Any and all reports of vaccine injury have been completely whitewashed and removed from the mainstream media. I don’t think it’s killing or injuring in nearly the numbers that crazy facebook and social media posts would have you believe. But as the media refuses to even engage this angle, then you’ve got to take your news where you can get it. See pathologists from Germany. Or any number of scientists and doctors from around the world who have doubts and concerns. Shut up racist, fake news, right wing nutjob!!! That is why this convoy is out there.

    Story yesterday that untold thousands of Canadian with cancer haven’t been diagnosed. Insurance companies in the US reporting 60% increase in working class deaths, not from Covid or the vaccine, but from people eating and drinking themselves to death and not getting checked up. Opioid od’s through the roof. This has to end. Go freedom!

    • The Doctor says:

      So are you in favour of blaring air horns 24/7 to deprive innocent people of sleep?

      Are you in favour of causing severe damage to our automotive industry, including putting people out of work?

      Just wondering.

      • Brine says:

        The protest might be over if our chickenshit PM would meet with the protesters and listen to their concerns. Trudeau need to understand that he’s PM for all Canadians, not just those who voted for him.

        • Robert White says:

          Trudeau is an ineffectual infinitesimally tiny worm-like neophyte politician about to be run out of Ottawa on a rail due to his lack of ability to govern as a respected politician across this great country.

          Canada, and Canadians are better than Trudeau’s poor leadership. We can do better than this.

          RW

  15. I wish we all knew the perfect answer but sadly none of us know what’s truly appropriate at this point in the pandemic. Everyone is fed up and demoralized but here’s my question: as we open up and remove mandates and opt out of future vaccines, does any and all of that absolutely insure that we simply won’t spike up exponentially once again??? Makes me think of Einstein’s definition of insanity. Anyway, it’ll be gone when it’s finally gone and not a moment sooner. Not exactly a comforting thought. Not holding my breath.

    • Brine says:

      As long as the ICU cases don’t spike as well – and so far they haven’t – who cares how many cases there are? We’re going to have to learn to live with Covid and get on with our lives. Between vaccination and naturally developed immunity, the population should gradually acquire that long sought after herd immunity.

      • Brine,

        Maybe a new variant with high morbidity will never “emerge” and maybe it will. Anyway, if there’s no spike — and I’m certainly not betting on it — then good, transition back to near-normal as quickly as is humanly possible.

        But for those of us who see TOP SECRET – EYES ONLY in the mix, the future is not exactly reassuring.

  16. Leo Fleming says:

    Send in the cops with truncheons and beat those hippies blocking the bridge.

    I used to live in downtown Ottawa, Bay Street. It’s not like you’re getting nuked by the Ruskies. It will be done soon. A minor inconvenience. It’s not like anything happens in downtown Ottawa after 6. This is the livest that town has been since VE day.

    • Leo,

      You know how people are, fitting the narrative to suit only their own purposes: one side says the sirens were blaring 24/7 with an injunction finally granted by a judge while the other side says the sirens blared selectively. They also say the media is lying about everything. Is the truth in the middle? God knows…

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