“China eats weird animals disease”

Scientists consulting with the U.S. government early in the pandemic believed COVID-19 originating from a lab in Wuhan, China, was possible or even likely, but Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Francis Collins worked to shut the hypothesis down, according to several emails.

The emails were revealed Tuesday in a letter from Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, the ranking member on House Judiciary Committee, and GOP Rep. James Comer, the ranking member on House Oversight Committee. Some of the emails included notes from a Feb. 1, 2020, conference call in which at least 11 scientists theorized about the virus’s origin, with many leaning toward the lab leak theory.

Ontarians have been told that the reason they have been plunged into lockdown once again is that COVID-19 is overwhelming the hospital system. While it is true that more people struggling with Omicron are now being admitted to hospital, that doesn’t tell the full story.

Over 3,200 COVID-19 hospitalizations in Ontario; record number of single-day ICU admissions

In Ontario, 28,693,247 vaccine doses have been administered, with over 141,000 doses administered yesterday.

91.1% of Ontarians 12+ have one dose and 88.5% have two doses.

There are 7,951 new cases of #COVID19.

— Christine Elliott (@celliottability) January 11, 2022

Slim majority support government lockdowns, restrictions in response to Omicron

OTTAWA — A new poll suggests a slim majority of Canadians support the latest round of lockdowns and other government-imposed restrictions as the Omicron variant continue to fuel an explosion in new COVID-19 infections.

Fifty-six per cent of respondents in the poll conducted by Leger and the Association of Canadian Studies agreed governments are making the right decisions to limit the spread of Omicron and keep the health system from being overrun.

According to Leger Canucks say Die Un-Vaxxed Die!

• More than six-in-ten Canadians support implementing measures specifically related to vaccination status, including:
  • Only allowing those who have proof of vaccination to shop in person at malls and retail outlets (excluding grocery stores), government-run liquor and cannabis stores and use public transit
  • Creating separate areas in hospitals and clinics specifically for unvaccinated patients

We need to address their concerns, not threaten them with vaccine mandates.

The ‘unvaccinated’ are increasingly being vilified by certain sections of the British political and media class. In December, broadcaster Andrew Neil wrote in the Daily Mail that ‘it’s time to punish Britain’s five million vaccine refuseniks’, who ‘through fear, ignorance, irresponsibility or sheer stupidity refuse to be jabbed’. Former prime minister Tony Blair has called unvaccinated people ‘idiots’. And now Emily Sheffield, the former editor of the Evening Standard, writes that ‘the unvaccinated of [London] need to pay with their freedoms, not ours’.

Lockdowns failed to serve the collective good

Has the Left finally woken up to the devastating costs of implementing lockdowns? In its first edition of 2022, the Observer carried a surprisingly balanced interview with Professor Mark Woolhouse, a member of Sage whose new book — The Year the World Went Mad — argues that long lockdowns promoted more harm than good and failed to protect the vulnerable. Its favourable reception appears to herald a new direction in the critique of Covid measures and policies on the Left; for the first time, the question of what really represented the collective good in the Covid debate has been put on the table by a mainstream left-liberal publication.

Two years into the pandemic, despite high vaccination rates, increasing booster rollouts and other medical advances, most Canadians are once again back under lockdown, notably the two largest provinces, Ontario and Quebec. Several provinces, including Ontario, have closed schools, while most other Western countries are trying to keep them open.