Small businesses have taken a hit to the chin because of COVID lockdowns, with a loss of more than 740,000 jobs, according to the Department of Industry.
The extent of the damages and losses will take time to be fully known, reported Blacklock’s Reporter.
Millions of people are facing travel disruption and increased Covid restrictions over Christmas, as the surging Omicron variant sees flights cancelled and safety curbs tightened.
Italy, Spain and Greece have made face masks compulsory outdoors again.
Catalonia, in northern Spain, has imposed an overnight curfew, and the Netherlands is in a strict lockdown.
In the US, daily Omicron cases have risen beyond the peak of the recent Delta wave, and hospitals are filling up across the country.
Thousands of Americans will be forced to spend the holidays alone after airlines cancel nearly 500 flights and delay another 750 on Christmas Eve because of crew shortages due to Omicron surge
This sucks.
The Marine Corps discharged 66 Marines in the past week for refusing to get the coronavirus vaccine as mandated by the military, outpacing the other services at discipline related to the shots.
Kenney’s Wuhan bat soup comment draws criticism, premier’s office claims ‘scientific theory’ far from racist
An off-hand remark in a recent year-end interview has the office of Alberta’s premier defending Jason Kenney’s comments and maintaining they were not of a hateful nature.
In an interview with Rick Bell of Postmedia, Premier Kenney addressed the issue of COVID-19 variant uncertainty with mention of the city of Wuhan, China, where the first known case of the virus was detected.
“Who knows what the next variant that gets thrown up is? I don’t know,” said Kenney in the interview. “And what’s the next bat soup thing out of Wuhan? I don’t know.
Kenney spoke like a normal human speaks the faux outrage brigade hates that.
Ontario reports nearly 10K new COVID-19 cases, ICU numbers stay flat
Ontario is reporting 9,571 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, the highest daily total since the start of the pandemic.
The daily total shatters the previous high of 5,790 new infections that came a day earlier. It is more than triple the 3,124 new cases reported on Friday last week.
Experts believe the testing backlog in the province means the true number of infections caused by the Omicron variant is actually much higher than being reported. The province saw a record high test positivity rate of 16 per cent on Thursday.
Omicron’s prevalence should shake off COVID-19’s lingering stigma, experts say
Alexandra Floyd said her friends and co-workers were generally understanding when she called and texted them to say she had tested positive for COVID-19 — but still, she worried about being judged.
“I think there’s definitely that stigma related to, ‘Well, where were you? Who are you with the last couple of days? What did you do? Who are you around? Who did you expose?’ ” she told CBC News.
“I understand those questions need to be asked, for sure … but I definitely think that there is still that stigma related to … judging people and what they did.”
The 29-year-old Toronto law clerk said that she was shocked that she contracted the virus and found it “ironic,” given how careful she’s been. She said she’s double vaccinated.
No such consideration will be extended to the unvaxxed by CBC I suspect.
The Overton window of political possibility is the concept that there are a limited range of ideas the public is willing to consider and accept. That politicians can only be effective by advocating policy that fits within the Overton window and that disruptive groups are the ones who can expand or contract the Overton window. In the case of COVID-19, the use of the noble lie has been used by government and world health officials as well as legacy media sycophants to restrict and even close the Overton window regarding issues such as mask use, vaccination strategies, and lockdowns. To be explicitly clear, the Overton Window is a political concept which is being actively manipulated to constrain scientific discourse.
I noticed the difference – the logical easing of draconian restrictions – as soon as I crossed the border into the United States a month ago and started driving south. In most places where I stopped – from West Virginia to Charlotte, North Carolina to Savannah, Georgia – masks were not a must unless we took an Uber.
Jill Biden praised the group as a “special group of nurses” for “bringing comfort and joy to all those around them” welcoming them to the White House to honor all of the front line workers serving during the pandemic.
These criminals are so brazen and emboldened that they don’t even try to hide it anymore. They are stating how they are killing children with boosters, and how boosters won’t stop the plandemic, but boosters with social distancing will. They have been caught in their lies, and the World Economic Forum is no different. Earlier this year, they released a guide on how to coerce and manipulate the public to take the experimental shots.
When pharmaceutical companies named a new drug for treating COVID-19 patients, they evoked a powerful image, that of Norse god Thor’s hammer, Mjölnir.
The idea is that Molnupiravir — a pill that can be taken at home — would strike a mighty blow against the virus as it continues to spread and sicken people worldwide.
Holy moly.
This study shows that after three months the vaccine effectiveness of Pfizer & Moderna against Omicron is actually negative. Pfizer customers are 76.5% more likely and Moderna customers are 39.3% more likely to be infected than unvaxxed people. https://t.co/wPgAwG8BW3 pic.twitter.com/3Oh3IJSVIk
— Ezra Levant 🍁 (@ezralevant) December 23, 2021
Kingston, Ont., posted 154 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday as its Omicron outbreak continued.
The eastern Ontario city of around 160,000 people was an early hotspot of the Omicron outbreak in Canada, with an early explosion of cases.
But at the Kingston Health Sciences Centre, the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 has gone down recently, said Dr. Gerald Evans, an infectious diseases specialist at the hospital and with Queen’s University.
The unfortunate fact is that Canada ranks very low in per capita ICU beds. “Overwhelmed” should be read as “government imposed shortfall”.
December 19, 2021, was Dr. Francis Collins last day as Director of the National Institutes of Health. After more than 25 years in public service, it is customary to thank people for their service, so thank you, Dr. Collins. In his final interview as director with Bret Baier on Fox News Sunday, it was clear that it was time for him to go. If he could have taken Dr. Anthony Fauci with him, that would have been even better for America.
The Omicron variant is the Grinch who stole Christmas as well as the economic recovery. It is time for Canada’s provinces to consider the “nuclear” option: denying publicly funded health care to anyone who is eligible to get a vaccine but refuses to do so, and forcing them to pay for COVID treatment out of pocket.
Okey Dokey.
OTTAWA — A Liberal MP from Quebec has been censured by his party’s chief whip for defying advice not to travel out of the country unless the trip is essential.
Chief government whip Steven MacKinnon issued a statement Wednesday saying he is “profoundly disappointed” that Liberal MP Yves Robillard travelled outside Canada, in contravention of party instructions.
h/t Mauser
