Thread by @BarbLarochelle

Update today begins with Shandro honouring the memory of two continuing care workers. The latest one is a woman in her 50s in Edmonton

He’s talking about the hard work and commitment of Alberta’s health care workers. The vaccine gives them and all of us hope that we can get our lives back this year. This is a lot of piggybacking on goodwill that rightfully belongs to other people who are not Shandro and UCP.

Shandro says AHS has been ramping up vaccinations, but it is a “function of the supply we receive”. This is blaming Trudeau, right?

As of yesterday, 26,269 done. By the end of today or tomorrow, they will have reached the goal they set for the end of December, which he says was an ‘aggressive goal’. They will ramp up when the supply ramps up, Shandro says.

“We’ll get the vaccines out when we get the shipments in”. Another slam at the federal government. That’s at least 3 so far.

Now Shandro is bragging that they have been vaccinating on weekends, evenings and even on New Years Day. Why shouldn’t they be? They are “actively” recruiting staff to join the work of immunizers. (Which could have been done a month ago)

Shandro says “we turned the corner on number of cases” over Christmas, right after he says that there have been lower amounts of testing and there is still “uncertainty” over what the holiday numbers will look like.

Now it’s Ric McIvor, taking over from Tracy Allard. He’s been Minister of Municipal Affairs for 30 minutes. Is that supposed to be funny?

He is telling us things we’ve already heard about care packages and supports for self-isolating in hotels, etc. None of this is news, is it? The longer they take to get to the covid numbers, the worse they are, usually.

Dr. Hinshaw is wishing us a happy new year. Yeah. She’s addressing that ‘some Albertans believe’ that vaccines are being wasted. Damage control. I believe what the doctor put online yesterday, not this.

She’s using the word ‘lost’ as a euphemism for wasted. Gone is gone, though. She wants Albertans who ‘see concerning facts online’ to check them so rumours don’t spread.

The virus has tested ‘each and every one of us’ over the last year, she says. Some more than others, I guess, when there were people on a beach with margaritas or mai tais trying to disconnect.

It will be “months’ before they can offer vaccine to the general population, she says. Limit our interactions and all that, she says.

A reporter is asking what’s the difference between guidelines and legal orders?

She urges all Albertans to consider how to adopt as many recommendations as possible while continuing to follow the legal orders which are ‘non-negotiable’. Shandro chimes in that “Premier was trying to take responsibility”. He says all Albertans should follow both.

Rick Bell asks for Dr. Hinshaw’s reaction to the revelations about travel and the white hot anger of Albertans. He reveals with glee that 2 members of Nenshi’s staff travelled to Hawaii.

Shandro says people are right to be angry and he has heard a lot of it from his constituents. He says the government can say they’re sorry, but they don’t have a right to ask for forgiveness. UCP campaigned on ‘hard work and humility’, but members of caucus forgot the 2nd part.

Dr. Hinshaw says “We’re all so tired.” She says we should be compassionate with others when we all make mistakes and do things that we shouldn’t do. She wants Albertans to ‘take a deep breath’. Really????????

Shandro says they understand the anger because many of them are angry too and have been making sacrifices too. This was the first Christmas his kids did not see their grandparents.

Will current restrictions be extended? When will we know? And why are they celebrating having used barely 50% of the vaccine they got from the federal government.

Shandro says they have to examine the holiday testing because not as many people wanted to be tested over the holidays, so the numbers might not give the full picture. They are celebrating the hard work of AHS to vaccinate people.

Julia Wong asks why, if they said they were prepared for the vaccines, they weren’t prepared with enough staff? Shandro says the do have the workforce capacity. Why are they scrambling to hire more then?

Now he’s talking about all the doses constantly arriving, which is ‘out of our hands’. Unclear if he’s complaining that there is too much or not enough, like he was implying before.

Dr. Hinshaw says 13,000 Pfizer doses should arrive this week.

Re: the travel controversy—how much damage does this do to the public health message? Will it unravel now? She repeats again that people are tired of restrictions and people maybe took shortcuts over the holidays. No mention of the travel scandal though. She talks about how

we can choose how we want to react and again ‘Take that deep breath.’ She adds ‘That’s all I can say.’ No doubt. 🙄

McIvor says he’s been on the phone with angry Albertans, yelling and swearing. He says Albertans have every right to expect high standards of good behaviour from the government. “There’s no doubt in my mind, we didn’t get it right. We’re getting the message.” No excuses.

Question about whether UCP who were travelling jumped the queue and got vaccinations. Shandro denies it.

Michelle Belfontaine asks the ministers when they last left the province. Shandro says he went to B.C. for Labour Day. Ric McIvor went to visit his ailing mother in Ontario in early November.

I have to say Shandro and McIvor seemed to be unusually willing to be straightforward in their answers and with a non-combative tone. Neither of them mentioned NDP even once.