1/ BC's response to the entirely foreseeable exponential growth of variant-Covid has included scoldings, platitudes, half-measures emphasizing 'personal choice', a comms breakdown re masks in schools, and the ill-timed closure of a ski resort with an outbreak AFTER spring break. 
2/ Hmm, you may be thinking, those things sound kind of weak, tepid, highly disorganized and possibly negligent in the face of dangerously transmissible variants, growing hospital admissions and a largely unvaccinated population. You would be right.
3/ You might also be wondering how pausing indoor dining + gym classes for 3 weeks (along with stern warnings about travel) is going to impact BC's case numbers. You might wonder if those restrictions aren't nearly enough to make a difference. I suspect you would be right again.
4/ Schools are still open: why? If exponential growth of more dangerous variants that are more likely to infect children (and their parents) isn't enough to move up a level in the jeez-sure-looks-like-a-wasted-effort 'stages' system, what IS the trigger? www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/ed…
5/ And given that the current restrictions are in place BECAUSE of the dangers of being indoors with others, why aren't we rolling out rapid tests to schools/workplaces for regular screening of ANY group indoors together for significant time to break the chains of transmission?
6/ Beyond that, our regular testing levels are woefully low. Maybe we need to stop policing what/how many symptoms are required for a test and just tell everyone to go with a) ANY new symptom at all, or b) WITHOUT a symptom but if they think they've been exposed.
7/ How about we start publishing ALL possible exposure locations, given the increased transmissibility of variants? If you knew there were cases at the hardware store while you were there, you might be more likely to get that stuffy nose tested and not write it off as allergies.
8/ Also, because I cannot say this enough: we need to amend (or shut down) the BC K-12 Health Check site. It doesn't clearly recommend testing. It encourages sick children to attend school if they are 'feeling better'. It's a public health hazard. #bced k12dailycheck.gov.bc.ca/healthcheck?ex…
9/ Non-essential businesses are still open: for a specified time, maybe they shouldn't be? Maybe financial supports for a strict four week lockdown are better investments in long term success than all of us riding this endless rollercoaster of nothing-ever-really-changing.
10/ We are also still emphasizing the need for 'non-medical masks' - but we need BETTER masks (preferably KN/CN95 or KF94) to provide better protection against variant-Covid. The govt could use Cdn producers to provide households with a small supply of these. Why don't they?
11/ Remember this time last year? That brief *actual* lockdown when the streets were emptier and school was on pause and stores limited numbers? It's a very BC thing to think that stopping yoga classes for three weeks will save us, but it won't. We need much, much more.
12/ The BC govt has used a 'personal choices' strategy, then finger-wagged when people's personal choices were poor. It's time to prioritize communal good and make tougher policy decisions. I'd take worse pain with a finite end over this constant agony, and I bet you would too.
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