Peter Shokeir | [email protected]
After two unpleasant years, we鈥檙e seeing a supposed end to the pandemic as jurisdictions around the world begin to relax health rules and people peel off their masks.
In Canada, Alberta is the most gung ho to the point where the Kenney government is introducing legislation to limit the authority of municipalities to impose mask mandates or vaccine passports.
Let鈥檚 just hope this isn鈥檛 another 鈥渂est summer ever.鈥�
Naturally, rules on paper alone don鈥檛 solve everything鈥攅ven before the provincial mask mandate was lifted, there were plenty of maskless people walking about who were met with little more resistance than a few dirty looks.
Still, this relaxation of restrictions sends a message to the public that the pandemic is wrapping up, and with the exception of the war in Europe, we鈥檙e about back to normal.
But I鈥檇 hesitate before turning my back on this virus, particularly when another variant might be brewing on the other side of the world, one that could evade our hard-won immunity and have a higher mortality rate.
That would obviously require governments to impose health restrictions once again, and with our economy still recovering and domestic divisions still smoldering, it鈥檚 difficult to say how well Canada could take another lockdown.
The debate has been so focused on vaccinating our own population that we forget that the virus doesn鈥檛 care about human borders, and distributing the vaccine to other areas of the world is both an act of humanitarianism and self-interest.
I鈥檓 no public health expert, but promoting immunization in regions with low vaccination rates is probably the best way to avoid the reintroduction of health measures.
Plenty of us may be done with COVID, but I鈥檓 not certain that it鈥檚 done with us.
