Sask Party Sucks

from yxemd , apparently :

Needless to say, this week is the worst week of covid cases so far, and Saskatchewan has been setting all kinds of covid records. And yet, this is the week the Moe government decided to loosen what little protections we have on community spread of covid.

This is hitting a lot of people out of nowhere, and there’s a lot of questions :

just for starters:

@DennisKendel@birdsite :

Effective tomorrow, Saskatchewan schools will become totally uncontrolled COVID spreading grounds. This will increase risk of harm to students, teachers, other school staff & all of their families. Who actually asked for this change? @SafeSchoolsSask@SaskTeachersFed

Who indeed?

A pretty good article today from the Regina Leader Post, here’s one relevant excerpt:

“Numbers no longer matter because Moe and his government are suffering from some collective confirmation bias telling them not to believe what the numbers are saying.“

Scott Moe made The Beaverton today

Pressprogress has a good article today on Scott Moe’s covid public policy blunders, from start to finish.

This is two things

1. Scott Moe further privatizing healthcare in this province, by making what should be considered an essential part of controlling a public health disaster part of the private system, not the public system, in effect limiting testing for disease to those with economic means despite the fact that we know full well that those at the lower end of the economic ladder are most exposed and least able to protect themselves / say no to dangerous employment (both in the sense of the danger to the public and to themselves) and the like.
2. An admission(without their actually admitting it) by the SHA/Scott Moe Sask Party government that they cannot handle the situation, that the situation is totally out of their control, and that despite this being preventable and forseable – they didn’t act to prevent it before it was too late.

Also note: “asymptomatic” doesn’t mean “covid doesn’t affect you” it just means you can’t tell its effects while they are happening. Ground glass -like substance may be stuck in your lungs reducing your breathing capacity, without you knowing it unless you have an XRay, which may cause brain damage which is hard to see unless you know what you’re looking for.

Keeping R_0 under one, according to Scott Moe [Dec 2020] is “a major consideration in determining public health measures”

That is…until R_0 goes above one and stays there for an extended period of time…then the epidemiological models stop being released suddenly, and he stopped talking about it.

Scott Moe tries to put the blame for the disaster that is Saskatchewan’s current COVID-19 situation on Doctors/Healthcare providers, by accusing them of not educating the community enough:

Tamara Hinz responds on twitter.

( since Scott Moe won’t )

“Your Friendly Neighbourhood Family Doc here. I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I can’t get you the tests you need. I’m sorry that I can’t get you to see a specialist in a reasonable amount of time. I’m sorry no support services exist to help you. I’m sorry your surgery was cancelled.

I’m sorry you called 911 and were told no ambulances were available. I’m sorry your loved one waited 12 hours to be seen in ER and then waited there for another 5 days to get a bed in the hospital. I’m sorry you were discharged earlier than you should have been to make space.

I’m sorry that you feel abandoned. I’m sorry you’re afraid you might need an ER and they won’t have space for you. I’m sorry that nothing I have done has made any difference.

I’ll keep trying though. I’ll keep being there when you need me as best I can. I’ll keep doing everything I possibly can with what little is left of our system.” – @Carlainsask@birdsite

This is the sort of thing our family Doctors have to say this week, with ICU/ERs across the province being near or past the breaking point, a record-breaking week of covid cases…while Scott Moe’s response is to attack healthcare workers and move on a big new push to hollow out the healthcare system with internal privatization. Instead of doing what the doctors are begging for, and using the newly reinstated Public Health Order to take immediate action.

This is Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan in a nutshell.

“This government’s inaction has allowed COVID to spread beyond any hope of tracing or control, and the “Minister for Health” doesn’t want to even try. Good luck everyone. We’re going to need it.” – @JarynCA@birdsite

COVID-19 has been a disaster for Saskatchewan under Scott Moe. What’s his response? Saying over and over again “We Can Do This”, see SaskBoy’s blog post on this : https://saskboy.wordpress.com/2021/02/02/plague-update-moe-says-we-can-do-this/