Juno News - December 06, 2020


A Christmas in lockdown


Episode Stats

Length

4 minutes

Words per Minute

178.22458

Word Count

783

Sentence Count

3


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 well it looks like i have to make something of an apology issue a bit of a retraction because a few
00:00:11.200 weeks ago i predicted with great confidence that lockdowns in canada would largely be over by
00:00:18.080 christmas time we still got a couple weeks to go but it looks like i was really wrong wow what
00:00:24.800 transpired well first of all let me tell you why i felt i could make such a bold prediction because
00:00:29.520 at that time more and more information and data was coming out that was really giving us greater
00:00:34.560 insights into coronavirus statistics and how to treat coronavirus and so forth in a way that i
00:00:40.000 thought this is really an argument about learning to live with coronavirus responsibly in a way that
00:00:45.440 protects the most vulnerable i was hearing from icu doctors treating coronavirus patients who said
00:00:50.320 yes we're learning so much about treating things they were actually they are they remain in support
00:00:55.040 of easing some of the lockdowns and restrictions we're getting other info out about who is very
00:01:00.320 high risk to this who is low risk to this i thought maybe we'd use that information to
00:01:05.520 devise different policies ease restrictions on low risk persons and that information hopefully would
00:01:11.120 filter down to the public via the media people would talk about it more politicians would feel
00:01:15.760 the pressure and they would be open to revising their policies in a in a smart way a better way an
00:01:21.040 evidence-based way wow i was wrong here's one major example so ontario released more nuanced data about
00:01:29.920 where coronaviruses are coming by sector and they've only been able to confirm that when it comes to
00:01:35.760 retail cases only 0.1 percent of the cases can be traced back to retail zero point one percent now it should
00:01:44.960 be noted there are a lot of unknowns cases where they go i don't know where this guy got this from so
00:01:49.920 that 0.1 could be a lot higher we're not sure but they are not sure either they can only trace it
00:01:56.080 back to that small number so you go okay well why don't we allow retailers small retailers in
00:02:01.120 toronto and peel region where they are totally shut down other than some of the big box stores
00:02:06.000 why don't we allow them to reopen the canadian federation of independent business they put
00:02:10.320 forward an idea and said look we're looking at this data now how about put a rule only three
00:02:15.520 customers at a time in a store three customers surely that is fair and reasonable because if
00:02:21.040 you can just pack people into costco and loblaws which is what's happening right now in those
00:02:25.840 regions surely it's okay to then say three people in this mom and pop store in this independent
00:02:31.360 bookstore what have you will follow the rules and then there is actually an open letter signed by all
00:02:37.200 these other retail giants that were basically demanding of ontario premier doug ford we want to be
00:02:42.400 able to do this as well a cautious reopening and i thought wow i mean there's evidence out there
00:02:47.920 there's people calling for it there's there's these big groups lobbying for it the small groups lobbying
00:02:52.400 for it surely something's gotta give and yet doug ford said no it's not going to happen and you know
00:03:00.160 you go into places like shoppers drug mart and they're they're packed they're busier than usual
00:03:04.640 because well people just still need to do their shopping so they're forced into fewer
00:03:09.360 and fewer stores and locations and my local shoppers they have extra uh extra aisles extra racks of
00:03:16.720 children's toys christmas toys because they know they have a captive audience so they're putting all
00:03:20.880 these things on their shelves that otherwise the small retailers would be selling more of it is quite
00:03:26.480 something to see all of this happen right now and i i really thought that we would actually just
00:03:31.440 have a triumph of reason and common sense here and be able to talk it out and that is why i thought we
00:03:36.640 would see some of these lockdowns and restrictions ease up and come to an end before christmas but
00:03:41.600 it's not happening the exact opposite is happening and well quite frankly for those of us who have
00:03:47.040 been looking at the numbers the data and i know all those different groups speaking out and trying
00:03:50.960 to present their case quite frankly right now it feels really disheartening so i still hope there's
00:03:57.040 still time for christmas miracle from the likes of doug ford but oh boy not holding my breath
00:04:06.640 so
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