Juno News - December 01, 2021


Omicron is here! Let the fear-mongering begin!


Episode Stats


Length

15 minutes

Words per minute

183.44818

Word count

2,875

Sentence count

209

Harmful content

Hate speech

2

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

The Omicron Variant of CoD19 comes to Canada, so let the fearmongering begin! Today on the show, we are going to break down what we know so far about this variant, and how Canada is reacting to it.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 The Omicron variant of COVID-19 comes to Canada, so let the fear-mongering begin.
00:00:05.660 I'm Candice Malcolm, and this is The Candice Malcolm Show.
00:00:12.500 Hi everyone, thank you so much for tuning in today. I'm going to stop you right now.
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00:00:37.820 get your podcasts, please don't forget to subscribe to The Candice Malcolm Show, and if you like the
00:00:42.480 show, don't forget to leave us a five-star review. It really helps us out. Okay, so the big news all
00:00:48.220 over the world, frankly, and all over Canada, is this new COVID variant, new strain called the
00:00:54.820 Omicron variant, which is causing chaos. It's wreaking havoc. It's leading to border closures.
00:01:01.720 There's a huge, huge reaction to the Omicron variant, and so today on the show, we are going to
00:01:06.440 go through that reaction and break down what we know so far about this variant. So the Omicron variant
00:01:13.000 has been detected in Canada. It is here. It is in Canada. There have been four confirmed cases of
00:01:18.420 this variant in Ottawa. Others are still under investigation in Ontario. It's according to Global
00:01:23.440 News. Ontario health officials have confirmed multiple cases of the Omicron COVID-19 variant
00:01:28.680 of concern that has set off a new set of travel restrictions around the world, mostly barring
00:01:33.800 flights from Southern African nations. Ontario first confirmed Sunday that two cases of the Omicron
00:01:39.100 variant were detected in Ottawa in recent travelers from Nigeria. Quebec, likewise, public health
00:01:45.000 officials over there have confirmed its first case of the Omicron variant also from recent travelers,
00:01:51.460 and now, of course, because this is just the, this is what happens. We've seen this movie before.
00:01:57.620 We've lived this before. We're stuck in Groundhog Day over here. Ontario is now reviewing a third dose
00:02:05.120 vaccine strategy in the wake of this new Omicron variant, says the top doctor in Ontario. We'll be
00:02:11.560 reviewing options and providing them to government in the next few days, and I would anticipate an
00:02:16.160 announcement by the end of the week on an enhanced strategy to best protect Ontarians, said Dr. Kieran
00:02:21.800 Moore, the top doctor in the province of Ontario. So Canada has moved quickly this time around and put
00:02:28.060 a travel ban on flights from South Africa and neighboring countries. This report comes to us from
00:02:33.660 Post Media. It says Canada is closing the border to all foreigners who have been to seven countries in
00:02:39.120 southern Africa in the last 14 days as a new terrifying COVID-19 variant of concern raises
00:02:45.580 alarm around the world. Okay, I inserted the word terrifying. That wasn't in the copy, but really,
00:02:51.340 we are really, really reacting. We are really reacting to this new variant. So this is from Global News.
00:02:56.520 Omicron variant prompts emergency G7 health meeting, including Canada. So the health ministers of the
00:03:02.700 richest and most powerful seven countries in the world have already gotten together to scheme and to
00:03:08.840 talk and to try to figure out what to do, what to do about this Omicron variant. So Health Minister
00:03:15.160 Jean-Yves Duclos and his counterparts from the other G7 countries agreed Monday to closely monitor
00:03:21.200 and share information about the highly mutated Omicron variant of COVID-19. And it's not just the
00:03:27.900 federal health experts that are sounding the alarm bell. Ontario Premier Doug Ford calls the new COVID-19
00:03:33.680 variant concerning as Canada implements a travel ban. So anyone arriving before the van is implemented
00:03:40.780 should be tested and quarantined, including the many passengers arriving today, said Doug Ford.
00:03:46.040 Out of an abundance of caution, we must also reintroduce point of arrival testing for all passengers
00:03:50.780 arriving to Canada, regardless of where they're coming from. And Aaron O'Toole has jumped on the
00:03:56.280 bandwagon as well. This is what he posted on Twitter. The Liberals failed to shut down the border from
00:04:01.260 high-risk countries at the beginning of the pandemic. Canadians can't afford Trudeau to make
00:04:05.620 the same mistake again. That would be a good point. And I agree that Trudeau waited far too long to
00:04:11.620 close the border from China. And as we all recall, we were told that closing the borders back in 2020
00:04:17.600 was racist, that anyone calling for a border ban or quarantine from China was just a horrible racist
00:04:25.560 person. We heard that from the health minister. We heard that from the top doctor in Canada, Theresa Tam.
00:04:31.060 We heard it from the prime minister. This time around, though, they had a change of tune. So
00:04:35.120 here, Alberta is also implementing new measures to track the immigrant variant, but no cases
00:04:41.200 currently identified. So it doesn't matter that they haven't had any cases yet. Alberta is still
00:04:45.640 reacting. So contact tracing and notification, PCR testing for all close contacts and rapid testing for
00:04:51.460 households, specific settings such as schools and child care facilities are being implemented by the
00:04:56.500 province for all COVID-19 cases identified in returning international travelers in order to track
00:05:02.020 potential cases of the new Omicron variant. Okay, so all of this is very concerning. Everybody is very
00:05:08.400 concerned about this highly mutated variant. And what does it what about our vaccine status? What about
00:05:14.260 vaccinations? I myself have been vaccinated. I've had two two of the jabs from Moderna. So let's see 0.97
00:05:20.580 what Moderna has to say about whether I will be protected from this new variant. According to our
00:05:27.080 friends over at Wayan News, which is an Indian news source out of New Delhi, they report that Moderna says
00:05:33.100 that current vaccines are not effective against the Omicron variant. So the Omicron variant of the
00:05:38.720 coronavirus, according to Moderna's senior medical officer, may evade existing vaccinations. If this is
00:05:45.620 confirmed, Paul Burton suggested to the BBC's The Andrew Marr Show on Sunday, that a reformulated vaccine
00:05:52.080 might be ready as early as 2022. We should know about the ability of the current vaccine to provide
00:05:58.200 protections in the next couple of weeks. But the remarkable thing about the mRNA vaccine Moderna platform
00:06:04.380 is that we can move very fast. He said, okay, so so bad news for me, I guess, the Omicron variant,
00:06:11.020 I will not be protected against it with my current double dose of Moderna. But good news is on the
00:06:16.940 way, says Moderna. Moderna says Omicron COVID-19 vaccine could be ready as early as 2022. This is
00:06:23.420 according to Global. So the same fellow, Dr. Paul Burton, Moderna's chief medical officer, said in an
00:06:29.360 interview that if a new vaccine is necessary, it's going to be ready soon, early 2022. It's going to be
00:06:36.300 available in large quantities. So what a coincidence. They're going to have a new vaccine,
00:06:40.740 just in time for the Omicron variant. So I guess we're just doomed to constantly
00:06:46.480 be forced to be vaccinated in order to keep up with the ever moving goalposts of the COVID industry.
00:06:53.260 So let's just pause for a moment before we all rush out to go get a new vaccine, before we rush out
00:06:59.180 to go into lockdown again, to implement all these travel bans that we should have implemented
00:07:04.180 in 2020. We didn't. Now, this time around, we're not wasting any time. Every politician from every
00:07:10.360 political party is jumping over themselves to try to close the borders, lock things down again.
00:07:15.700 But let's just pause for a moment and try to research and try to learn a little bit about
00:07:20.600 the Omicron variant and what we know about it. Because the reality is, we just don't really know
00:07:25.720 very much about the Omicron variant at this point. Very little is known. So this comes from the CBC,
00:07:31.860 Canada's first cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant confirmed in Ottawa. It says this,
00:07:36.220 Little is known about the new variant dubbed Omicron by the World Health Organization and
00:07:40.680 labeled as a variant of concern. It is being linked to a rapid rise of cases in a South
00:07:46.600 African province. It is not known at this time whether the variant is more transmissible or more
00:07:51.680 dangerous to the health of those who are affected by it than the other coronavirus cases. So wait a
00:07:57.160 second. So at this point, all we know is that there's a rapid rise in cases in the South African
00:08:02.340 province. Okay, we don't really know much about that South African province. We don't know what
00:08:05.980 the health care is like over there. And then it says this, that it is not known whether it's more
00:08:11.040 transmissible. It's not known whether it's more dangerous to the health of those infected by it.
00:08:15.760 So we don't even know at this point how dangerous or how transmissible it is. And yet we're all jumping
00:08:21.720 over ourselves to try to protect ourselves against it. This is sort of the impact of what almost two
00:08:28.120 years of conditioning from governments that there is nothing more important than our health, that
00:08:34.000 there's nothing more important than our safety, that we should be willing to sacrifice everything
00:08:37.900 for it, sacrifice our liberty, our freedom, our ability to go outside, sacrifice the education of
00:08:43.240 our children, the development of our children, sacrifice jobs, sacrifice small businesses, sacrifice
00:08:47.960 the future, our economic stability, the future of our currency, all to protect our health from this
00:08:54.820 coronavirus. We're conditioned. So now anytime there's a new variant or news of a new variant
00:08:59.920 or a potential new variant, we all dive over ourselves to try to protect ourselves. This is not
00:09:05.460 a good sign. Even Dr. Kieran Moore, Ontario's Chief Public Health Officer, says that we really don't have
00:09:11.420 the information yet about Omicron. Here is a clip of that. As you realize, this is a rapidly changing
00:09:17.220 environment. Lots of questions yet about this new strain that we have to have answers for. We need to
00:09:23.300 understand really if this is a virulent infection, if it makes people significantly sick or leads them
00:09:30.060 to hospitalization. We really don't have that information yet. So I could understand in an
00:09:35.440 abundance of caution putting some measures in play like we've done already and whether as we get more
00:09:41.280 and more information we put further public health measures in play, I can assure you we'll work with
00:09:47.180 our federal partners to do that. And that seems to be the consensus from news reports that I've seen.
00:09:54.260 This is according to the Associated Press, what we know and don't know about the Omicron variant.
00:09:59.000 By Sunday, the United Nations Health Agency issued a statement on Omicron that boiled down to this.
00:10:04.600 We don't know much yet. It said it wasn't clear if infection with Omicron causes more severe disease,
00:10:10.720 even as it cited data from South Africa showing rising rates of hospitalizations there.
00:10:14.720 But that could be because people are getting infected with COVID, not specifically the Omicron
00:10:19.940 variant. So according to Bloomberg, the Omicron variant is mild so far, experts say.
00:10:26.540 But the WHO still urges caution. Symptoms linked to the Omicron coronavirus variant have been mild so
00:10:32.480 far, according to COVID-19 advisor to the South African government and Petroia doctor who first
00:10:37.420 sounded the alarm bell of the new strain. The World Health Organization cautioned,
00:10:41.640 there's no information that symptoms caused by Omicron are different from other strains.
00:10:47.300 Again, this all boils down to guesswork. We don't really know. Here is a report from CTV.
00:10:53.760 Infectious diseases specialist at Toronto General Hospital, Dr. Isaac Berko, said it's too early to say
00:11:00.460 how contagious the new variant is. You're going to hear a lot of scary things over the next day or two.
00:11:05.360 But the truth is, we just don't know about it. But we're going to learn a ton about this over the days
00:11:11.900 and probably over the weeks to come, he told CP24 on Friday. And we have the WHO. The WHO says it's not
00:11:19.440 clear if Omicron causes more severe disease. This is over on routers. The World Health Organization said
00:11:25.180 on Sunday, it is not clear if the new Omicron coronavirus variant is more transmissible compared to
00:11:30.820 other variants or if it causes more severe disease. Preliminary data suggests there are increasing
00:11:36.940 rates of hospitalization in South Africa, but this may be due to increasing overall numbers of people
00:11:41.520 becoming infected rather than the result of specific infection with Omicron, it said. However, in a
00:11:47.280 statement, the agency reiterated that preliminary evidence suggests there may be a higher risk of
00:11:53.620 infection from the variant. Well, if Moderna is saying that the Moderna vaccine doesn't even protect
00:11:58.820 against this variant, perhaps that is why we are of higher risk. But here's the thing. This is the
00:12:03.920 problem with where we are as a society. Nearing the end of 2021, again, nearing the two-year mark
00:12:10.080 of the COVID pandemic and all of the corresponding lockdowns, fear-mongering, closures, paranoia
00:12:17.780 that has been born out of this COVID virus, which is just as bad, if not worse, than the virus itself.
00:12:24.860 We now live in a society that is paranoid, a society that is willing to sacrifice liberty
00:12:29.400 for the pursuit of safety, the pursuit of good health. And we allow politicians to just dictate
00:12:34.880 to us that, okay, borders are closed now. Forget about the fact that it's a Christmas holiday,
00:12:39.800 that people might have trips planned, that people might have family members coming to visit. We're
00:12:44.300 just going to completely overreact. That is a situation where we have been led. And let me just
00:12:49.040 say, when I heard about this emergency G7 meeting of the health ministers of the richest seven
00:12:55.000 countries, my mind immediately went to this Ryan Long clip. Ryan Long is a brilliant sketch comedy
00:13:01.860 writer and comedian. He's Canadian, but he's based out of New York. And he does these brilliant
00:13:06.360 YouTube videos, basically making fun of the left, making fun of the woke left. Most comedy these days
00:13:11.580 doesn't do that. They're too afraid to go after the left. They only go after the right.
00:13:14.340 Ryan Long is one of those fearless and brilliant comedians who is willing to make fun of the left.
00:13:19.860 And he did a video and I'm going to play it for you because again, you know, this is an American
00:13:24.660 version. He's making fun of governors, but it could just as easily be Justin Trudeau and, you know,
00:13:29.760 his health minister scheming on ways to lock us down again. So let's play this. It's about two minutes,
00:13:35.220 but it is good. Three governors once revered by the public. Hey, we're governors. Show us some
00:13:41.520 goddamn respect. My book deal just got revoked. Everything's opening up. They're not even asking
00:13:46.500 for permission anymore. They used to call me daddy. I thought this virus wasn't nothing. Where am I
00:13:51.120 supposed to put these old people? Madison Square Garden? Until one idea changed everything. Hey, 1.00
00:13:56.700 you guys ever think about getting the gang back together for one last lockdown? That's crazy talk.
00:14:02.180 It's over. Yeah, unlimited snatch is a thing of the past. Is it crazy? Canada's doing it, but everyone's
00:14:07.880 getting vaccinated. It's over. Now we can do this. You've gone loco, Newsom. It is over. You've been
00:14:13.860 smoking too much of that legal weed. Their critics said it couldn't be done. It'll be like old times.
00:14:19.160 You get on TV, scare them a bit, present ourselves as the saviors. I like fear-mongering as much as
00:14:24.000 the next governor, but it's over. They haven't even taken off their masks. The water's still warm.
00:14:29.060 You don't think I love the daily press conferences? I love giving the daily press conferences,
00:14:32.480 but it's over. You know, Cuomo, I'm starting to wonder if you even want to be a god. Screw you,
00:14:37.460 Newsom. You're out of order. But it ain't over till the fat lady's on a ventilator. Hey, Newsom,
00:14:44.060 we're in. Don't make me regret this. One last lockdown. Newsom, what about the science? We'll
00:14:53.080 tell them what the science is. But what about the protest? We'll tell them when to protest.
00:14:57.600 I found a scientist that'll give us the numbers we want. So Fauci says we're at the bottom of six
00:15:01.700 inning. We need to convince them that it's game one of the series. You know, my researchers tell
00:15:06.040 me this new strange stuff really resonates. My DMs are lighting up again. Oh, baby. It's gas.
00:15:11.480 She's flowing. Who runs this country? We do. Who runs this country? We do. I feel so alive.
00:15:18.800 This is what being a governor is about. Gavin Newsom, Andrew Cuomo, and Ralph Northam.
00:15:25.380 One last lockdown. Stay at home is trending again. Coming this summer.
00:15:32.840 It's too good. Too funny. Go check him out. Ryan Long. His videos are on YouTube. Thanks
00:15:37.320 so much for tuning in. I'm Candice Malcolm, and this is The Candice Malcolm Show.