Juno News - Why don't politicians trust us with our life choices？

00:00:00.000 You know, as the weeks go by, as they turn into months, I think we're beginning to see that it

00:00:09.440 is not so much government that is going to be our savior in all of this. It is going to be

00:00:14.040 the individual, or at least our day-to-day choices are not going to be guided by strict

00:00:19.300 government edict, but by regular people making informed and smart choices about what is best

00:00:24.680 for them and their families and their communities. What do I mean by that? Well, I'll give two little

00:00:30.700 examples, two little anecdotes that bring this all to mind. The other day, I was watching an

00:00:35.120 American television station, and they had a prominent epidemiologist on, a sort of regional

00:00:39.080 health director for one part of their country, and at one point in the interview, she let slip

00:00:43.000 something that you heard a lot back in February. You're not hearing so much more now, but she said

00:00:48.000 there are still basic things we do not know about the coronavirus. Many unanswered questions about

00:00:54.340 just what it is, how it works, how it affects people, and so forth. She was acknowledging that

00:00:58.160 they still don't really have that much of a clue, even as they race towards the vaccine. Now, this is

00:01:03.640 not to disrespect the talents and efforts and backgrounds of all those experts. It's just to

00:01:08.560 state a fact. They're still kind of blindsided by this whole thing, yet at the same time, we are at a

00:01:14.080 point now when we realize we can't continue these lockdowns forever. We're going to have to slowly

00:01:18.180 start to ease out of them based on both the medical knowledge that we have and on the common sense

00:01:23.220 knowledge of how all of this is playing out. Because we were originally told the point of the

00:01:27.740 lockdowns was to flatten the curve such that the medical system was not overwhelmed and that the

00:01:32.420 ICUs were not at full capacity. That has not happened. And in our respective communities, in our

00:01:38.220 cities, our provinces, our states, our countries, we're seeing through not just government reports,

00:01:43.020 but just word of mouth in our communities with family and friends, we're getting a sense of who is

00:01:47.500 being hit by this, how bad they're being hit, what it all means. And we're piecing out that,

00:01:52.360 oh, okay, this area not so safe for me, this activity not so safe, maybe because I have this

00:01:57.860 sort of existing condition, I shouldn't do these things, but here's why I'm not worried, or here's

00:02:02.000 why I am worried. We're sort of putting it all together, bits and pieces, by ourselves. And the

00:02:07.380 second anecdote I have is, I've seen multiple premiers now across Canada, when they talk about the easing of

00:02:13.400 the lockdowns. There are a number of caveats, of course, that includes keep physical distancing in

00:02:18.360 place, keep enhanced hygiene, and so forth. But they all acknowledge, well, you're going to have to make

00:02:23.320 your choice as well. They say that if someone doesn't want to send their kids to school, they

00:02:26.860 don't have to, as Francois Legault has said in Quebec, it's not going to be mandatory in the way it is

00:02:31.480 throughout the rest of the school year. Or, just in terms of going about to retail outlets, they say,

00:02:36.100 well, use your own judgment, make your own decisions. And I think there's something very

00:02:41.040 interesting about all of that, that government just does not, cannot, in these major issues of,

00:02:47.460 of, I think, life choices, which is really what this is, about how we want to proceed. Some people

00:02:53.080 say they want to stay in lockdown because they're not willing to make the risk. Others say, I'm willing

00:02:57.760 to take that risk. It's very interesting, though, as we start to look at the place we're at right now

00:03:02.620 and realize it's not just staying at home, hunkering down, waiting for some one-size-fits-all

00:03:06.700 government edict. It is a very, almost empowering situation where it is up to us as individuals

00:03:12.580 to be making informed choices.

Juno News - May 08, 2020