I trust that Doug Ford’s four daughters will bring him comfort in his old age.
But at least one of his spawn is likely giving Premier Dad, who is trying to navigate COVID-19 and taking endless heat from every corner of the grumbling spectrum, a honkin’ huge headache in the here and now.
Krista Ford Haynes, eldest of the quartet, would fall into the vaccine-nix column. She’s made her views abundantly clear on social media. This week, Krista is in a rage because her cop husband was apparently suspended, sent home with his packed up dolls and dishes, because of his vaccination status. (Employees of the Toronto Police Service had until Nov. 30 to get jabbed or provide medical documentation justifying an opt-out.)
It appears that hubby Sgt. Dave Haynes is among those who are vaccination-averse. The non-compliant are to be placed on unpaid leave.
Now, as a rule, family members of politicians shouldn’t be media fodder. Many of us have kinfolk who for whatever cockamamie reason will not get vaccinated. We can’t be judged by the blood relatives we keep — at a safe distance. I’m sure the Kennedy clan isn’t thrilled about Robert Kennedy Jr., son of the assassinated presidential candidate, morphing into an anti-vaccine activist — his Instagram account permanently taken down for repeatedly sharing “debunked claims” about COVID-19 and vaccines. Junior heads an outfit, Children’s Health Defense, skeptical about the health benefits of vaccination and has even campaigned against immunization for measles.
Sometimes the apple falls really, really far from the tree.
Likewise Krista Ford Haynes has made herself fair game. This week, she posted a fistful of Instagram stories sharing her perspiration-sodden thoughts — it looks like she’s in a gym, working out, so presumably a home gym — expressing her grievances. To wit (or, rather, wit-less): “Never thought I’d see the day. Twenty years into the job, he so faithfully served, after just earning a promotion to Staff Sergeant.”
Following up a day later with: “Going to jump on here and give you my sweaty cardio thoughts and explain yesterday’s post.” Blah-blah-blah.
“I’m telling you guys, God wins every single time. I do believe the people behind all of this will be held accountable don’t know when, but I truly believe God wins. Evil does not win.”
Is KFH calling pops evil?
Many have called him worse. But shade thrown by one’s own kid on a public platform? Premier King Lear, perchance agonizing over a wayward daughter — where did we go wrong, Karla? — Krista-Cassandra. Or maybe closer to Tom Hanks’ wacko son, Chet — both his parents have had COVID-19 — spreading nonsense on Instagram. “There’s more evidence for UFOs being real than that vaccine being healthy for you,” he’s ranted. “Let’s be real. Ninety-nine per cent of you motherf-kers couldn’t use a shampoo that isn’t FDA-approved, but you’re willing to get some experimental government injection.”
Pity you can’t inject smarts!
There are hordes of vaccine-resisters who’ve followed their conscience at a high cost to household income, family estrangement and isolation. They are entitled to their entitlement, preferably if they do so quietly and at no risk to others. But the caterwauling protesters, the selfish placard-wielders outside hospitals blithely obstructing staff and harassing patients, are a carbuncle on the social commonweal.
KFH’s vaccine condemnatio — at the very least her opposition to vaccine mandates — comes at a particularly worrisome juncture. On Friday, the World Health Organization declared a new strain of SAR-CoV-2 menace — dubbed the Omicron variant, named B. 1.1.529 — that has spread quickly in South Africa. Researchers initially spotted B. 1.1.529 in genome-sequencing data from Botswana, where it first surfaced. Scientists are racing to determine whether the microbe, which contains upwards of 30 changes in the spike protein, poses an increased threat of infection, compared to its forebears, its level of transmissibility, and whether it might make people sicker and if it’s able to evade the vaccines and therapeutics available now.
“We’re flying at warp speed,” Penny Moore, a virologist at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, told Nature magazine. That lab is gauging the variant’s potential to dodge immunity from vaccines and previous infections. “At this stage, it’s too early to tell anything.”
Researchers are frantic to measure the variant’s potential to spread globally, triggering a new wave of infection and exacerbating the continuing ravage driven by the Delta strain.
Just when we were starting to see daylight at the end of this long, damn tunnel of plague, cunning coronavirus opens up another infectious front. So we’re maybe back where we started. Although much more is known about the pathogen, obviously, and with vaccines a godsend, we’re, herewith, returning to coping mechanisms circa March 2020, with Ottawa among many world capitals immediately banning foreign nationals from entry if they’ve been to any of seven countries in the past fortnight.
From gotcha booster shots and vaccinating of children to KEEP OUT! redux.
Experts have long predicted that the more the virus spreads, the more likely it is to mutate and result in strains that could be more dangerous to everyone, including the vaccinated.
Rollout of vaccines has not been globally equitable, meaning high death rates and serious illness in poorer countries, giving mutant strains a toehold to thrive. As of Thursday, less that 24 per cent of people in South Africa had been fully vaccinated, and not even 20 per cent in Botswana, reported Our World in Data.
Although the case numbers for identified B.1.1. remain relatively small, the nightmare scenario of it seeping out from Africa is very real. Two cases of the new variant have already emerged in Hong Kong, and one of those individuals has been identified as a person who’d travelled from Canada, the Hong Kong government said Thursday.
Herd immunity, achieved by protecting people via vaccines, not exposing them to the pathogen that causes COVID-19, may ultimately save us all, although it’s uncertain what percentage of the population must be vaccinated to induce it.
Allowing COVID-19 to radiate unchecked would continue to cost lives unnecessarily.
Which is why dopey vaccine heretics such as Krista Ford Haynes should shut the frig up.
At this point in the pandemic, there’s no more time for nonsense - Toronto Star
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