Lol, I'm absolutely positive that we aren't told the full truth about anything. To some extent, I can agree for the necessity to keep the public in the dark about some information; people are sheep...but we're a special breed of potentially dangerous, nervous and violent sheep...so it seems almost incomprehensible to me that the powers that be don't carefully curate and edit the information which we are fed.
This morning I was tested...again...for Covid. This marks, by my informal count, the 49th time I have been tested. Today I also achieved "fully vaccinated" status, which (at least here) is bestowed upon those worthy individuals who received their second dose of the vaccine 14 days previously. I can now apply for an exemption from the draconian self-isolation requirements my employer inflicts upon me. I can actually buy groceries or gasoline or needed hardware items without being forced to fudge my "isolation clearance questionnaire", which must be filled in every month before flying back up to the jobsite. I can now admit to my employer that when I go home for my week off, I actually kiss my wife and pet my dog and talk to my neighbours. I am, of course, still required at the end of the week to appear at the designated testing facility at 6:45am, get tested, and then sit around on hard school-gymnasium-style chairs until my flight leaves at 4:00pm. I will still need to be re-tested in three days, and then again 4 days after that. I'd better pass those tests; even an "inconclusive" result will land me in the isolation dorm, awaiting a quick trip back to the world, where I get to sit out another 14-day isolation period, fully-vaccinated status notwithstanding.
One of the other members of my crew was driven to the testing hotel by his wife. While he signed in, she walked across the street to a Tim Horton's and got him a coffee (the last decent one he expected to see for three weeks). Five minutes later she was back, and met him at the door to hand him his cup. This was observed by a company security officer; my friend was politely but firmly told that he had "broken quarantine" because, of course, he had signed in at 6:32am, but then been "in contact" with his wife at 6:37am. He was escorted to the door and essentially told to piss off for 14 days and wait for a rescheduled flight.
He had just spent a week living with his wife, but she had somehow turned into some sort of Typhoid Mary during that 5-minute walk across the street. Handing him that coffee apparently threatened the lives and safety of all 2000 people on the jobsite.
These are the rules. Don't like 'em? There's the door.
Now, as a good docile Canuck, I must accept this treatment. I'm applauded by some of my more socially-evolved peers who love to feel smugly superior to those rowdy Americans who don't allow themselves to be pushed around quite so easily. We're so "nice" up here that we, as my father used to say, "won't say #%&@ if we have a mouthful of it".
I realize that my disgust with this will likely be pointed at with shrill howls of indignation by the pitch-fork-and-torch crowd, always eager to expose another anti-social self-centered misfit who doesn't care about his fellow man. That's okay; who was it that first said "The more people I meet, the more I love my dog"?
Do I think it's my "duty" to get vaccinated? Somewhat. Do I think it's a smart thing to do? Yes. Do I accept bullying by those who feel that they are in-the-know, and that anyone who does not agree with them 100% is a dummy? No. Do I completely trust any source of info on Covid? No.
So now I'm fully vaccinated, granting me something like 80-90% (or better) protection against a disease that might have a 1-2% chance of being fatal. I'm probably more likely to be a victim of a shark attack while sitting on the toilet than to be a Covid victim. My normal homelife, living on a rural acreage, is much closer to self-isolation than what many urban folks are now bragging they practice. I'm not afraid of dirt, but I have always been pretty cautious about germs spread from person to person. I feel much safer getting a wet sloppy kiss from my dog than one from some of my relatives.
The best thing about Covid is that it has probably pushed me to completely retire next year, stay home and avoid the idiots and the germs almost entirely.
