We can't do this to our kids
As provinces and states are now gradually easing up on the severe restrictions they imposed in response to COVID-19 many are finding that rapid spread of the disease is resuming.听 This should have been expected based on how contagious it is.听 Many are blaming young people for the spread (did you see that video of those awful young people talking to each other without masks on - horrors!).听 But let鈥檚 put things in some perspective here . . .
The restrictions on all of our lives are making the young sacrifice much more than the old in so many ways.听 Their education, careers, and social lives are largely suspended.听 And the ongoing astronomical expenditures by governments to support individuals and industries affected by the extreme restrictions will leave the cupboards bare for them.听 The future will see high taxes needed mostly to service the skyrocketing public debt we are incurring now; little will be left for the education, health care, and other supports we have benefitted from.
There is no definite end in sight.听 A vaccine is the only hope in the minds of most.听 But broad deployment of an acceptable vaccine appears close to a year away at best.听 It may be much longer, or none may be found at all.听 How widely will a vaccine with only a few to several months of testing even be accepted by the public?听 And while we wait, we must maintain our current sad lifestyle hiding away in our houses while the economy self-destructs.听 There is nothing encouraging in this.
Most in the medical community strongly discourage allowing COVID-19 to progress through the population as a means to develop immunity to it and put the problem behind us all.听 Approximately 70% of the population would likely have to contract the disease (the herd immunity threshold) to achieve that, and the implication is that far too many deaths and other serious outcomes would result. But that does not need to be the case.听 Look at the numbers.听 Most young people (say, under 40) are largely unaffected by this disease when they contract it, or experience only a mild flu.听 Yet we expect them to sacrifice the most now and in the longer term. The mortality rate for even those up to at least 65 is very low for people without very significant health problems that reduce their ability to fight off the disease.听 Almost all very serious outcomes and deaths are occurring among the very old and others with certain health conditions which are now well known to increase risk.听 The media focus on the few younger people seriously affected by the disease (often not mentioning other health factors involved) is misleading us into thinking that we are all at great risk.听 Other arguments against allowing natural development of immunity also do not stand up well to scrutiny.
We should now be tasking the medical and science communities to quickly develop criteria to identify those in the population who are most at-risk for serious outcomes from COVID-19.听 Every measure should then be taken to offer protection to those vulnerable individuals (perhaps 20% of the population?) from infection by helping them to reliably isolate.听 Many already live in group homes which can have controlled access.听 Few in the workforce would be affected, as the large majority of the vulnerable would be already retired.听 Almost all restrictions on businesses and individuals should then be immediately lifted, leaving only those needed to prevent excess demand on the hospital system to accommodate those needing care.听 With the most vulnerable 20% protected from infection, the fraction of the remaining population requiring hospitalization due to COVID-19 infection would be low, and fatalities would be very low.听 It would be lower than the number of preventable deaths that we accept annually due to other causes such as smoking, obesity/poor diets, and accidents.听 We recognize all these as problems but do not impose extreme conditions on society and individuals, and rapidly draining all public coffers, to prevent them as we are doing with COVID-19.
This approach would be a reliable path to rapid economic recovery and the potential to get fully past this disease in a limited amount of time (certainly within a year).听 Cowering away from it as we are doing now is a sad existence en route to total economic (and maybe societal) breakdown as we wishfully wait for an acceptable vaccine that will come too late (at best), or maybe not at all.听 We can鈥檛 do this to our kids.听 The adults in the room (especially those in legislative bodies - who should be considering all short and long-term effects of current measures) need the courage and fortitude to take a different tack that has a better chance of returning the world to normal.
Dale Tomasiewicz
Outlook, SK
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Time To Think Ahead Provincially, Second Installment
It was exciting to hear our province is moving ahead with the Irrigation Project. It was the unfortunate victim of previous government鈥檚 debt in 1973. My hope is that this effort doesn鈥檛 just add to the debt load of the province which now stands at $15 B. There is a history of Conservative governments in our province of running up debt by cutting taxes and deficit spending and it鈥檚 happening again. Right now it鈥檚 warranted because of the pandemic but what about the past eight years? My hope is the government looks at raising all the money needed for this venture before spending.
We are fortunate to have our Crown Corporations providing 鈥渄ividends鈥� to the government. I worry whenever I hear governments say the crowns are not for sale because it means someone has been thinking about it. Yes, we鈥檇 get a lump sum which would just disappear into the debt and then no further revenues over the years. Leave Crowns alone. This government has sold off several, including SCN which two years later was sold for nine times the value to Rogers who has dropped local broadcasting for American content, Saskatchewan Transportation Corporation which served 253 centres but only 28 are now privately cared for, and Saskatchewan Liquor Stores, which made large sums of money and paid its employees a healthy wage. Those profits disappeared from the provincial coffers into the pockets of individual businesspeople. Last year this government was looking at selling Sasktel, a money maker and money saver for our citizens. Sasktel has better long distance rates than the major providers in other provinces. It鈥檚 the reason my adult children have Sasktel plans while living in other provinces. Our crowns should be allowed to compete outside the province but the Sask Party reined in SGI years ago.
Our next government has to seriously look at how we produce energy for a growing province. Coal is being phased out and oil and gas are nonrenewable resources which should be saved for other purposes, like essential plastics, synthetic fibres and medicinal drugs. We should invest in more wind turbines, solar panels, hydropower and geothermal heating. Households should be encouraged to place solar panels in their yards and on their rooftops. The net metering approach presently in use is good but SaskPower should buy any excess power at a fair rate. Producers should help pay for distribution so SaskPower doesn鈥檛 bear all the costs. More rural homes should be added to the natural gas distribution system begun in 1986 but put on hold.
Did you know that the people of Saskatchewan are among the lowest taxed in Canada, just ahead of Alberta. That province is suffering but its government just lowered the corporate tax rate. We came back from there recently and the highways are starting to be pounded out - so much for the Alberta Advantage. If we want services, we have to pay for them. Governments must look at a healthy balance which includes taxes and avoid the addition of more debt. Provinces must pay off their debts, not like national governments.
We truly are blessed in our province. We have a good life and are rich compared to many parts of this planet. We need, however, to be diligent in our use of those riches not to squander a good thing. We are called to be good stewards in caring for our province, world and the people who share it with us. Something to think about.
Tony Peter
Outlook, SK
