Chronicling Covid-19 (7): The Plan

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Posted by michelinewalker in Pandemic

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Expertise, Organization, Testing, The Economy

Europe a Prophecy, by William Blake (Wikipedia)

Testing

I would invite you to reread the article I posted yesterday.

I have not changed my mind. I believe that we have to test people and let the healthy return to the workplace. Self-isolation alone will not keep us safe. Not if we can no longer work and earn a living. There is no overnight miracle, but testing may allow the economy to recover more quickly.

Testing is much easier than discovering a vaccine. As I mentioned yesterday, there is an American group who is working with doctors and scientists and would send the healthy back to a safe workplace. Testing would be needed.

A vaccine will be produced, but it may not be produced in the foreseeable future, luck being a factor. Who will come up with the brilliant idea that will allow a cure and also allow the world to be as it should be. We can now see the magnificent Himalayan range of mountains.

Leaders, doctors and scientists must work together, but expertise must inform decisions made by elected officials. Mr Trump is ready to send people back to work to save the economy. But we cannot allow people who test positive to return to work. They must still self-isolate, or the pandemic will continue.

A Triage: Testing

What I am suggesting is a triage that would separate the healthy from the sick and allow those who test negative to return to work. The sick would be treated, but the healthy would keep the economy alive. We have new tools: Skype, etc. Although humanity has been scourged for millennia, it has survived.

I have a healthy nephew whose employees are healthy, but they are not allowed to work. So why do we not test them? Testing was carried out in Germany quite successfully.

We cannot close the future down. We cannot let massive unemployment follow the pandemic. That is a grim scenario. Scientists would continue to search for a vaccine, but the economy would not crumble. Testing may be difficult to organize, but it has to be organized. There is no other way.

Expertise is what world leaders need. I do not wish to trivialize world leaders, but they need guidance from doctors, scientists and economists, which is leadership in the days of the novel coronavirus.

Streets would still be disinfected as well as the workplace, but we would ensure economic stability and lift the world’s morale. Can we truly justify the self-isolation of my nephew and his healthy employees?

I am not a medical doctor, a scientist, or an economist. I am quite simply civic-minded. If we test and test, we will find those who test negative. I’m scared, because this virus may be airborne. Hence cleaning the workplace. But why isolate people who would test negative and create a new nightmare.

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The Keystone Pipeline revisited

27 Friday Jan 2017

Posted by michelinewalker in Aboriginals, United States

≈ Comments Off on The Keystone Pipeline revisited

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Apologies, Keystone Pipeline, Saskatchewan Oil Spill, The Economy, the environment, United States

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

When Advantages outweigh the Risks…

A dear friend, John, tells me Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, and his government have studied the matter of exporting crude oil to the United States. It appears advantages outweigh the risks by far. Most of the Keystone Pipeline is in the United States and Canada’s economy is ailing, so Canada is exporting.

Voltaire at Postdam by Pierre Charles Baquoy after N. A. Monsiau (Photo Credit: Wikipedia)

« Quelques arpents de neige »

I therefore stand corrected. Prudence is essential, but Canada’s economy dictates measured risks. Voltaire (21 November 1694 – 30 May 1778) called Nouvelle-France a “few acres of snow” (« quelques arpents de neige ») (Candide, Chapter 23). He may have been criticizing the French government. Nouvelle-France had lost its Huguenots, Calvinist Protestants, its merchant class, when Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes, an edict of tolerance towards Protestants.

My Bourbeau ancestors were well-to-do citizens of New France. They were not farmers, but Huguenot businessmen. Huguenots fled to the United States when the Édit de Nantes was revoked, in 1685. They feared persecution and death. Some converted to Roman Catholicism and stayed in New France. They were good businessmen and prospered.

When François-Xavier Garneau (15 June 1809 – 2 or 3 February 1866) wrote his Histoire du Canada, he bemoaned the departure of Huguenots. His book was censored by the Church in Quebec and he had to remove his statement regarding French Huguenots. New France was an expensive venture, but there is wealth beneath our “few acres of snow.”

It may that the Prime Minister and his cabinet took a leap of faith to protect the economy.

Exporting and the Economy

Canada is committed to protecting its environment, but I am told Monsieur Trudeau needs to export some of its natural resources or take us the poorhouse. Precautions must be taken, but families should be fed. Poverty is one of the great ills of the world.

In short, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is working for the people and he and his cabinet must protect Canadians. We have taken in a large number of refugees and more may arrive. In fact, a number of Americans are buying real estate in Canada. We may be their refuge. There are no foreigners in Canada, just plain Canadians of every ethnicity and creed.

The Environment: Saskatchewan Oil Spill

Environmentalists are concerned and I am one of them. There are oil spills. Recently, on 23 January 2017, a pipeline leaked 50,000 gallons (200,000 liters) of oil on land belonging to the First Nations, Canada’s Amerindians.

http://www.businessinsider.com/a-canadian-oil-pipeline-leaked-more-than-50000-gallons-of-oil-on-aboriginal-land-2017-1

Bernie Sanders used his Twitter account to comment on the oil spill:

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2017/01/23/saskatchewan-oil-spill_n_14350146.html

Pipelines leak occasionally. A small crack may cause a catastrophe. One worries. It could be that pipelines are affected by very cold weather. If such is the case, we need better pipelines.

I once lived in Saskatchewan and loved it. I worked in public relations for a year, but teaching was my profession. I accepted a teaching position at St Francis Xavier University, in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. Yet, the accident happened in a place I called home.