Murray Mandryk: Gov’t doesn’t have a handle on this pandemic

By Murray Mandryk

Gov’t does have a handle on The Saskatchewan government simply needs to get a better handle on the pandemic.

That applies to many aspects of the COVID-19 crisis that has seen our daily case rise to numbers just shy of 500 cases per day and has also seen the month of September has seen (as of the writing of this) 79 deaths, including a record 10 deaths in a single day.

Ontario, with 14 times our population, is now consistently reporting less than 500 cases a day.

We have the lowest vaccination rate in the country _ something that requires the unflinching attention of Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party government. Can you imagine what these numbers would be like if we didn’t have 70 percent of the eligible population and nearing 90 percent of the elderly fully vaccinated?

Even to this day, there are doubters out there who keep rattling off rhetoric that COVID-19 is nothing more than the common flu that only accounts for 10 to 15 deaths a years.

According to the Ministry of Health, since the arrival of the Delta variant, a third of the most severe COVID-19 cases were in people with no known pre-existing conditions. What this means is that COVID-19 is no longer a virus that just targets the more susceptible elderly or those with accumulated medical problems.

Healthy people are getting sick. Kids are getting sick. We need to think about that.

That there are still people out there deliberately rejecting vaccinations is mindboggling.

Chalk it up to a world where our biggest threat may very well be the ability to spread false information and people who isolate themselves in a world of mistrust of science and authority.

In fairness, neither the Saskatchewan Party government nor any other government anywhere is going to persuade all of its citizenry to do the right thing for themselves or for society as a whole.

But that Saskatchewan is not running neck and neck with Alberta for the record of the worst COVID-19 record in the country shows how bad we are doing.

It is here where Moe and Health Minister Health Paul Merriman — both of who have been largely absent from public view or distracting by less critical matters since the July 11 re-opening — need to bear down.

This surely begins with the Saskatchewan government swallowing its pride and working with the federal government.

After the federal election, Moe lambasted the Trudeau government for taking the summer off to campaign in an unnecessary and unwanted election — a notion in which most reasonable people can agree.

But there’s a massive problem if it is. Moe thinks our only problem is reserves and northern communities that fall under both federal and provincial jurisdiction.

The first problem is that it strongly suggests this government itself does not have a handle on where the problem is.

Saskatchewan does not release COVID-19 cases or vaccination rates in specific communities. He knows the north and inner cities are big problems, but we also know there are problems in the southwest (where vaccination rate ranges of those under 40 years range from 62 to 67 per cent and the southeast (61 to 69 percent in this age group.)

It’s up to the government to know where the problems are and address them.

Now, Merriman is rejecting federal Health Minister Patty Hajdu’s offer to provide extra staff, instead insisting this province needs monoclonal antibody treatment of rapid testing.

We don’t need more squabbling.

We have both vaccines and tests unused — perhaps because the province since July 11 let its guard down on COVID-19 and focused on other matters.

Merriman said this summer it was people’s right not to get vaccinated.

Now, he presides over a mess. He and his government need to get a handle on the COVID-19 problem.