Jarvis: For once, in this 21-month pandemic, let’s listen to the experts

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As local healthcare leaders warn of “exploding” COVID-19 cases and stress in hospitals, as Ontario rushes to give booster injections to as many people as possible as quickly as possible, Kingsville and Essex they want the capacity limit in restaurants and bars revoked.

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Kingsville city council voted unanimously Monday to ask the Windsor Essex County Health Unit to “immediately lift” the new restriction limiting restaurants and bars to 50 percent capacity.

“We oppose the letter of instruction … limiting the indoor capacity of bars and restaurants,” states a similar letter last week from Essex, whose Mayor Larry Snively is on the board of health.

The Kingsville letter recognizes that the safety of residents is “critically important” and that “proper security protocols are needed.”

But it states that the well-being of communities “must include considerations for mental health and economic health.”

He points out that people can shop in supermarkets and go to sporting events without limits and cross the border to go to restaurants, more sports and concerts without limits.

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The above rules should have been better applied, the letter also says.

All of that is true and is raising questions. But this is where the letter crosses the line.

Previous rules, which required checking clients’ vaccination status and collecting their contact information to track potential contacts in an outbreak, were “sufficient,” the letter concludes.

How do councilors know that? What do they know that Health Medical Officer Dr. Shanker Nesathurai and Health Unit Executive Director Nicole Dupuis don’t know?

The risk in restaurants and bars “is possibly no greater than that of any other small business and probably less than that of large companies and sports venues,” the letter says.

“Let’s go back,” Mayor Nelson Santos said Tuesday, the day the health unit reported the first case of Omicron in the region and three more deaths. “We thought those measures were good.”

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Or, he suggested, limit the number of people at tables and provide sufficient distance between tables. We need an approach that is “salable,” he said.

The capacity limit “hurts your financial health at this critical time of year,” as the letter says, and comes after three lockdowns in less than two years. Business owners are “mentally exhausted,” as the Essex letter says.

But we are not in control at the moment. The virus is. We cannot negotiate. We are fighting to do whatever we have to do to manage this. Hopefully, the stricter measures will avoid the need to re-lock.

Both Nesathurai and Dupuis addressed limits at restaurants on Monday.

“Certainly, in businesses like a restaurant, where people are very close to each other, without protection, it is a very, very high risk environment,” Dupuis said.

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This was the director of the scientific advisory desk, Dr. Peter Juni, to the Toronto Star on Monday: “Retail can continue with proper masking, that is not the problem, but indoor meals must be extremely reduced, 25 percent, or just shut down. The bars are probably closed. 25 percent sports stadiums with masks and, of course, certificates (of vaccines) ”.

“As time passes,” Santos said, “and we see another wave coming, and the cases and the numbers begin to point to levels that we really must respond to … we are open to listen.”

As time goes? Omicron comprised 31 percent of cases in Ontario on Monday, and the number of cases is doubling every three days, a staggering rate. On Tuesday 1,429 new cases were registered in the province. Do the math.

At least Santos was courteous. Essex Coun. Chris Vander Doelen called the capacity limit “a scandalous overreach on the part of the health unit.” Coun. Kim Verbeek called it “an assault on our restaurants.” Coun. Joe Garon called him “beyond stupid” and offered that if anyone wants to protest in front of the health unit building, “I’m on board. Just let me know when and I’ll be there with you. “

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Snively said she knows “for a fact” that unvaccinated people go to restaurants.

So, as a member of the board of health, have you ordered more enforcement? And what do you do to people’s trust in public health when a member of the board of health opposes the orders of their own experts?

It was outrageous, okay, an outrageous abdication of leadership at a critical time.

“We are doing everything we can … to support minimizing impacts on the healthcare industry,” said a somber Erie Shores HealthCare CEO Kristin Kennedy.

“We have to do better in the future,” Santos said. “We have to continue to find a way to live our livelihood. Everything has an impact and you have to measure it. He’s trying to find a balance. “

That is also true. But right now, all signs point to a tsunami of cases where we don’t have the capacity or the time to stop on vaccination alone. And Kingsville, where a restaurant party spawned 45 cases last month, where a 31-year-old Mexican migrant worker died of COVID-19 last year and where the vaccination rate is lower than average, needs to protect its residents. .

So, for once in this 21-month pandemic, let’s listen to the experts. The most important thing we’ve learned so far is that when we don’t listen to the experts, a lot of people die.

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