If you are “not currently a practising member of” any religion, CFIC encourages you to select “No religion” on the 2021 Census, regardless of how you were raised, previous beliefs, or cultural affiliation.
From the Canadian Centre for Inquiry…
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If you are “not currently a practising member of” any religion, CFIC encourages you to select “No religion” on the 2021 Census, regardless of how you were raised, previous beliefs, or cultural affiliation.
From the Canadian Centre for Inquiry…
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Shea and I recently watched the Beastie Boys documentary on AppleTV+ and really enjoyed it.
“Sabotage” – Beastie Boys
Today we announced the expansion of our #COVID19SK vaccine delivery plan to target remaining healthcare workers, first responders and staff working in pharmacies and grocery facilities.
You can learn more by visiting https://t.co/2EjdJrzTzt. pic.twitter.com/LdX5fhA1JY
— Government of Saskatchewan (@SKGov) April 12, 2021
There has been a lot of debate about the most effective order of vaccination roll-out and how to balance the need to vaccinate to prevent death (mostly older people) and to prevent spread (basically, people working in settings where they might have a higher risk of exposure for various reasons – can’t avoid close contact, work in a maskless environment, prolonged exposure, etc.)
In many ways, it’s a debate about vaccinating those living in a long-term healthcare facility (who are at great risk because of their advanced age) and the people who work in a long-term health care facility (who are more at risk of spreading the virus as they move around in their day-to-day lives when not at work.)
Of course, in that example, it’s not one or the other as the obvious best solution is to vaccinate residents and workers to minimize both death and risk of spread.
But how does that translate into the larger world where vaccine supplies are limited and different groups have different arguments for why they should be vaccinated earlier than others?
With a few exceptions for healthcare workers (but not all, only those considered “Phase One” which doesn’t even include everyone working in hospitals) and people who are considered medically fragile, Saskatchewan otherwise chose to initially use a straight age-based vaccination plan – starting with people who were 80+ and working downwards.
This is the easiest solution but I’m not convinced it was the best as it fails to take into account such nonsensical situations as a retiree who is 65 and more than capable of staying home getting vaccinated ahead of a 55 year old grocery clerk who may not be considered medically fragile but might be more at risk because they’re overweight and is more likely to be exposed to Covid than the retiree. Or a 62 year old union rep who is working from home getting vaccinated over the 42 year old bus driver they represent who’s been going to work every day without a break for over a year. Or a nurse who might be working with Covid+ patients normally so gets vaccinated because of where her home position is even though she’s on maternity leave but the person who is the same age and works 12-hour days at the Robin’s Donuts on a hospital’s main floor doesn’t qualify.
How Saskatchewan’s appointment system works is you enter your health card and birth date and that’s how they screen for age only – again, simple and easy.
And Saskatchewan has recently started to open up vaccinations more to other essential workers including teachers and others.
But if I was king of the world, I’d have a few more criteria to winnow down who qualifies in a more granular fashion to assist with the decision-making given limited vaccine supplies. I’d have the form designed to screen for a few additional factors besides age to see if you qualify for early vaccination or not:
On the other hand, my system would make it clear that people who are able to stay at home/work from home would either be considered a lower priority (or maybe could opt to *be* a lower priority and “donate” their spot to someone who does fit the criteria?)
At any rate, I’m mostly spitballing as a layperson but again, if I was the king of the world, I would let medical and scientific experts develop a priority list using mathematical models and in complete transparency. I would remove all politicians from the decision-making (see early criticism of Premier Scott Moe whose hometown just happened to be given early doses. Did they have an outbreak? Yes. Did it look like a conflict, especially when other towns who’d also had outbreaks didn’t get special treatment? Yes again. Same thing when he was one of the last age groups to get vaccinated at the drive-thru clinic before vaccines ran out then many people ended up going out of town for vaccinations.)
I might even try to include weighting within categories – a nurse on an ICU ward would get weighted more heavily than a nurse in a hospital but who doesn’t regularly interact with Covid + patients who would get weighted more heavily than a nurse who is able to work from home.). One report I saw said staff in a dentist office were one of the highest risk groups overall so maybe they get more weighting than others who might also work with clients who go maskless?
Maybe to prevent people lying on their vaccination application since more categories means more grey areas instead of pure birthdate which is pretty hard to lie about, you would do random audits of people wanting to get vaccinated. Or require proof when they show up that they fit in one of the identified categories.
Oh, and finally, I’d find a way to make this less of a car-based process – there are numerous people who simply can’t get to a drive-thru vaccination clinic because, duh, they don’t have a car! So I’d make sure there were options for people who don’t have vehicles (and if there are, I’d make sure they are well-publicized as I don’t remember hearing anything about them myself.).
And as much as I hate to say it, library workers would likely not be a high priority by any math (though, if libraries are open, they’re very similar risk factors to places like grocery stores, retail outlets, and occasionally, places where it is hard to social distance.)
You don’t have to submit your password – just type it into the box on this site and it will tell you how long it would take a computer to guess it.
If you’re nervous about testing your own passwords, use something similar eg. instead of “password”, use “massward” or whatever.)
Regina Public Schools to return to in-class learning on May 3, 2021. https://t.co/YZayV5QOJv pic.twitter.com/OHaAUGGPED
— Regina Public Schools (@RegPublicSchool) April 26, 2021
Regina Public Schools has announced that students will return to school on May 3 and there is lots of debate on social media and elsewhere about the decision.
Five Reasons It’s Good To Send Students Back To School Right Now
1. I’ve seen it firsthand and also talking to our kids’ teachers and other parents, it’s clear that distance learning, even if workload and assignment complexity are reduced, is more of a struggle for kids in terms of self-starting and motivation and creating boundaries between “home” and “school” among other overriding stresses since we’re STILL IN THE MIDDLE OF A WORLDWIDE GLOBAL PANDEMIC.
2. Many students have parents who are still working or even if they’re at home, are not well-positioned to help guide them for other reason since parents, no matter their background or education level, might still have to focus on their own work and/or aren’t trained as teachers. (We’re fortunate that our kids are 13 and 8 so can be home alone, are relatively responsible, etc. but there are days where Shea and I are both at work and the kids miss their classroom meetings or don’t make much progress on homework during the day or whatever.)
3. Some parents don’t have enough (any?) devices and/or an Internet connection to support distance learning. Or, if they do, one family of four might share a single laptop or whatever so those kids, already likely at higher risk of not doing well in school, are falling further behind.
4. Teachers do their best work one-on-one in person as do students.
5. At some level, you have to trust the people elected to the school board (a few who I know personally) to make the right decision and I’m sure they wouldn’t make this decision if they didn’t feel the benefits outweighed the risks.
Five Reasons It’s Not Good To Send Students Back To School Right Now
1. The biggest reason by far is that, by pretty much every measure, Covid is worse in Saskatchewan than when schools were closed a month ago.
2. The government had a great opportunity when they shut schools to prioritize teachers (and anyone else who works in schools – EAs, receptionists, janitors, etc. etc.) for vaccination in anticipation of this moment to decrease the risk to school staff. But unfortunately they didn’t do that so many school staff members are going back unvaccinated.
3. The variants are more virulent and communicable than the initial Covid virus and there is some debate if some of the accepted measures – six foot distance, cloth masks – are even as effective in preventing variant spread as initially thought?
4. When the first closures happened in March 2020, the City, schools and public libraries made a joint announcement about the closure. This showed unity and also, frankly, provided some cover to each organization if they were going to be criticized as they could point to the other “partners” as making the same tough decision. With this decision, Regina Public Schools is “jumping ahead” of other orgs that are currently shut down until at least May 10.
5. On the flip side of trusting the elected school board trustees, I have a small niggling worry that this decision might at least partly have been made because of pressure from the provincial government to align with their political priorities, either overtly or even covertly. I wish this wasn’t even a thought in my brain but given that the Sask Party has repeatedly made decisions based on politics rather than science throughout this pandemic and most recently. had a very heavy-handed response to a motion by Regina City Council to ban advertising by oil & gas companies, I don’t think it’s outside the realm of possibilities – again, even if not an overt threat, could it be in the back of mind of decision-makers that they don’t want the blow-back of crossing a very popular (and occasionally vindictive) provincial government?
At any rate, the decision is made and since Shea and I aren’t in a position to home school or keep our kids out, we will simply have to hope that this works out and the kids can get through the remaining two months of the school year.
(I observed to one person that if schools get shut down again in the next two months after closing/opening/closing during the past year, that’s even worse as, because at that point, I think another shutdown only happens if something horrible occurs – a massive outbreak or worse.)