Business as usual for Quebecers
Once again this week, the director general of the World Health Organization insisted that, “The pandemic is not over.” But you sure wouldn’t know it from walking around downtown Montreal, where crowds gather by the thousands to listen to jazz musicians or watch circus artists.
Hundreds of thousands came to watch the Formula One Grand Prix last month. Tens of thousands more are expected next week in Quebec City for Pope Francis’ visit to Canada. Despite a very serious worker shortage, most restaurants are open and packed.
Except for some people wearing masks, there are no signs that we are still in the midst of one of the worst pandemics in modern history. In other words, Montreal and the rest of the province have reverted back to their usual, busy and festive summer schedule. The provincial government also is in summer mode, like there is nothing special going on.
Early in the pandemic, the premier provided daily updates on the number of cases, the number of patients in hospital and the number of deaths. He expressed his condolences to the families of the deceased. He announced increasingly drastic measures. And he answered every possible question from the media. This handson approach was in large part what made Premier François Legault so popular and why, unless something very big happens, he will win the upcoming election on Oct. 3.
Nowadays, the premier rarely holds a press conference on the subject of COVID. The regular updates are left to knowledgeable but boring department officials. Coming back from a short vacation, Legault commented on the situation Thursday, highlighting that although the government is monitoring the situation closely, “For the moment, all is well.”
Health Minister Christian Dubé has said that Quebecers need to learn to live with COVID. Does that mean learning to deal with a significant number of deaths each day, as well as with permanently overcrowded hospitals? Will this be the new normal? Quebec’s public health director, Dr. Luc Boileau, said this week that it looks like the virus is learning to live with us, rather than the other way around. But all is well, apparently.
In Quebec, as in other parts of the country, the number of cases, the number of hospitalizations and the number of deaths have increased. As of Friday, there were more than 2,000 Quebecers hospitalized with COVID; 15 deaths were registered on Thursday.
Yet most Quebecers appear to have become indifferent to the virus. The first-dose vaccination rate is very high — 91 per cent — but the rate for the third dose is only 56 per cent. Only half of
people over 60 years old have decided to take the fourth dose.
Being part of the small minority still wearing a mask, I can testify to the fact that doing so when no one else does can be very uncomfortable. But so be it: the mask is a very tolerable inconvenience if it protects me, my loved ones and other fragile people from the virus. I also got the fourth shot as soon as it was made available; I frankly cannot understand why all people my age did not rush to get it. It’s not that I suffer from COVID anxiety, but why not take these extra, relatively painless precautions?
As the local media were starting to get excited about the “seventh wave,” Dr. Karl Weiss, one of Quebec’s most respected infectious disease experts, called for calm in a radio interview on Thursday morning. Weiss, chief of the infectious diseases division at Montreal’s Jewish General Hospital, highlighted that the COVID-19 pandemic is transitioning to an endemic stage.
“The COVID-19 virus will be with us for a long time. Successive waves are normal. It is becoming obsolete to talk about the seventh wave, the eighth wave. Furthermore, the planet has gone back to a nearly normal life in many countries, so it is normal that the virus circulates. However, its impact on the health of the whole of the population is relatively small,” he said.
Therefore, there are science-based reasons why the Legault government is distancing itself from the pandemic: the situation does not warrant full political mobilization like it did a year or two ago. Yet partisan considerations are not far behind.
Legault’s party, the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ), is being threatened in some of its strongholds by the reborn Conservative Party of Quebec. The Conservatives have surged thanks to their opposition to the lockdowns and vaccine mandates; the last thing the CAQ wants is for those issues to become prominent again, a few weeks before voting day.
Don’t get me wrong: if the health situation gets worse, Legault will put partisanship aside and do what it takes to protect the population. However, I bet ministers and staff from this very secular government are praying on their knees that such a scenario does not develop. All is well.
QUEBECERS APPEAR TO HAVE BECOME INDIFFERENT TO THE VIRUS.