Rhino’s Ramblings - Grape Kool Aid

Robert Thomas Opinion/Commentary

“I’m really sorry you had to put up with that,” is a comment I heard a lot over the weekend.

It all came as a reaction as we published the views of someone who didn’t like a story I ran about COVID - 19 now starting to reappear in the healthcare community.

To tell you quite frankly it’s like that all of the time when it comes to COVID - if you publish something either side doesn’t like you get an earful and then some.

Either way you’ve drank the Kool Aid and sadly it’s not my favourite flavour - grape.

It’s almost if the extremists on both sides of an argument want to display who is the most looniest of the bunch.

I’ve had people come to me in the COVID crisis and say the cure is there but the government is trying to suppress it for the big pharmaceutical companies.

They - the government and other conspiracy members - want to enslave us.

When I ask for the proof I am often told it’s all right there I just need to look.

Sorry it doesn’t make any sense to me. It’s like a math test from high school when they deduct marks after they say - show your work.

With that said the COVID - 19 epidemic has been a godsend for more than a few pharmaceutical companies as well as those who espouse other non-traditional methods.

Financially I’m told there are charlatans on both sides of the issue who have made and are still making a killing on all of this.

On the one side in 2022 Pfizer - one of the makers of vaccine - made a record profit off of their be all, end all silver bullet that is not a cure really. Just a preventative measure.

It’s all right there easy to find with a Google search here is just one of the links.

And if you go to the extremes of the other side the profits on a percentage basis the people many regard as quacks are raking in much more.

In one case a “fake church” saw the opportunity to spend thousands of dollars on an industrial bleach and market it as a cure all for everything.

The COVID - 19 epidemic was a marketing miracle as the people behind it made millions by claiming it cured that as well.

Here is the link for those interested.

Sad thing is when I researched the magic bleach cure all I even found there were people swearing by it as a cure for their children’s autism.

Not in the US but right here in Saskatchewan - sadly these people are parents desperate for a miracle.

With that said you cannot write anything with the C word in it without being flogged by either side of the issue.

If you put out a piece of information about an upcoming immunization clinic for people who want to know - and have the right to know - you end up being vilified and told you’ve “drunk the koolaid” or the juice or whatever is being served up.

Yes the same people espousing personal freedoms are out there stomping on the personal medical freedoms of others.

You can have freedoms and free and critical thought so long as you agree with them.

Freedom of thought and speech for me ironically is not free at all but rather totalitarian.

It’s this way for both sides.

Alternatively if you allow the more respectable on the sceptical side have their say all of a sudden you are enemy number one on the issue.

It’s similar to the yellow vesters who use to protest in front of City Hall on Saturday mornings. I went down to check out what it was all about and use to get lots of flack for that.

The same people who were in some ways part of the Truckers Convoy that went on to Ottawa.

You know, the everyday people, the federal government basically for many declared war on.

The thing I’m told by some makes me unCanadian because it never affected me.

I’m not a Canadian because other than when the convoy came through Moose Jaw it had almost zero attention from me.

My comments had one of the local anti-mask advocates literally calling me not a Canadian after I informed that person the events of those six weeks never had one effect upon me.

The best way for me to describe the Truckers Convoy is it was really people just blowing off steam after being confined in some ways by the COVID - 19 mandates.

People really had had enough.

For myself personally I think dodging the lead up to and a war in Lugansk, Poltava and Odessa had more of an effect on my attention at the time.

I will admit that I was asked what the Truckers Convoy was all about by a few ordinary people in Ukraine and all I said was it was people mad at their government and tired of the COVID - 19 restrictions.

The response I received was “oh like here.”

The protests in the last week of January 2021 in Kyiv are forever lost.

But yes in the prelude to the war Ukraine had seen a massive protest from the business community in Kyiv about the irreparable damage COVID - 19 restrictions were having.

People really were fed up about being cooped up. People were not able to run their business or earn a living.

There was no seemingly mass sudden deaths we saw in the big media leading into the pandemic happening in China.

What many were lead to believe didn’t happen.

With that said you can guess it I’m not a Canadian because I was using my own personal freedom to be outside of the country in at least one person’s mind during the Truckers Protest.

Freedom is something both sides espouse unless it’s inconvenient for their cause it seems.

I will be honest with you and say that I was told that because I was immunized I had mere months to live.

Then came the barrage of how bad I was for publishing information about where to get immunized as I was killing thousands.

I finally had enough and asked the person - who is religious - if they would give a dying man his wish.

They said yes and I said “leave this dying man alone to die in peace.”

It actually worked and I’m proud to state I’m still alive two years later. Despite having heart disease.

With that said in my opinion the way COVID - 19 was handled was one of the most clumsiest and laziest public relations campaign ever.

The government totally screwed up and many in the media sensationalized the story where in reality there were no clear answers.

There was no uniformity of message with a press eager to print every new development before the other guy did.

The information was often contradictory and changed by the minute leaving many people confused.

In the age of the Internet it left people out there searching for answers about what really happened and given the contradictory press reports a suspicion grew in many everyday people were being lied to.

I personally remember in one hour of one day there were five government updates with new information about restrictions which was contradictory and seemed to try to over analyze the situation.

A local event organizer told me that in a single day they had the restrictions change, usually half a dozen times.

It made it so they couldn’t plan anything nor could they tell any of your customers really what was happening.

The best way to describe it was nonsensical.

In many ways it seemed like it was a government in crisis.

For me personally it seemed they didn’t know what to do.

They left people trying to find answers that in many cases ascribed to their beliefs.

People would run into contradictory policies and information that all of a sudden spawned conspiracy theories.

Although it may have been a tough pill to swallow looking back I’m still wondering if a total 30 day worldwide lockdown instead of the years of haphazard efforts may have solved COVID -19 once and for all.

The two plus years of enduring agony may have been avoided with less fallout.

Personally though do I think there is a lot of things that need to be answered in the entire response to COVID.

I do remember having coffee one day and counting 13 police vehicles following a convoy of two protesters driving slowly down the streets.

Moose Jaw’s own version of the OJ Simpson chase I suppose.

Personally I wonder if all of those police cars were necessary and how much did this show of force cost?

People around me who witnessed this convoy spoke about the overkill and there must be bigger crimes going on.

One person remarked how the police allowed those birthday convoys with dozens that seemingly broke the restrictions but targeted these two troublemakers like they were terrorists.

But I will say there were things that I saw that did come up in the privately run citizen’s inquiry.

There were some really - in my opinion - policies out there that pushed into the ludicrous.

Policies such as families not being able to gown up and spend the last few hours with their dying loved ones in a hospital is a big one.

Let’s explain it this way the nursing staff wear protective clothing - often disposable - and they’ve been exposed to more potential germs than most people so what’s the harm?

If I want to go and hold a loved one in their final hours and comfort them why not?

If I’m willing to quarantine afterwards for two weeks that really is my problem isn’t it?

For myself personally I thought where is the compassion and humanity in all of this? Has the system gone totally insane?

I remember asking questions about this one and basically got the response back I was clueless about what it’s like to be a nurse.

They didn’t like the response I gave when I told them I had been married to an emergency department nurse who worked for years at the Royal University Hospital so I had a bit of an idea.

I never did get a response back as to that one.

And that’s the problem with all of these conspiracy theories that are floating out there.

It’s politically driven in most cases.

Asking honest questions never really got honest answers and it spawned people asking for more.

It brought out the far fringe people on both sides of the equation and made them superstars.

With that said do I agree with the rights of people to have opinions on this hot button topic?

Yes sure I do.

But with that said I’m not going to personally put up with people who tell me I’ve got to cover something - especially political - so long as I espouse their views.

Our time on this earth is limited. It’s not about to happen on my watch.

Now where do I find some grape Kool Aid on sale?

You can have freedoms and free and critical thought so long as you agree with them.

Freedom of thought and speech for me ironically is not free at all but rather totalitarian.

It’s this way for both sides.

Alternatively if you allow the more respectable on the sceptical side have their say all of a sudden you are enemy number one on the issue.

It’s similar to the yellow vesters who use to protest in front of City Hall on Saturday mornings. I went down to check out what it was all about and use to get lots of flack for that.

The same people who were in some ways part of the Truckers Convoy that went on to Ottawa.

You know, the everyday people, the federal government basically for many declared war on.

The thing I’m told by some makes me unCanadian because it never affected me.

I’m not a Canadian because other than when the convoy came through Moose Jaw it had almost zero attention from me.

My comments had one of the local anti-mask advocates literally calling me not a Canadian after I informed that person the events of those six weeks never had one effect upon me.

The best way for me to describe the Truckers Convoy is it was really people just blowing off steam after being confined in some ways by the COVID - 19 mandates.

People really had had enough.

For myself personally I think dodging the lead up to and a war in Lugansk, Poltava and Odessa had more of an effect on my attention at the time.

I will admit that I was asked what the Truckers Convoy was all about by a few ordinary people in Ukraine and all I said was it was people mad at their government and tired of the COVID - 19 restrictions.

The response I received was “oh like here.”

The protests in the last week of January 2021 in Kyiv are forever lost.

But yes in the prelude to the war Ukraine had seen a massive protest from the business community in Kyiv about the irreparable damage COVID - 19 restrictions were having.

People really were fed up about being cooped up. People were not able to run their business or earn a living.

There was no seemingly mass sudden deaths we saw in the big media leading into the pandemic happening in China.

What many were lead to believe didn’t happen.

With that said you can guess it I’m not a Canadian because I was using my own personal freedom to be outside of the country in at least one person’s mind during the Truckers Protest.

Freedom is something both sides espouse unless it’s inconvenient for their cause it seems.

I will be honest with you and say that I was told that because I was immunized I had mere months to live.

Then came the barrage of how bad I was for publishing information about where to get immunized as I was killing thousands.

I finally had enough and asked the person - who is religious - if they would give a dying man his wish.

They said yes and I said “leave this dying man alone to die in peace.”

It actually worked and I’m proud to state I’m still alive two years later. Despite having heart disease.

With that said in my opinion the way COVID - 19 was handled was one of the most clumsiest and laziest public relations campaign ever.

The government totally screwed up and many in the media sensationalized the story where in reality there were no clear answers.

There was no uniformity of message with a press eager to print every new development before the other guy did.

The information was often contradictory and changed by the minute leaving many people confused.

In the age of the Internet it left people out there searching for answers about what really happened and given the contradictory press reports a suspicion grew in many everyday people were being lied to.

I personally remember in one hour of one day there were five government updates with new information about restrictions which was contradictory and seemed to try to over analyze the situation.

A local event organizer told me that in a single day they had the restrictions change, usually half a dozen times.

It made it so they couldn’t plan anything nor could they tell any of your customers really what was happening.

The best way to describe it was nonsensical.

In many ways it seemed like it was a government in crisis.

For me personally it seemed they didn’t know what to do.

They left people trying to find answers that in many cases ascribed to their beliefs.

People would run into contradictory policies and information that all of a sudden spawned conspiracy theories.

Although it may have been a tough pill to swallow looking back I’m still wondering if a total 30 day worldwide lockdown instead of the years of haphazard efforts may have solved COVID -19 once and for all.

The two plus years of enduring agony may have been avoided with less fallout.

Personally though do I think there is a lot of things that need to be answered in the entire response to COVID.

I do remember having coffee one day and counting 13 police vehicles following a convoy of two protesters driving slowly down the streets.

Moose Jaw’s own version of the OJ Simpson chase I suppose.

Personally I wonder if all of those police cars were necessary and how much did this show of force cost?

People around me who witnessed this convoy spoke about the overkill and there must be bigger crimes going on.

One person remarked how the police allowed those birthday convoys with dozens that seemingly broke the restrictions but targeted these two troublemakers like they were terrorists.

But I will say there were things that I saw that did come up in the privately run citizen’s inquiry.

There were some really - in my opinion - policies out there that pushed into the ludicrous.

Policies such as families not being able to gown up and spend the last few hours with their dying loved ones in a hospital is a big one.

Let’s explain it this way the nursing staff wear protective clothing - often disposable - and they’ve been exposed to more potential germs than most people so what’s the harm?

If I want to go and hold a loved one in their final hours and comfort them why not?

If I’m willing to quarantine afterwards for two weeks that really is my problem isn’t it?

For myself personally I thought where is the compassion and humanity in all of this? Has the system gone totally insane?

I remember asking questions about this one and basically got the response back I was clueless about what it’s like to be a nurse.

They didn’t like the response I gave when I told them I had been married to an emergency department nurse who worked for years at the Royal University Hospital so I had a bit of an idea.

I never did get a response back as to that one.

And that’s the problem with all of these conspiracy theories that are floating out there.

It’s politically driven in most cases.

Asking honest questions never really got honest answers and it spawned people asking for more.

It brought out the far fringe people on both sides of the equation and made them superstars.

With that said do I agree with the rights of people to have opinions on this hot button topic?

Yes sure I do.

But with that said I’m not going to personally put up with people who tell me I’ve got to cover something - especially political - so long as I espouse their views.

Our time on this earth is limited. It’s not about to happen on my watch.

Now where do I find some grape Kool Aid on sale?