Image Credit: The Canadian Press

By James Peters

Two & Out

PETERS: Alberta is a fascinating case study for those who would seek to drop COVID-19 restrictions

Sep 17, 2021 | 10:41 AM

ALBERTANS WHO ARE NOT GASPING FOR BREATH in a hospital ICU are likely gasping in shock and horror at what is happening in their province right now.

Consider for a moment, if you will, their plight.

Alberta is in the midst of a real, honest-to-goodness COVID-19 emergency. There is no denying this.

Don’t look at case counts, don’t look at vaccination rates, just look at intensive care admissions for a moment.

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As of Thursday, Alberta was seeing 18-to-20 admissions to ICU due to COVID-19 every day and there were 310 ICU beds left in the entire province, including surge beds that have been opened up as a contingency.

Three-quarters of all ICU patients in Alberta have COVID-19. If admissions continue at this rate — and remember, ICU admission spikes lag behind case count spikes — there will be no more ICU space at all in two weeks. Not a single bed.

B.C. has already said it will not be accepting ICU patients from Alberta and Saskatchewan is bracing for its own wave.

Here in our province, the situation is not exactly peachy-keen, but it is measurably better.

What has made the difference? After all, it’s the same virus in both places.

The difference is the speed and enthusiasm in which each province loosened its restrictions over the past few months.

While both provinces opened up significantly, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney flung the doors wide and with reckless abandon.

Restrictions were dropped so dramatically that people couldn’t help but feel it was time to party — at Calgary Stampede, for example, which kicked off the so-called ‘Best Summer Ever.’

Kenney’s UCP even sold merchandise saying ‘Best Summer Ever — Alberta 2021.’

In B.C. and elsewhere, governments were significantly more circumspect.

Albertans, regardless of their personal approaches to COVID-19, should be furious with their provincial leaders.

It will be a miracle if Kenney’s political career survives to the end of the year, let alone until the next election in the spring of 2023.

A line between decisions and consequences has rarely been so straight and so clear.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.