Jump to content

COVID-19 (Coronavirus) - How are you coping with this?


RailBus63

Recommended Posts

Just downloaded my proof of vaccination with QR code. Handy if travelling internationally which shows the country where the proof was authorized along with the province/territory the vaccination took place in. Showing both doses and the dates administered. Some venues requiring proof of vaccination or negative test depending on what regulations are provided. 

The QR code can be inputted into the Health app on iPhone. You can simply show your proof of vaccination digitally and it will provide the same information. 

2 hours ago, pccstreetcar4549 said:

“Zoom” 

i never  want to use that app  or hear that name ever again. When things go “normal”  

I remember reading about Zoom and the issues they had regarding capacity, security and privacy concerns. A small platform that can handle hundreds of users at once for a Zoom meeting and not having enough capacity for the demand used by businesses and governments with large meetings.

Don't get me started on Zoom fatigue (there was a question on The Chase ABC version about it). I don't think some people like to be in video meetings for several hours and having to prepare for those meetings and making sure their equipment works. I once tried an online class and did so badly that I would rather take in-person classes if available. Assuming if you can get a response from the administrator or professor in a timely manner.   

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, GTAmissions1 said:

Just downloaded my proof of vaccination with QR code. Handy if travelling internationally which shows the country where the proof was authorized along with the province/territory the vaccination took place in. Showing both doses and the dates administered. Some venues requiring proof of vaccination or negative test depending on what regulations are provided. 

The QR code can be inputted into the Health app on iPhone. You can simply show your proof of vaccination digitally and it will provide the same information. 

I remember reading about Zoom and the issues they had regarding capacity, security and privacy concerns. A small platform that can handle hundreds of users at once for a Zoom meeting and not having enough capacity for the demand used by businesses and governments with large meetings.

Don't get me started on Zoom fatigue (there was a question on The Chase ABC version about it). I don't think some people like to be in video meetings for several hours and having to prepare for those meetings and making sure their equipment works. I once tried an online class and did so badly that I would rather take in-person classes if available. Assuming if you can get a response from the administrator or professor in a timely manner.   

The crazy Thing no one beyond people in the business world knew what zoom was before March 2020…. Though  i will say  this, zoom karaoke sessions with friends  kept me sane..

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

^

I actually have mixed feelings about Zoom.  While I completely understand Zoom fatigue and have suffered from it myself at times, calling Zoom a cheap substitute for face-to-face interactions, I would much rather have a meeting online than sit in an overheated room wearing a mask for a few hours. ?

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow, every once in a while the Toronto Star surprises me in a good way:

The need for ‘wartime speed’: Time is running out on using COVID as excuse for delays and reduced service at city hall  (alternate link)

Whaddaya mean "Because COVID-19" isn't a good enough excuse for everything anymore?

I only think the scope needs to be widened from Toronto City Hall to everything.  This has really turned into the new replacement for the worn out  "security reasons" crutch that was the catch-all excuse for everything for years and years after 9/11.  A lot of people who saw that movie called this one right away back in March/April of 2020 and here we are 19 months later...

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 hours ago, captaintrolley said:

You mean we will soon be able to sit on benches and use public restrooms now ?!?!?!?

One would hope.  Actually, here in Ontario, when indoor dining resumed again, that got a lot of formerly closed washrooms at coffee shops etc. opened up again.

It was brutal over the winter and spring though while every single public washroom was closed and there was nowhere to go.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, pccstreetcar4549 said:

can the stores get rid of the stupid one way aisle things, at  stores like walmart they are rather pointless those aisles are huge! and no one follows those anymore  

 

Ughhhh, no greater annoyance! We still have someone at my work who insists on setting up merchandise displays down the middle of any wider aisle, making the job of pushing a wide cart filled with building materials a huge pain in the rear. Funnily enough, this piece of meaningless security theatre was nowhere to be seen when our store was in lockdown, when COVID cases were supposed to be at their highest!

There's a memo tacked on the wall in the break room stating that apparently us employees are expected to follow the one way signage. Funny. I don't think I've seen anyone respect those stickers ever.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Canadians should use provincial proof of vaccination to travel internationally, officials say

Are you serious?

That's it?

After they've supposedly been working so hard for many months on this, that's it?  The federal vaccine passport is "use your provincial/territorial credentials" and hope the place you're going to accepts it.

It makes me wonder if the complaints about Trudeau's vacation and slow return to business in November for a couple of weeks before parliament closes again for the Christmas break for six weeks even matters all that much when this F-minus-minus level of effort out of Ottawa yet again means there's clearly not a whole lot of a difference between this "working hard" and being on vacation with parliament closed.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, PCC Guy said:

Wow!!!! I had to slap myself hard in the face just to make sure I wasn't dreaming this.

What a disgraceful abdication of duty.

I know.  For crying out loud, if they were going to abdicate it, they could've at least abdicated it promptly six, seven, eight, nine months ago and let everyone get on with it using their existing provincial vaccine recepts instead of forcing everyone to wait all this time for nothing.  Working hard, my ass.

  • Like 2
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It also leaves people needing to go to countries that don't recognize provincial vaccine documents completely in the lurch. I don't know how true this still is, but a few months ago I found out that the Czech Republic doesn't recognize any Canadians as being vaccinated at all, on account of our lack of a federal level vaccine passport. I'm lucky I had no urgent need of going there this year, but eventually I would very much like to go back and I wonder who's going to yield first, if anyone, or if I'm going to have to waste my time in quarantine. I suspect bothering to hope we'll ever dispense with needing these documents for travel is a pie in the sky fantasy that should've been left behind in February 2020.

  • Like 1
  • Sad 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

27 minutes ago, PCC Guy said:

It also leaves people needing to go to countries that don't recognize provincial vaccine documents completely in the lurch. I don't know how true this still is, but a few months ago I found out that the Czech Republic doesn't recognize any Canadians as being vaccinated at all, on account of our lack of a federal level vaccine passport. I'm lucky I had no urgent need of going there this year, but eventually I would very much like to go back and I wonder who's going to yield first, if anyone, or if I'm going to have to waste my time in quarantine. I suspect bothering to hope we'll ever dispense with needing these documents for travel is a pie in the sky fantasy that should've been left behind in February 2020.

The big deal in today's announcement is that the provincial documents are now going to be issued with the trademark "Canada" with the flag flying from the top of the d's tail over the last a, so maybe that'll make the provincial documents look officially federal enough if you get them reissued again (plain, with QR code, now with QR code and federal logo!).  Maybe.  But the federal government's quoted in multiple media outlets with this quote:

The bottom line, says a government background document, is that each country “decides what type of vaccination proof is required, the types of vaccines they accept, the number of doses required, and any exemptions to public health measures. Even with a Canadian COVID-19 proof of vaccination, a traveller may not be considered fully vaccinated in another country.”

In other words what they're saying is, if the cheap cop-out we kept you waiting all year for isn't good enough for the place you're going to, tough, not our problem.  And this was after many months of "hard work" too.

28 minutes ago, tomsbuspage said:

This forum seriously needs a facepalm reaction... ?‍♂️

No kidding.  Sheesh.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is worse than watching paint dry or grass grow.  I packaged up a couple small items into a box and paid an absolute fortune, as in I'm still suffering from sticker shock, for Canada Post's fastest air shipping to Sweden on October 13th.  It sat for a full calendar week until October 20 until being sent from the big Canada Post plant in Mississauga to Sweden and the estimated delivery date is November 4th.

They're still using the various COVID-19 excuse crutches (safety protocols, outbreaks, parcel volume) to justify it.  You look at the overall vaccination rate and disease numbers for Ontario which covers the local post office up the street and the big plant and the airport in Mississauga the parcel left the country from and have to wonder how much validity is left in those excuses except for maybe parcel volume, but we're still well ahead of the Christmas mail rush though.  Add the federal vaccine mandate that Canada Post is going to be subject to imminently and that excuse is really going to be defanged so it's going to be interesting to see how this plays out between likely continuing poor performance and increasingly dwindling viability of the COVID-19 dead horse.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Wayside Observer said:

Add the federal vaccine mandate that Canada Post is going to be subject to imminently and that excuse is really going to be defanged

"We don't have enough personnel." The excuses write themselves.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

CTV News: Ontario to lift capacity limits in restaurants and gyms starting Monday, masking mandates to end by late March

All I can say about this news is that I hope and pray that things don't go sideways between now and March, forcing Premier Ford to extend the restrictions yet again.  I really, really, really want the mask mandate and capacity restrictions to end as soon as it is practical to do so.  Cosmic Advendures, Ottawa's biggest indoor playground, reopened in September after being closed since March 2020.  It's a great place to take kids to burn off some energy for a few hours and then take them back home exhausted, but they require masks on all children ages two and up, without any exceptions.  The staff say it's because toddlers don't know how to distance, and I can understand that.  However, my two-year-old son is not mask-trained and I've been hoping that I don't have to train him.  My brother-in-law didn't start mask-training his daughter until she was three years old.  I just really hope that the number of COVID cases in Ontario stay low so that the restrictions can end on schedule, if not sooner.

Meanwhile...

CTV News: Ontario's COVID-19 case counts expected to remain stable as long as public health measures are not lifted

The Ontario Science Advisory Table are warning that "Lifting public health measures can drive a new wave, even with strong vaccine coverage," and that restrictions should remain in place and people minimise their social activities to keep case counts low.  They have been advocating for strong restrictions ever since COVID began but their forecasts for tens of thousands of cases a day in Ontario have never materialised.  However, they know how to present their information so that the public think the worst and favour the restrictions that they recommend, regardless of the resulting harm to people's mental health and livelihoods.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, tomsbuspage said:

The Ontario Science Advisory Table are warning that "Lifting public health measures can drive a new wave, even with strong vaccine coverage,"

When Alberta lifted a number of restrictions in the summer it created havoc.  Alberta had the highest case count in the country for a while.  Numbers are going down now thanks to remasking, distancing and the vaccine passport. Still a very long ways to go though.

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, captaintrolley said:

When Alberta lifted a number of restrictions in the summer it created havoc.  Alberta had the highest case count in the country for a while.  Numbers are going down now thanks to remasking, distancing and the vaccine passport. Still a very long ways to go though.

That's the "sideways" I'm hoping doesn't happen here in Ontario.  I've since reviewed the press release from the Ontario government and only businesses for which proof of vaccination is required are being allowed to eliminate capacity restrictions:

Ontario Releases Plan to Safely Reopen Ontario and Manage COVID-19 for the Long-Term

So strip clubs can open at full capacity starting in November, but churches can't until January unless they begin requiring proof of vaccination.  It's nice to see where the Ford government's priorities are. ?‍♂️

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/23/2021 at 12:46 AM, tomsbuspage said:

CTV News: Ontario to lift capacity limits in restaurants and gyms starting Monday, masking mandates to end by late March

All I can say about this news is that I hope and pray that things don't go sideways between now and March, forcing Premier Ford to extend the restrictions yet again.  I really, really, really want the mask mandate and capacity restrictions to end as soon as it is practical to do so.  Cosmic Advendures, Ottawa's biggest indoor playground, reopened in September after being closed since March 2020.  It's a great place to take kids to burn off some energy for a few hours and then take them back home exhausted, but they require masks on all children ages two and up, without any exceptions.  The staff say it's because toddlers don't know how to distance, and I can understand that.  However, my two-year-old son is not mask-trained and I've been hoping that I don't have to train him.  My brother-in-law didn't start mask-training his daughter until she was three years old.

Just throwing this out there:

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, pccstreetcar4549 said:

That guys videos are always entertaining and informative sometimes 

I had a long coffee with a friend of mine on September 20.  We watched a bunch of that guy's TV destruction videos while we were waiting for election results to come in and started brainstorming different ways to destroy clapped out junk CRT televisions.  Since then, I've had a few thoughts of cutting together some of COVID-19's greatest hits in case he or I comes across a junk TV at the side of the road and give it a sendoff in a blaze of glory.  Ideally while this awful neighbour is working from home.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/16/2021 at 2:25 PM, GTAmissions1 said:

Just downloaded my proof of vaccination with QR code. Handy if travelling internationally which shows the country where the proof was authorized along with the province/territory the vaccination took place in. Showing both doses and the dates administered. Some venues requiring proof of vaccination or negative test depending on what regulations are provided. 

The QR code can be inputted into the Health app on iPhone. You can simply show your proof of vaccination digitally and it will provide the same information. 

I also downloaded mine as well (along with same thing for my dad) recently. Even though that I have two (2) separate proof of vaccinations for the 1st and second doses respectively, it'll make things simplier with the QR code. I also have the minitaure copies that I was given during the time in which I got the doses this year.

The other day, I stumbled to find these videos from a company formerly known as Gemalto (now known as "Thales") and it features these two document readers - it would be very ideal to see if the identitiy documents could link up with the proof of vaccinations:

 

Anyhoo, I went to a food court at a mall and there were security guards asking the patrons that if they wanted to sit down and have something to eat, they must show proof of vaccination along with a piece of government-issued identity (they might have a right to refuse entry if the customer "clandestinely obtained" fake ID from an "illegal" source).

That brings me a question, what happens if a teacher happens to see a student (that they known) at a food court and tries to rush and see them? Will they need to show their proof of vaccination and ID - just to see that student they know in the past? I could imagine if this were to happen to me.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...