Paul_Shepherd

Agreed.... the media lap this up... todays mainstream media is one big sh!t stirrer. They are worse than ever.

ChrisBan

yep not clear who foots the bill. Big win for the scam PCR companies; next to no choice on who to use here so naturally they charge hundreds. At least in the U.K. there’s hundreds of approved providers so you can get a test done fairly cheaply.

OrangeMango

The testing at the airports for arriving Canadians used to be for free, as far as I understood and was previously only done at random? - not certain?. The pre departure PCR tests were to be paid for by the traveller.

The question is also, if I was to fly from Europe to a Canadian airport and then change flights and have another domestic flight, how would that one work?

BristolUK

The alternative? People bleating about why we weren't alerted.

BristolUK

See...this is what happens when the likes of Shelley come on and sew seeds of doubt with her links and false claims about "noted scientists"...people start to rely less on mainstream ie responsible media. Just one step away from looking at alternatives themselves.

Paul_Shepherd

Of course we need to be kept informed, but its the language they use along with pure speculation that is the problem, why can't they just report the facts... a new variant has been found, it is being analysed by doctors and scientists...we will keep you up to date when we have been updated. Not things like "this could signal a return to lockdown and other restrictions" " and the vaccine could be ineffective against this new variant" all complete speculation and scaremongering, many people believe all this they hear from "responsible" media and react accordingly, then those people will take it a stage further by posting even more speculative garbage on social media sites, that in turn that gets amplified even further,,,, before we know where we are we have masses of idiots panic buying bog roll again!

This latest variant could well be a storm in a tea cup, we don't know until the doctors and scientists have researched it....and given us FACTS, but no the media has to stir the pot like they do with everything else with speculative and selective reporting. .

BristolUK

Interestingly a google search on those words shows results on the first page from The Lancet - a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal among the world's oldest and best-known general medical journals. That's the very first result.
Next came a business advisory agency followed by another scientific journal.
This was followed by Global News Canada and then the BBC.
Then the New York Times, then something called OECD - an intergovernmental economic organisation with 38 member countries - followed by CBC, Healthline and the Guardian.

It's a hell of a long way down the list before finding something as unreliable as, say, The Daily Mail.

I don't know about you but I consider those organisations to be quite reasonable.

I think that might say something about those people or where they get their information from. Perhaps pay attention to those sources listed above and read the information calmly and sensibly instead of flying off on one. Just read it logically instead of looking at the first few words and brainlessly heading for the hills.

Do that rather than go to Facebook where people circulate the names of supposed "noted" experts having done so little fact checking themselves that their sharing merely shows how they all can't even get the name right (they're duplicating the error as well as the misinformation) and a minimum investigation yourself shows the so called expert to be a proven crackpot.

JamesM

You shouldn't- those articles under your search term are all months ago which shows you how long the fear mongering has been going on. It's ongoing click bait to drive advertising revenue. That is how media companies make their cash.

The WHO has confirmed we don't really know anything so the mass hysteria isn't necessary https://www.who.int/news/item/28-11-...ate-on-omicron

Paul_Shepherd

I totally agree Bristol....and thats what I do. However my issue I guess is that I listen to the news rather than search for trusted sources online... and I have never been any part of any social media site and never will be, I deplore it, This site and you tube (which I used for clips of my favourite things to watch or listen to or how to do something) is the nearest I ever get to social media.... unlike feacesbook and twatter. which are scourge of modern society.

Even after listening to news, I draw to my own conclusions after establishing what facts there has been relayed to me, and always wait for actual facts. My point is that many people cant do that, they exagarate pn the speculation laid out by the media...instead of looking for or waiting for facts. Unfortunately this is what most of the public do...so it would help that so called respected TV and news channels didnt speculate so much as they do, people cant tell the difference between that and fact.

OrangeMango

The problem is that this fear mongering and hysteria is mostly with politicians and lawmakers as they fear re-election issues. Provincial politics has been quick to turn to Ottawa for further travel restrictions. Now they've gotten everyone down to a quarantine in form of home isolation until a test result is received. In the UK it was similar where Drakeford and Sturgeon called on London to introduce longer quarantine

I'd suggest, lawmakers should let vaccinated citizens travel without further ado. Travel restrictions are a lot worse than they are good these days, given that the virus and all forms of variants are everywhere by the time they get discovered it's too late.

I am receiving my 3rd shot by mid December and hope to return to Canada in mid January, quarantine free.

Gozit

When arrival testing was mandatory back in July it was free, I expect it to be free now as well.

BristolUK

Or it shows that the current "fear mongering" is somewhat exaggerated if there aren't many current results.

JamesM

It is exaggerated. Just like the Delta variant was and I have no doubt the next several variants will be.

The moment the South African's put their hands up they said that the symptoms weren't as bad. We're now seeing measures and reaction that frankly we didn't see in March 2020 for what seems to me like a good result- the variants are getting weaker. That doesn't sell though.

Danny B

Even the WHO get it wrong sometimes.

https://arichlife.com.au/that-who-tweet/

JamesM

The WHO get it wrong all the time