Canadian COVID-19 News

[Cpt Pat]

Originally Posted by NaClyDog

Could we please take this back to CANADA?


What happens south of here isn't our business and those from there can post in another forum?


Please?

Sorry. Just leave it to a rude American to barge in on a good conversation about curling. ;-)

I'll just be a passive observer from here on, but I would very much like to see references to good reliable Canadian sources of information on COVID-19. I'm also interested in how you all Up North feel you have responded better. I'm here to learn...

And one personal note: I've tried to say this to every Canadian at every opportunity: Thank you for your help and courage, at great personal and political risk, in returning our State Department personnel who were trapped in Iran in 1979. Someone close to me was among those rescued. I'll never stop being grateful to Canada for that. It's been 41 years, and it still brings tears to my eyes when I remember what a good friend is Canada.

[flyingfin]

Originally Posted by NaClyDog

Re: Kool-Aid; we've seen what is going on south of the border and the vast majority of us want nothing to do with the kool-aid being served there. The vast majority of our politicians are in agreement with everything related to how things related to covid-19 are being handled.



Re: 5th graph down. That is simply of function of population density. Switch the graph to be /100K instead of raw and you will notice all are below 2 (I'd say it's close or below 1 but that would just leave room for some people to split hairs). Compare that with the numbers being achieved in your kool-aid drinking kingdom.



Please, if you are going to try and prove a point have valid data for valid arguments instead of trying to use "alternative facts" to suit your narrative.

Wrong,,,,,5th graph down switch to total deaths /100k (Positive cases are probably meaningless) and see which Province matches US, UK, Spain, Italy, France
Everyone is on the same track, perhaps some will get there faster than others.

[NaClyDog]

Originally Posted by Cpt Pat

but I would very much like to see references to good reliable Canadian sources of information on COVID-19.

You cannot find a better or more reliable source than our official government site;


https://www.canada.ca/en/public-heal...-covid-19.html


If you want provincial data breakdowns, those sites are also available directly from the government. My only interest has been the Ontario government site;


https://covid-19.ontario.ca/


With a little digging, you can find information about each individual regional health unit.

Originally Posted by Cpt Pat

I'm also interested in how you all Up North feel you have responded better. I'm here to learn...

In Canada, Covid-19 is a medical problem and it is being treated as such. The medical professionals in their given fields are providing advice. This advice is being followed outright by Canadians or the different levels of government officials are finding ways to implement those suggestions.



Are there outliers who believe this is a government made up hoax here? Absolutely. They are also a very tiny minority.

[redhead]

Originally Posted by Cpt Pat

Sorry. Just leave it to a rude American to barge in on a good conversation about curling. ;-)


And one personal note: I've tried to say this to every Canadian at every opportunity: Thank you for your help and courage, at great personal and political risk, in returning our State Department personnel who were trapped in Iran in 1979. Someone close to me was among those rescued. I'll never stop being grateful to Canada for that. It's been 41 years, and it still brings tears to my eyes when I remember what a good friend is Canada.

And as an ex air traffic radio operator working in NY on 11 Sept 2001 I will always tear up when I remember what Gander did for "my" flights coming in and feeding the passengers and making us believe in good again.

[Montanan]

Canada’s Updated Coronavirus Regulations For Domestic Travel Between Provinces. Informative Reference link.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/sandram.../#447658647134

[Montanan]

"Ontario Premier Doug Ford will announce details on Monday about the province's third stage of reopening, his office said on Sunday, a step likely to end most restrictions introduced in March to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Stage 3 will allow "most remaining workplaces and community spaces" to reopen, according to the province's website, although "large public gatherings will continue to be restricted."

https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2020...a-ontario.html

[NaClyDog]

Originally Posted by Montanan

"Ontario Premier Doug Ford will announce details on Monday about the province's third stage of reopening, his office said on Sunday, a step likely to end most restrictions introduced in March to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Stage 3 will allow "most remaining workplaces and community spaces" to reopen, according to the province's website, although "large public gatherings will continue to be restricted."

https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2020...a-ontario.html

The feeling is it will be a staged approach by region for now. The whole province won't be going to stage 3 initially.

[Mike OReilly]

Someone asked how Canada's Covid-19 response has outperformed many other states in the new world. I'd say it's a combination of respect for science and expertise, an ability to work together for the common good, and a basic understanding that society and economy cannot function for all while this pandemic rages.

Canada is slowly opening up, and returning to some semblance of normal. Some areas are rightly further advanced than others. Some areas are still struggling to bring infection rates under control. But all our trends are in the right direction.

We've recovered nearly 1/2 of all jobs lost now. As long as we can keep trending down with the new cases, we should back to some sort of 'new normal' within a few months. But sadly, part of this new normal might mean a semi-permanently closed southern border.

[desodave]

Here are the BC stats.
I'm surprised that most of the discussion is around infection totals and numbers of tests. I think that the death and hospitalization numbers, and the surge effect on hospital bed/ICU availability are more meaningful. Many people (as stated) are infected but not affected. And the important stat re testing imo is the percentage of positives not the total itself. Shortages of PPE in many countries have put countless healthcare workers at risk, and dramatically reduce available staff compounding the hospital surge problems. Media always sensationalize imo and you have to sift through that and look at the real facts


http://www.bccdc.ca/health-info/dise.../covid-19/data

[CruisingCouple]

Originally Posted by desodave

And the important stat re testing imo is the percentage of positives not the total itself.

Realize that the percentage of positives of the total is not an accurate figure? If only people go in to get tested that think they have corona because of symptoms you will have a high percentage of positives. If EVERYBODY went in to get tested you will likely have a very low percentage of positives.

This is what was found in the US where there has been way more testing. At first, when testing became available, people weren't working anyway so they got in their cars and went thru the drivethru testing sites run by the National Guard and Public Health just to see if they got corona. In the last three weeks or so people have lost interest in it. And they stopped doing many of those drive-thru sites because hardly anybody showed up anymore to get tested.

You have to test a representative sample of the general population to have accurate numbers.

[conachair]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Someone asked how Canada's Covid-19 response has outperformed many other states in the new world. I'd say it's a combination of respect for science and expertise, an ability to work together for the common good, and a basic understanding that society and economy cannot function for all while this pandemic rages.

Might be of interest >

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBRIAqA-czQ

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by conachair

Might be of interest

Yes, thanks. I'm on extremely limited net access right now, so can't view it all. But I skipped along and found some of the key points. Not exactly sure who these two are, but the Canadian echos what I wrote, and seems to be common sense up here.

Success in controlling this virus comes (in part) from "a combination of respect for science and expertise, an ability to work together for the common good, and a basic understanding that society and economy cannot function for all while this pandemic rages."

[Montanan]

Coronavirus immunity can start to fade away within weeks according to a new study which puts a 'nail in the coffin' in the idea of herd immunity

https://www.yahoo.com/news/coronavir...121036007.html

Well Montaña's and Alberta's ranchers will be depressed to hear about this unsettling news, there being great concern about the spread of COWvid in the cattle herds. This being a zoonotic disease and all.

Makes one wonder about the prospects for realizing any long lasting vaccine.

[CruisingCouple]

Originally Posted by Montanan

Makes one wonder about the prospects for realizing any long lasting vaccine.

Just another example of the MSM propagating unsubstantiated theories to keep you on the edge of your chair and click on their worthless link. Some people are already immune to it at the onset, but they don't know how or why. Nor do they know how many are already immune to it.

What I would suggest is that if you have a printer, print that article. The paper that it's printed on can be used to alleviate the shortage of toilet paper.

[Montanan]

Originally Posted by CruisingCouple

Just another example of the MSM propagating unsubstantiated theories to keep you on the edge of your chair and click on their worthless link. Some people are already immune to it at the onset, but they don't know how or why. Nor do they know how many are already immune to it.

What I would suggest is that if you have a printer, print that article. The paper that it's printed on can be used to alleviate the shortage of toilet paper.

Link here to the first longitudinal study for which the mainstream media is taking notice of. BTW, your "suggestion" was noted and I have disregarded as being rather worthless.

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1....09.20148429v1

Longitudinal evaluation and decline of antibody responses in SARS-CoV-2 infection

Abstract
Antibody (Ab) responses to SARS-CoV-2 can be detected in most infected individuals 10-15 days following the onset of COVID-19 symptoms. However, due to the recent emergence of this virus in the human population it is not yet known how long these Ab responses will be maintained or whether they will provide protection from re-infection. Using sequential serum samples collected up to 94 days post onset of symptoms (POS) from 65 RT-qPCR confirmed SARS-CoV-2-infected individuals, we show seroconversion in >95% of cases and neutralizing antibody (nAb) responses when sampled beyond 8 days POS. We demonstrate that the magnitude of the nAb response is dependent upon the disease severity, but this does not affect the kinetics of the nAb response. Declining nAb titres were observed during the follow up period. Whilst some individuals with high peak ID50 (>10,000) maintained titres >1,000 at >60 days POS, some with lower peak ID50 had titres approaching baseline within the follow up period. A similar decline in nAb titres was also observed in a cohort of seropositive healthcare workers from Guy′s and St Thomas′ Hospitals. We suggest that this transient nAb response is a feature shared by both a SARS-CoV-2 infection that causes low disease severity and the circulating seasonal coronaviruses that are associated with common colds. This study has important implications when considering widespread serological testing, Ab protection against re-infection with SARS-CoV-2 and the durability of vaccine protection.

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) License.

At 153:

At peak neutralization, 7.7% had 154 low (50-200), 10.8% medium (201-500), 18.5% high (501-2000) and 60.0% potent (2001+) neutralizing titres. For serum samples collected after 65 days POS, the percentage of donors with potent nAbs (ID50>2000) had reduced to 16.7%

. . .
At 312 to 314:

Therefore, although nAb titres are declining over a 2-3 month period in the two cohorts described here, individuals with high peak ID50s (>2,000) would likely have sufficient nAb titres to be protected from clinical illness for some time if re-exposed to SARS-CoV-2.

. . .
At 316 to 330

Even though the role of nAbs in viral clearance in primary SARS-CoV-2 infection is not fully understood, many current vaccine design efforts focus on eliciting a robust nAb response to provide protection from infection. Vaccine challenge studies in macaques can give limited insight into nAb titres required for protection from re-infection. Vaccine candidates tested thus far in challenge studies have elicited modest nAb responses (ID50 5-250). For example, a DNA vaccine encoding SARS-CoV-2 S generated nAb titres between 100-200 which were accompanied by a lowering of the viral load by 3-logs. nAb titres in vaccinated animals were shown to strongly correlate with viral load. However, the role T-cell responses generated through either infection or vaccination play in controlling disease cannot be discounted in these studies and defining further the correlates and longevity of vaccine protection is needed. Taken together, despite the waning nAb titres in individuals, it is possible that nAb titres will still be sufficient to provide protection from COVID-19 disease for a period of time. However, sequential PCR testing and serology studies in individuals known to have been SARS-CoV-2 infected will be critical for understanding the ability of nAbs to protect from renewed infection in humans.