Canadian COVID-19 News

[N Coast Murray]

Originally Posted by N Coast Murray

I believe I was a participant in an epidemiological experiment this weekend.

The town where I live has a population of 8,000 and is well over 90% for first vaccinations and in the high 80's for double vaccinations.

We just had our first Christmas Arts & Crafts Fair since Covid hit, and there was a directive from Provincial health authorities that there was to be no checking to see if anyone was vaccinated.

No questions asked, no vaccine passport needed, anybody and everybody allowed in over the two days of the event.

My theory is, it was a test run for when BC and Canada move into the endemic phase. It'll be interesting to see in a few weeks if there is a measurable jump in Covid case numbers...

An update for Covid numbers in Kitimat from November 7th the 13th. There were 8 confirmed cases, up from one case the previous week and down a bit from 12 cases the week before that.

The arts and craft fair (where there was no proof of vaccination needed to attend on November 5th & 6th...a unique event in BC these days) was on November 5th and 6th.

The Provincial updates are a delayed a week, so the next two updates should show if there is a significant jump in case numbers, or maybe they won't because of Kitimat's high single and double vaccination rates.

Senior citizens and the immunocompromised are getting their booster shots this week.

BC COVID-19 Data

[Mike OReilly]

G&M:
Health Canada approval of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for 5-11 year olds expected Friday, sources say

Canada’s health regulator is expected to authorize Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine for kids between the ages of 5 and 11 – bringing a welcome sigh of relief to families across the country.

The government has previously said that shipments of the pediatric vaccines will follow soon after Health Canada’s regulatory authorization of the shot. The timing of the announcement on Friday was first reported by the Toronto Star.

This will be a real game-changer in the effort to finally put this virus into an endemic state.

[desodave]

BC's Human Rights Tribunal continues to work its way through a huge number of HR complaints re mask wearing, and has ruled as expected ... store mask policies do not violate human rights law. However, they do refer to reasonable accommodations offered to the complainants but refused ... imo complainants wanted to complain, not actually shop at the stores. Accommodations offered were online shopping or having goods delivered to vehicle outside. As in past cases, there was no medical evidence of any issues claimed by the complainants. And a huge increase in the number of complaints filed will clog up the system unnecessarily imo. Just another stupid anti-vaxxer tactic imo ... perhaps slightly less so than their recent disrupting of Remembrance Day services.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...says-1.6254550

[danstanford]

You may enjoy this depending on your perspective. I just hate it when anyone unvaccinated is lumped together into this cohort of knuckle dragging, uneducated, protesting, unaware Trump supporters. Today I was driving down a street in our city and there was a cluster of people hanging around a restaurant that has been charged for not requiring visitors to provide proof of vaccination. They all looked like those described above.....sigh.
My balancing thought was that according to the numbers, there are around 10,000-15,000 people unvaccinated in our city and only about .02 % of them in this crowd.

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by longjonsilver

Just in and this is big:

The vaxxed are 1.8 times more likely to die than the unvaxxed:

https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/...unvaccinated-d
eath-rate-in-sept-2021-uk-office-for-national-statistics/

The source is UK statistics and the data is for the 8 weeks ending Sept 24

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulat.../deaths/datase
ts/deathsbyvaccinationstatusengland

Those that got 2 doses of the vax were more likely to die than those that only got one.

Data set is huge - people 10-59 years of age, 17 million vaxxed and 7 million unvaxxed.

Check it out for yourself
jon

i just tried thelinks in my post and you might have to add the unhighlighted sections to get the link to work

Utter horseshit you are comparing total deaths of unvaccinated to vaccinated in a country with 75 % adults vaccinated. Millions and millions in the absolute numbers difference.


Look at the per 100,000 data. It’s killing the unvaccinated way more then the vaccinated.

[Montanan]

Canada's COVID-19 travel vaccine passport: Canadian government reveals standardized, national proof of vaccination


UPDATE:
As of Nov. 30, fully vaccinated Canadian citizens, permanent residents and individuals registered under the Indian Act who take a trip for 72 hours or less will not have to complete a PCR test before re-entering Canada. This change applies to trips both by land and air.

—

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Thursday that provincial and territorial governments across Canada will move forward with a standardized proof of COVID-19 vaccination certificate.

"All provinces and territories have confirmed that they will be moving forward with a standardized, national proof of vaccination," Trudeau said at a press conference on Thursday.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/canada-va...152654486.html

[Mike OReilly]

This is an interesting study (at least to me):

CBC: Western researchers use phone data to trace Ontarians' movement during COVID lockdowns

Two interesting findings:

#1. There wasn't a big uptick in people leaving their high lockdown regions and travelling to lower lockdown regions.

"We found that there really wasn't evidence that supported that people —more than expected or more than usual — moved from those higher lockdown regions to non-lockdown regions," said Jed Long, an assistant professor with the department of Geography and Environment at Western University and lead author of the study.

#2. There is a clear correlation between wealth and the ability to stay put.

"Mobility didn't change as much if you're a person with low income, he said. "But if you're an upper-income person, all of a sudden your mobility is greatly reduced."
He said that's likely due to lower-income communities having a higher percentage of frontline workers.

[desodave]

The latter finding re mobility and income levels is more confirmation that covid hits lower income groups the hardest. More mobility leads to more contacts and a higher chance of contracting the disease ... unless of course your mobility is all about cruising from anchorage to anchorage in your sailboat.

[Macblaze]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

#2. There is a clear correlation between wealth and the ability to stay put.

I read this as a confirmation that wealth (possessions) is anchor, not a sail

[danstanford]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

This is an interesting study (at least to me):

CBC: Western researchers use phone data to trace Ontarians' movement during COVID lockdowns

Two interesting findings:

#1. There wasn't a big uptick in people leaving their high lockdown regions and travelling to lower lockdown regions.

#2. There is a clear correlation between wealth and the ability to stay put.

Proof you need to read more than the headlines...again. The mobility implied in the headline and in the first portion of the evidence (moving regions) is very different from the second case (moving out of your home to work).

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by danstanford

Proof you need to read more than the headlines...again. The mobility implied in the headline and in the first portion of the evidence (moving regions) is very different from the second case (moving out of your home to work).

Not sure I understand your point Dan. The story references two studies. The headline states, accurately, that phone tracking data was used to follow Ontarian's movements. What is it about the headline that is false or misleading?

I thought the story was quite clear. There are two studies, one of which shows little new movement between regions. While the second shows a decrease in movement for wealthy folk, but no significant change with poorer folk.

The concluding sentence of the story links this research to others:

"That finding has been essentially found throughout the globe," said Long. "Basically everywhere where they've studied lockdowns and and mobility patterns, they've seen that ... people have restricted their mobility more if they have more money."

[N Coast Murray]

Originally Posted by N Coast Murray

An update for Covid numbers in Kitimat from November 7th the 13th. There were 8 confirmed cases, up from one case the previous week and down a bit from 12 cases the week before that.

The arts and craft fair (where there was no proof of vaccination needed to attend on November 5th & 6th...a unique event in BC these days) was on November 5th and 6th.

The Provincial updates are a delayed a week, so the next two updates should show if there is a significant jump in case numbers, or maybe they won't because of Kitimat's high single and double vaccination rates.

Senior citizens and the immunocompromised are getting their booster shots this week.

BC COVID-19 Data

November 14th to 20th there were 9 cases, so looks like there was no significant jump in Covid numbers after our two day arts & crafts fair on the 5th & 6th where there was no requirement to prove vaccinations.

Will update the numbers next week as well, just in case.

Looks like this little experiment went quite well, and may be a window into our future...at least in areas where vaccination rates are high.

This could all change if some variant wins the viral genetic lottery and kicks Delta to the sidelines while at the same time changes enough to reinfect those who have already had Covid and/or been vaccinated.

http://www.bccdc.ca/Health-Info-Site...4_20211120.png

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by desodave

The latter finding re mobility and income levels is more confirmation that covid hits lower income groups the hardest. More mobility leads to more contacts and a higher chance of contracting the disease ... unless of course your mobility is all about cruising from anchorage to anchorage in your sailboat.

Yes, I think the findings of the second study corroborate this finding. And as the article says, quoting the researcher:

"That finding has been essentially found throughout the globe," said Long. "Basically everywhere where they've studied lockdowns and and mobility patterns, they've seen that ... people have restricted their mobility more if they have more money."

Personally, I was surprised by the findings of the first study. I too had bought into the assumption that local lockdowns were useless because people would drive a short distance to an un- locked-down area. The data here indicates this did not happen. So this has implications for how we might use local or regional lockdowns in the future (if need be).

[GordMay]

Perhaps, people have restricted their mobility more if they have more money, because poor people can't afford to travel, so had less mobility than the wealthy, to begin with.
I'll also bet, that the wealthy missed going out to fine dining, the theater & concerts, more than did the poor.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by GordMay

Perhaps, people have restricted their mobility more if they have more money, because poor people can't afford to travel, so had less mobility than the wealthy, to begin with.
I'll also bet, that the wealthy missed going out to fine dining, the theater & concerts, more than did the poor.

Indeed, the causation could be any number of factors. The article is silent here. All it finds is that wealthy people restrict their movements during these lockdowns, while poorer folks don't. I assume the researchers are working on the "why?" question.

The more valuable finding to me is the first one: that there was not a significant uptick in people leaving locked-down areas and travelling to nearby un-locked-down areas. This, to me, has useful public policy implications.