Canadian COVID-19 News

[sv_pelagia]

Originally Posted by Greg K

It's disappointing to read your dishonest reply disrespecting and insulting medical professionals who after risking their lives for two years during the pandemic have now been forced out against their will through coercive policies which do not and continue to not recognize the validity of natural immunity from previous infection.

That you cannot admit the unnecessary loss of these medical professionals due to a policy that could have been implemented in a much more accommodative yet equally safe manner is astounding to me.

You are SO out of touch with COVID-19 in Canada.

Both the CMA (Canadian Medical Association) and the CNA (Canadian Nurses Association) have called for mandatory vaccinations for all health care workers. https://www.cma.ca/news-releases-and...h-care-workers We are actually respecting them (and their wishes) by mandating vaccination.

Here in British Columbia, over 96% of health-care workers are fully vaccinated while over 98% have at least one dose.

If you had any idea about things here in Canada, you'd know that health-care professionals have sought protection from being harassed by anti-vaxxer groups -- government has responded by implementing new legislation protecting health-care workers and health-care facilities from such harassment.

[Montanan]

"Stay at home, be safe and prudent and avoid foreign travel.”
That’s the plea from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as Canada faces a surge in pandemic outbreaks.

Those who do choose to continue with their holiday and winter getaway plans will face tougher scrutiny upon their return to prevent more cases from entering the country.

“Now is not the time to travel,” the Prime Minister said, warning against non-essential international travel and plans to ramp up arrival tests at airports for incoming overseas travelers.

Medical officials say Christmas gatherings should be small in size with good ventilation in the rooms and the wearing of high-quality masks, not made of cloth. The provinces have started rolling out measures to reduce sizes of gatherings, including sports events. This includes plans to possibly switch schools and colleges to virtual learning in January.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/canada-re...120105592.html

[Montanan]

Canada announced it is reinstating its COVID-19 testing requirement for trips less than 72 hours starting Tuesday, just days before Christmas holiday travel.

Previously, fully vaccinated Canadians were allowed to depart and re-enter the country within 72 hours without a pre-entry test. However, as the omicron variant of the coronavirus spreads, Canadian officials announced Friday that all travelers would need a negative PCR test to re-enter.

Travelers are still required to fill out the ArriveCAN form, which requires them to confirm which port of entry they’re using, upload vaccination status and submit their COVID-19 test result. The form is available through a mobile app and online. Unvaccinated travelers returning to Canada also are still required to quarantine for 14 days.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/canada-re...175519592.html

[Montanan]

Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced Wednesday that as of Monday, Dec. 20 all adults (age 18 and older) will be eligible to receive a booster shot of a COVID-19 vaccine three months (84 days) after their second dose.

"There is one indisputable fact, the Omicron variant is the most contagious, the most transmissible variant of this virus that we’ve ever seen, so far," Ford said. "Just because this new enemy is on the offence does not mean we can sit back and play defence.... We will meet this new enemy with full force."

Booster dose appointments can be booked through the Ontario’s booking portal, by calling the Provincial Vaccine Contact Centre (1-833-943-3900), through Indigenous-led vaccination clinics, participating pharmacies and primary care settings.

Pharmacies can administer booster shots for adults 18 and older at the three-month interval, for walk-ins, as of Friday, Dec. 17.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by TrentePieds

GregK said: "Losing nurses and other medical staff (many of whom have probably already gained immunity from previous exposure) because of vaccine mandates was likely, in retrospect, not the brightest of policies during an ongoing pandemic, wouldn't you say?"

Well, no, if you mean to say what you seem to say, viz that nurses and other health care professionals withdrew from their employment because of fear of the needle - and what would be in it - then I wouldn't say so at all.

What HAS happened is that many people involved in health care, including the paramedics of the ambulance service and the staff at the 911- call centres, had had too much asked of them for too long, and the extra demands placed on them by the pandemic were the straw that broke the camel's back.

Indeed.
To whit: My niece, a senior ER nurse, in Ontario's largest emergency department, will be departing the hospital, for a new position in private health care administration, on January 3, 2022.
The reason: Burnout.

[TxPorchhound]

Some facts from way down South: Good friend is a nurse in children's wing of a major Dallas hospital. She reports only four kids in the Covid unit (with flu-like symptoms), none in ICU, no deaths so far, but her friend working in the cardiac unit reported several kids coming in with issues following the jab. The likelihood of a child dying from Covid is a percentage of a percent. The likelihood of heart damage appears to be much higher, especially in adolescent males. Requiring kids to take the jab is criminal, and reeks of profiteering. Treatment is available (wife and I used the dreaded Ivermectin purchased from pharmacy in India)...she was ill for three days with upset stomach, and it took me two weeks to get my energy back.Neither of us suffered any respiratory complications (I am 73, she is 65 with COPD/asthma). Withholding effective treatment information from people is also criminal. Had The WHO and CDC acknowledged the effectiveness of Ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, emergency authorization of an experimental vaccine could not have been granted by our FDA...their regs. How many people might have been saved by timely treatment? I don't know for certain, but I believe it would have been a large percentage, based upon our experience.

[Midnight Son]

Originally Posted by Lake-Effect

Wow. I could not agree more with this. In most of my few interactions with our healthcare system, I/we have received appropriate and competent care (for which I am grateful), but my impression is that the hospitals are almost always running at 90+% capacity, with little extra headroom for the unknown, and the reason that this continues to work is due to the high caliber of people in the system. Especially nurses.

Sort of like the joke about the house that was so dilapidated that the only reason it continues to stand is that the termites hold hands.

And like you, I continue to be surprised and concerned that through all 2 years of this, there seems to be little acknowledgment that staffing and facilities need to be increased, to both handle the COVID cases, and to take on the backlog of cases that were pushed aside by the COVID load.

Possibly the most annoying recent expression of this is when Manitoba asked the federal govt to send it something like 30 ICU nurses. I'm thinking... FFS, just go hire some. Their COVID surge wasn't entirely unpredictable, there's retired or otherwise inactive nurses who could be persuaded to come back for a bit, there's other nurses who might wanna transfer into ICU nursing, there's immigration...

I am in Manitoba:
1) No nurses to hire.
2) Those that have retired, and are not burned out or tired of the political idiots, have returned.
3) Oh expanding training, too the limit, two years to show results!!
4) Nurses already transferred, long ago.
5) Immigration, two years out, yet again.


Again, have to be political, Conservative idea to run medicine like a business with minimum staffing, oh joy. NDP gets in, hires nurses/doctors, Cons get back in, reduce staffing numbers. No win situation.
Only way to fix, put Cons in jail, where all Cons belong.I'm 100% for Law & Order.

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, TxPorchhound.

I’m sorry to note, that you’ve gotten off to an inauspicious start, making unfounded & factually erroneous claims.
BTW: In Canada [this is a Canadian thread], we don’t have the CDC, we have the Public Health Agency of Canada [PHAC], and the Health Products and Food Branch (HPFB) of Health Canada, which authorizes drugs, for sale in Canada, once they have successfully gone through the drug review process.

Thank you, for your kind concern [post #3354]

[TxPorchhound]

Nothing erroneous about my personal statements...anchored in real experience. Treatment for Covid works across national boundaries if it is available. Here in the US, physicians are unable to prescribe the very drugs that keep people out of the hospital, some have successfully sued hospitals on behalf of their patients, but most just comply with protocols because they are "covered" against lawsuits. I hate to see anyone die needlessly. I understand this is a Canadian thread, but I hate to see you good people die also!

[TxPorchhound]

Nothing erroneous about my personal statements...anchored in real experience. Treatment for Covid works across national boundaries if it is available. Here in the US, physicians are unable to prescribe the very drugs that keep people out of the hospital, some have successfully sued hospitals on behalf of their patients, but most just comply with protocols because they are "covered" against lawsuits. I hate to see anyone die needlessly. I understand this is a Canadian thread, but I hate to see you good people die also! I don't know about Canada, but here in the states, the Covid death numbers were inflated by a policy to report any death, no matter the circumstances, as Covid IF the person had a positive test within two weeks of their demise. Nothing secret about this info if you do a search. My son is a Boise firefighter who was visiting with a coroner at the scene of a fatal traffic accident. The coroner told my son he had two Covid death reports that week, one a gunshot wound, the other a motorcycle accident. You have to ask yourself the reasoning behind a policy like this.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by TxPorchhound

Some facts from way down South: Good friend is a nurse in children's wing of a major Dallas hospital. She reports only four kids in the Covid unit (with flu-like symptoms), none in ICU, no deaths so far, but her friend working in the cardiac unit reported several kids coming in with issues following the jab. The likelihood of a child dying from Covid is a percentage of a percent. The likelihood of heart damage appears to be much higher, especially in adolescent males. Requiring kids to take the jab is criminal, and reeks of profiteering. Treatment is available (wife and I used the dreaded Ivermectin purchased from pharmacy in India)...she was ill for three days with upset stomach, and it took me two weeks to get my energy back.Neither of us suffered any respiratory complications (I am 73, she is 65 with COPD/asthma). Withholding effective treatment information from people is also criminal. Had The WHO and CDC acknowledged the effectiveness of Ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, emergency authorization of an experimental vaccine could not have been granted by our FDA...their regs. How many people might have been saved by timely treatment? I don't know for certain, but I believe it would have been a large percentage, based upon our experience.

Perfect example of confirmation and availability bias at work here, along with the standard dose of mis and disinformation often associated with these new or low-post numbered accounts (and not particularly relevant to "Canadian Covid-19 News").

[TrentePieds]

Porchhound said: "here in the states, the Covid death numbers were inflated by a policy to report any death, no matter the circumstances, as Covid IF the person had a positive test within two weeks of their demise."

Porchhound: Would you be kind enuff, please, to give us a link to the policy directive to which you refer?

And to explain just how, and more particularly why, that directive, if it exists, should in any way be relevant to, or have force, in this 'ere sovereign nation?

TP

[TxPorchhound]

I find it interesting you want a link, then state it is irrelevant to Canada. Clearly you would disqualify the effort out of hand, but I get your point regarding the irrelevance on this thread. I will respectfully withdraw from this thread. It is entirely possible what is going on in the states is not being replicated up north.

[Lake-Effect]

Originally Posted by Greg K

...policies which do not and continue to not recognize the validity of natural immunity from previous infection.

It's debatable whether natural immunity from an early infection offers better protection from Delta too, but there seems to be little doubt that early natural infection gives less protection against Omicron. Nothing but getting sick (again) with Omicron is likely to protect as well as full vaccination and booster, against Omicron. And then there will be the next variant of concern, no doubt incubated again in someone who hasn't been vaccinated. I would have thought that Omicron ends the natural vs vaccine immunity debate.

Omicron may very well be milder and shorter, but with its massive ability to spread, there will be a lot more people sick at the same time, with correspondingly higher numbers of severe illness and death. Hopefully offset by new treatments that actually work.

As before, we are seeing different levels of response in different countries, changing daily. Let the experiments continue...

[Mike OReilly]

Back to some Canadian news.

G&M has a simple overview of "What we’ve learned about Omicron so far, including how severe illness from the variant appears to be"

(And I stress, "so far")

On transmissibility:

...the effective reproduction number of the virus – the average number of cases expected to arise by transmission from a single case – is more than three and possibly more than four. This range far exceeds the equivalent number for the Delta variant and, because of the power of exponential growth, that translates into a doubling of case numbers about every 2.5 days,

On virulence:

...the study team found that Omicron was able to multiply at 70 times the rate of other variants in the bronchus – the part of the airway that lies at the entrance to the lungs. Yet its multiplication rate was only one tenth that of the Delta variant in lung tissue.

Since infections in the lungs are more likely to lead to severe disease, the results may help explain why Omicron has been associated with fewer severe outcomes, based on a large South African population study reported earlier in the week.

On current vaccine effectiveness:

At least half a dozen lab studies have now provided scientists with a measure of the degree to which Omicron can evade those “neutralizing” antibodies.

The good news is that antibodies are only one aspect of any individual’s immune-system arsenal. Even if an infection begins, for those who are vaccinated it’s still likely that other immune cells will start to recognize those parts of the coronavirus that haven’t mutated, allowing immune cells to swing into action.

So far, vaccines are appearing to hold up against severe disease,