Canadian COVID-19 News

[Lake-Effect]

Originally Posted by Macblaze

You gotta admire a guy who still has faith in the WAGs that surround Covid "knowledge"

Let's discuss this again in February. I'm still feeling good about the prospects of "normal" this spring .

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Scorpius

...By anaesthetizing the prefrontal cortex, alcohol reduces inhibitions thus "lubricating" social interaction and increasing creativity. Conversations and ideas generally flow more smoothly when alcohol is being consumed. "Off the wall", "out of the box" and non-linear thinking abounds. Many ideas are discussed and many discarded but a few gems emerge.

I think there's a book, and a thesis, that civilization is really founded on beer. Being an avid beer drinker, this makes sense to me .

[danstanford]

Originally Posted by Macblaze

You gotta admire a guy who still has faith in the WAGs that surround Covid "knowledge"

Unless your data is better than most of what is out there it is as good a guess as any other. Shortly after Christmas seeing the information and number of Covid cases I predicted Valentine's Day for the time we will be able to see the end.

[Scorpius]

Originally Posted by AiniA

I don' think we should over-generalize here. We have friends who are doctors in New Jersey (orthopedic surgeon and radiologist). They bought a new Hylas 54 several years ago. I can assure you that Canadian docs are not buying US$1.5 million+ boats. And I am not a doctor or in healthcare btw.

According to an NPR survey, Canadian doctors can actually make MORE than American doctors. But, as with many things such as executive compensation it's the outliers that make the headlines. With a regulated single payer system like Canada, it's hard to make a lot more than the average, but with a free-wheeling for-profit system as in the US, it's more common.

From NPR: "The pay gap for doctor salaries US vs Canada has a lot more to do with your medical specialization then you might expect. Although doctors typically do earn more in the US, to make a blanket statement would be misleading – an NPR investigation found that Canadian family doctors actually earn a similar salary to American general practitioners. In a 2019 Medscape survey of physicians, family doctors across all states earn an average of $237,000 after taxes and expenses and medical specialists earned around $341,000. This is actually lower than the Canadian average in 2018, where Canadian family doctors earned an average gross salary of $281,000 and medical specialists earned $360,000. Since operations costs in Canada are about 20% of gross salary, the average Canadian family doctor and medical specialist took home around $225,000 and $288,000, respectively – which is a much smaller pay gap than is often implied in popular media for Canadian doctor salary vs US.

"So where are the pay gaps for doctor salary US vs Canada? Mainly in surgical specializations. An orthopedic surgeon working in the US can earn upwards of $400,000, versus just over half of that in Canada."

(As my 1000th post I think I just earned my fifth gold star! )

[sv_pelagia]

G&M:

Quebec to expand use of COVID-19 vaccine passports to liquor, pot stores

Let's not forget that beer and wine are easily available at most dépanneurs (corner stores) in Québec. (And cannabis probably around the corner in the alley.... [emoji6])

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by sv_pelagia

G&M:

Quebec to expand use of COVID-19 vaccine passports to liquor, pot stores

Let's not forget that beer and wine are easily available at most dépanneurs (corner stores) in Québec. (And cannabis probably around the corner in the alley.... [emoji6])

Very true. I sure appreciated this fact growing up in Ottawa .

[sv_pelagia]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Very true. I sure appreciated this fact growing up in Ottawa [emoji2].

Assuming you mean the dépanneurs.... [emoji6]

Me too... 4 years hard labour, oops Winter, at Université d'Ottawa.

[Scorpius]

Originally Posted by Lake-Effect

Let's discuss this again in February. I'm still feeling good about the prospects of "normal" this spring .

Looking at BC, we have a population of around 5 million and a vaccination rate of about 80% meaning about a million people remain unvaccinated. About 300,000 people have actually had Covid so we can subtract them (although many of those have probably been vaccinated too and so are double counted). But let's say we are left with 700,000 vulnerable people.

Currently there are about 30,000 people sick with Covid in the province. Only 670,000 to go!

And that's not even counting breakthrough cases (my daughter and son-in-law, who are VERY responsible and take ALL the precautions are cases in point).

Even with the rapid spread of Omicron I think we have a ways to go. Valentine's Day? Maybe if the exponential curves continue. Maybe not.

I'm beginning to think that, as many people have been saying, we're ALL going to catch Omicron before this wave passes. But hopefully we can minimize the worst effects by being vaccinated.

[sv_pelagia]

Originally Posted by Scorpius

Looking at BC, About 300,000 people have actually had Covid so we can subtract them

Data suggests that Omicron escapes immunity from previous (non Omicron) Covid-19 infection....

[danstanford]

Originally Posted by Scorpius

Looking at BC, we have a population of around 5 million and a vaccination rate of about 80% meaning about a million people remain unvaccinated. About 300,000 people have actually had Covid so we can subtract them (although many of those have probably been vaccinated too and so are double counted). But let's say we are left with 700,000 vulnerable people.

Currently there are about 30,000 people sick with Covid in the province. Only 670,000 to go!


I'm beginning to think that, as some have been saying, we are all going to catch Omicron, and we're just going to have to live with it. However we can hopefully minimize its effects by being vaccinated.

And that's not even counting breakthrough cases (my daughter and son-in-law, who are VERY responsible and take ALL the precautions are cases in point).

Even with the rapid spread of Omicron I think we have a ways to go. Valentine's Day? Maybe if the exponential curves continue. Maybe not.

Don't forget the proportion of people actually getting very sick from Covid is pretty small to start with. With the great percentage of people being vaccinated it is very hard to ascertain true rates. Even being unvaccinated is very far from being certain to be hospitalized so a vast majority of those 670,000 will get sick and recover.

A CDC study in May of 2020 showed those under 50 years of age had a 2.5% risk of being hospitalized and those over 85 were had about 17% risk. This would be prior to high vaccination rates and would not reflect the lower virulence of Omicron.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by sv_pelagia

Assuming you mean the dépanneurs.... [emoji6]

Me too... 4 years hard labour, oops Winter, at Université d'Ottawa.

Yup... It was great having "Uull" so close. The dépanneurs didn't care about silly things like age or ID*. As long as your nose reached the counter, and you had the cash, you were good to go .

*Not that it was much of a problem on the Ontario side in the early '80s either. These days things like legal drinking age are taken waaaay too seriously.

[Scorpius]

Originally Posted by danstanford

Don't forget the proportion of people actually getting very sick from Covid is pretty small to start with. With the great percentage of people being vaccinated it is very hard to ascertain true rates. Even being unvaccinated is very far from being certain to be hospitalized so a vast majority of those 670,000 will get sick and recover.

A CDC study in May of 2020 showed those under 50 years of age had a 2.5% risk of being hospitalized and those over 85 were had about 17% risk. This would be prior to high vaccination rates and would not reflect the lower virulence of Omicron.

Ok. I'm 75 so let's say I have a 10% risk of hospitalization. But I had a HUGE lung infection three years ago that resulted in my having to be resuscitated twice during my three weeks in hospital. I really don't like the idea of catching this thing!

[danstanford]

Originally Posted by Scorpius

Ok. I'm 75 so let's say I have a 10% risk of hospitalization. But I had a HUGE lung infection three years ago that resulted in my having to resuscitated twice during my three weeks in hospital. I really don't like the idea of catching this thing!

Of course you don't and neither do I despite being pretty healthy and quite a few years younger. I have resigned myself to the fact that I will get it before it has run its course and that the numbers say I have a fairly low likelihood of getting very sick. I currently have a friend 15 years older than me who smokes and has spent the last 5 years getting various cancer treatments just get easily over Covid and an ex-brother in law a year younger than me who is currently likely dying from Covid along with his daughter.

My point was that few of the 670,000 people you referenced would be in that dangerous category. It is quite similar to people shrinking back from someone unvaccinated when the chance of them having Covid is, or has been prior to Omicron, vanishingly small.

[Macblaze]

Originally Posted by danstanford

Unless your data is better than most of what is out there it is as good a guess as any other. Shortly after Christmas seeing the information and number of Covid cases I predicted Valentine's Day for the time we will be able to see the end.

We should combine the two streams of this thread and put some beer on the line with our predictions. Me? I will put a six of craft beer on April/May before this current round of restrictions relaxes. And another six on the bet it will all be back before September.

[AiniA]

Originally Posted by Scorpius

According to an NPR survey, Canadian doctors can actually make MORE than American doctors. But, as with many things such as executive compensation it's the outliers that make the headlines. With a regulated single payer system like Canada, it's hard to make a lot more than the average, but with a free-wheeling for-profit system as in the US, it's more common.

From NPR: "The pay gap for doctor salaries US vs Canada has a lot more to do with your medical specialization then you might expect. Although doctors typically do earn more in the US, to make a blanket statement would be misleading – an NPR investigation found that Canadian family doctors actually earn a similar salary to American general practitioners. In a 2019 Medscape survey of physicians, family doctors across all states earn an average of $237,000 after taxes and expenses and medical specialists earned around $341,000. This is actually lower than the Canadian average in 2018, where Canadian family doctors earned an average gross salary of $281,000 and medical specialists earned $360,000. Since operations costs in Canada are about 20% of gross salary, the average Canadian family doctor and medical specialist took home around $225,000 and $288,000, respectively – which is a much smaller pay gap than is often implied in popular media for Canadian doctor salary vs US.

"So where are the pay gaps for doctor salary US vs Canada? Mainly in surgical specializations. An orthopedic surgeon working in the US can earn upwards of $400,000, versus just over half of that in Canada."

(As my 1000th post I think I just earned my fifth gold star! )

Note that the comparison highlighted is between US doctors' net income (after taxes and expenses) and Canadian doctors' gross income (one assumes before taxes and expenses). I know several doctors and none of them have boats worth more than a million dollars. More likely to be a 30 year old Nonsuch or CS worth CA$50,000 +/-.