Canadian COVID-19 News

[Greg K]

Originally Posted by Tetepare

While there is, as always, politics behind everything, where we (US & Canada, at least, and looks like QLD too) are now is that communities just can't lose any more businesses, and the government can't float people anymore.

We've lost three of our favorite restaurants; one more summer and the rest will be gone. Of course, it's not just restaurants- somebody told me that for a long time shopping malls and bowling alleys were closed too.

The economics of the crisis mean that we're not going back to where we were in March 2021, no matter how bad the next mutation is. Can't afford to. Beside which, and it's true from my observation, people have had enough of being cooped up and are willing to take risks to enjoy life.

The statistics are being played to match the economically-driven strategy. I suppose if I were a politician I'd do the same: same outcome either way, but at least I'd look better- no harm done, and it's free.

But if we get ONE MORE friggin' mutation and take a step back I'm going to go nuts. There are places to revisit and things to eat in Canada.

No harm done? Do you think that inflating the Covid hospital admissions was the only deceit that was conducted in the last two years of this pandemic?

Do yourself a favor and read Kennedy's book.
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/sh...-anthony-fauci

[letsgetsailing3]

Originally Posted by Lake-Effect

...do you? You can rightly quote the very low rate of severe illness and mortality among children, but you are quiet about the extent to which children could spread COVID, comparing the real risks of vaccination vs getting sick, the net effect of restricting the schooling and other activities of unvaccinated children...

Well, unlike some, I have confidence that authorities have done their homework, and that vaccinating children is part of the package of measures that will get us through the pandemic stage of COVID with the least overall risk.

I could Google up some links.. but so could you.

What? You said yourself we're all going to get covid. So why vaccinate a population whose risk isn't significantly reduced?

You seem to be willing to follow whatever the authorities (whoever they are) indicate. Public officials have too much of a tendency to follow the polls over the science.

I say follow the numbers. If they want to make a recommendation, they need to show their homework.

I think that over the next year you'll see public policy migrating towards protecting those who have high risk, and relaxing on those who don't.

[Dieseldude]

Originally Posted by Greg K

No harm done? Do you think that inflating the Covid hospital admissions was the only deceit that was conducted in the last two years of this pandemic?

Do yourself a favor and read Kennedy's book.
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/sh...-anthony-fauci

Good to see someone speaking sense on here Greg.


Dr. Peter McCullough said that asymptomatic people do not transmit COVID. Since infections are rare in children, there is no premise for suspicion of asymptomatic children spreading the bug. So no need of school closings and no need to inject children. All that is really required is to keep children at home who develop any illness symptoms. And this has been normal practice before COVID was known.



Dr. McCullough is an internist, cardiologist, epidemiologist, a full professor of medicine at Texas A&M College of Medicine in Dallas, USA. He also has a master's degree in public health and is known for being one of the top five most-published medical researchers in the United States and is the editor of two medical journals.

[Lake-Effect]

Originally Posted by letsgetsailing3

What? You said yourself we're all going to get covid. So why vaccinate a population whose risk isn't significantly reduced?

The risk to kids IS significantly reduced by vaccination. By 50% or better. And vaccinated children are less likely to be risks to their families, and the rest of the population. Which means there's less need for restrictions on their activities.

I think that over the next year you'll see public policy migrating towards protecting those who have high risk, and relaxing on those who don't.

Well, duh.

Barring yet another variant, you'll see COVID restrictions of all sorts drop away this year. And we are fast approaching the point where between infection and vaccination, just about everyone will have some measure of exposure, meaning that COVID will no longer be novel.

But we're not there yet... and you want to leave the young completely unprotected, like tethered goats, waiting for a variant that happens to like children.

COVID has noticed...

[Dieseldude]

Originally Posted by Lake-Effect

The risk to kids IS significantly reduced by vaccination. By 50% or better. And vaccinated children are less likely to be risks to their families, and the rest of the population. Which means there's less need for restrictions on their activities.

Well, duh.

Barring yet another variant, you'll see COVID restrictions of all sorts drop away this year. And we are fast approaching the point where between infection and vaccination, just about everyone will have some measure of exposure, meaning that COVID will no longer be novel.

But we're not there yet... and you want to leave the young completely unprotected, like tethered goats, waiting for a variant that happens to like children.

COVID has noticed...

According to the chart:
0 - 4 years old 5.3 per 100 000
5 - 17 years old 1.4 per 100 000



Hardly enough to justify risky injections and school shut downs. But rationalism never was included in the plans.

[letsgetsailing3]

Originally Posted by Lake-Effect

re not there yet... and you want to leave the young completely unprotected, like tethered goats, waiting for a variant that happens to like children.

Tethered goats? A variant that likes children?

If you drilled down on those numbers, I bet you'd find that most hospitalizations have comorbidities, like obesity. Maybe we should with some reasoned analysis, as we do have the ability to do that. It may be that we can protect those who are at risk without vaccinating every goat in the herd.

We don't have to create public health policy from the newspaper opinion pages, or buy vaccines just because the pharmaceutical company is marketing one.

[Lake-Effect]

Originally Posted by letsgetsailing3

...some reasoned analysis, as we do have the ability to do that.

I'm going to assume that, unlike the DDude, you know the implications of a rising trend.

I will also assume that you'll still be around and reading CF in a few months' time. Let's see then what the stats for children are - ALL stats: hospitalizations and deaths, vaccination illness/deaths , and then you can say "I told you so". Or you can then acknowledge that you're wrong, and that vaccinating all kids was a reasonable step.

[Mike OReilly]

Here's a fun/interesting tool that attempts to compare the cost countries have paid to deal with the pandemic. They call it the Covid Misery Index, and it compares "misery levels" between 15 peer countries.

https://www.macdonaldlaurier.ca/covid-misery-index/

The Macdonald-Laurier Institute’s is a comparative tool designed to assess comprehensive government performance through the COVID-19 pandemic, measuring the extent to which the virus itself and our responses to it have harmed human wellbeing.

According to this ranking, Canada does fairly well overall (i.e. has lower "misery"). We rank 6th overall, with New Zealand, Norway, Japan, Australia and Sweden coming in ahead of us (so less "misery"). The most misery was/is felt by the UK, Italy, Spain and the USA.

Overall, this ranking suggests Canada's Covid approach has been fairly good. But when you look at our economic impacts, it is here where we look pretty poor. We rank second worst, just below the USA and above Spain.

[Mike OReilly]

CTV: Quebec will revoke fake vaccine passports, health minister says amid anti-corruption probe

COVID-19 vaccine passports found to be faked will be revoked and criminal charges could be laid against people who bought them and produced them, Quebec’s health minister said Thursday amid an ongoing anti-corruption probe into alleged fraud schemes to evade the public health measure.

[Thumbs Up]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Here's a fun/interesting tool that attempts to compare the cost countries have paid to deal with the pandemic. They call it the Covid Misery Index, and it compares "misery levels" between 15 peer countries.

https://www.macdonaldlaurier.ca/covid-misery-index/

According to this ranking, Canada does fairly well overall (i.e. has lower "misery"). We rank 6th overall, with New Zealand, Norway, Japan, Australia and Sweden coming in ahead of us (so less "misery"). The most misery was/is felt by the UK, Italy, Spain and the USA.

Overall, this ranking suggests Canada's Covid approach has been fairly good. But when you look at our economic impacts, it is here where we look pretty poor. We rank second worst, just below the USA and above Spain.

Mike. We asked for science. You are posting propaganda. These public/private pro corporate think tanks have an agenda.

Leading Figures in league with the Conservatives during the MLI’s founding years:
The Macdonald-Laurier Institute was founded in 2010, claiming to be a “non-partisan Ottawa think tank”. However, its first report revealed that the board of directors were filled to the brim with past and present CEOs, CFOs and wealthy millionaires, including Rob Wildeboer, Chairman of Martin-rea International Inc. and Rick Peterson, the President of Peterson Capital. The Managing Director of MLI, Brian Crowley had close ties to the PM in 2010, Stephen Harper.
Brian Crowley was the founding President of the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, a conservative, free-market think tank incorporated in 1995. AIMS received the majority of its funding from “several anonymous donors” (millionaires and billionaires who don’t want their donations publicly known) and pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and Merck Frosst. They were at the forefront of the battle against public health care in Canada for years, until it merged with the Fraser Institute in November 2019.
Sourcewatch revealed that as of 2010, Crowley was also a member of the influential right-wing Civitas Society, founded by Calgary political scientist Tom Flanagan, campaign manager for and advisor to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
In 2006, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty appointed Crowley as the 2006-2007 Clifford Clark Visiting Economist of the department. Four months later, Crowley began to develop the MLI while giving policy advice to the Harper government. In 2009, Minister Flaherty hosted a private fundraising dinner at Toronto’s Albany Club for the MLI. In a letter, he urged Bay Street elites to come and support the fledging right-wing think tank stating that he was “giving it my personal backing”. Soon afterwards, the Aurea Foundation, funded by Peter Munk, gave $100,000 to assist in starting up the think-tank, as revealed on page 13 of their 2010 annual report.
Rob Wildeboer, the chairman of the MLI Board of Directors until 2018 and current member of its Advisory Council, is a wealthy evangelical and the chief backer of the ECP Centre. The ECP centre “attacks human rights commissions as instruments of Christian persecution,” explained Donald Gutstein. The ECP believes that “the very notion of legally protected individual rights is an unthinkable heresy, a repudiation of God’s sovereign law,” according to The Armageddon Factor: The Rise of Christian Nationalism in Canada.
Within the first year of existence, the Institute’s notable corporate funders included: CTV, Labatt Breweries, TD Bank Financial Group, Merck, BMO Financial Group – Corporate, RBC Financial Group and Pfizer International, which continued their tradition of supporting think-tanks run by Crowley.
Foundations supporting the Institute at the start were funded by a who’s who of Canadian oligarchs and elites: The John Dobson Foundation, Aurea Foundation, The Garfield Weston Foundation, Lotte & John Hecht Foundation, Donner Canadian Foundation and Atlas Economic Research Foundation.
The Institute soon began publishing a series of papers by Janet Ajzenstat, which served to glorify the genocidal colonialist leaders of Canada, called “Canada’s founding ideas”. It claimed to “paint the picture of Founders far more steeped in a concern with liberty, than academic and popular tradition suggests”. By minimizing the genocide committed against Indigenous nations, it provided credence to Harper’s contempt for Indigenous Nations during his first four years as Prime Minister.
Within a year of its founding, the think tank soon pushed a “non-partisan” politically valuable policy paper, written by Scott Newark in 2011, which alleged that Statistics Canada was systematically undercounting crime statistics.
Unsurprisingly, Newark was also connected to the conservatives. During the period of 2006 to 2008, Stockwell Day was the public safety minister under Stephen Harper’s Conservative government. During that time Newark worked as a special advisor to Day. Newark then went on to work as project manager overseeing a $300,000-plus contract from his former ministry.
This policy paper provided important cover for the Harper government’s “tough-on-crime” policies. The pro-corporate welfare Harper government was facing elections, only a few months later, which they ended up winning.
In this year, the MLI gained new donors such as Google Inc., Johnson & Johnson, the company exposed for failing to pull its products despite knowing they caused cancer, and John Irving, the Canadian oil baron.
The MLI took credit for: the Harper government’s refusal to expand the Canadian Pension Plan and their decision to cap the Canada Health Transfer, worsening healthcare in Canada and taking finances away from the CPP, in favour of giving money to private sector pensions.
https://www.thecanadafiles.com/articles/cttsci

What is the cost and true motivation that created this "index" and how is it relevant? As they suggested, will you encourage us to: "Sign-Up To Have The Latest Canadian Thought Leadership Delivered Straight To Your Inbox."
What is Canadian Thought Leadership? Sounds like more brainwashing/coercion tactics.
Post some relevant science for once. You are losing credibility by posting opinion polls and propaganda.

[B]Macdonald-Laurier Institute[/B]
The Macdonald-Laurier Institute says its activities include “research identifying current and emerging economic and public policy issues facing Canadians” and communicating findings to “a national audience in a clear, non-partisan way.”
But, as reported previously, it also produces flashy videos, graphics and articles arguing “the case for reform” of healthcare, defence and other spending.
https://pressprogress.ca/right-wing-...ears-in-a-row/

[Dieseldude]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

CTV: Quebec will revoke fake vaccine passports, health minister says amid anti-corruption probe

It is the politicians and bureaucrats that should be up on criminal charges for extortion, uttering threats, violating charter rights, breaking Helsinki Declaration & Nuremberg Code, etc.

[Mike OReilly]

As Ontario announces its gradual reopening, the hospitalization rate does indeed appear to be trending down. It's ever so slight right now, but it's starting to look real.

Here are two current graphs. The first covers the last 90 days where you can see the trend fairly clearly. The second is Ontario hospitalizations and ICU admittance over the entire pandemic. This second one shows the real impact Omicron is having.

[Thumbs Up]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

As Ontario announces its gradual reopening, the hospitalization rate does indeed appear to be trending down. It's ever so slight right now, but it's starting to look real.

Here are two current graphs. The first covers the last 90 days where you can see the trend fairly clearly. The second is Ontario hospitalizations and ICU admittance over the entire pandemic. This second one shows the real impact Omicron is having.

From those graphs (of which you fail to provide the source), the thing that is painfully obvious, is that non covid hospitalizations are skyrocketing. You don't care to investigate? I am guessing that it is mostly cardiac related and probably due to the vaccine side effects.
Or, like CTV, blame it on the snowstorm:
https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/recent-sno...ight-1.5745038

[Macblaze]

I can't help myself. To all of us still engaged in what we think is a discussion:

[letsgetsailing3]

Originally Posted by Lake-Effect

I'm going to assume that, unlike the DDude, you know the implications of a rising trend.

I will also assume that you'll still be around and reading CF in a few months' time. Let's see then what the stats for children are - ALL stats: hospitalizations and deaths, vaccination illness/deaths , and then you can say "I told you so". Or you can then acknowledge that you're wrong, and that vaccinating all kids was a reasonable step.

I think the trend (depending on which measure you choose) is going to peak in the coming weeks, and go down.

Regardless of whether kids get vaccinated or not. I don't believe that's going to be a significant factor.

A more significant factor is likely to be the combination of covid with a comorbidity. I do think vaccinations in adults are a significant factor, particularly in combination with a comorbidity and/or age, and the availability of treatments.