Canadian COVID-19 News

[Macblaze]

Originally Posted by rbk

Exactly. How much of the half a trillion dollars the feds spent in the last two years went towards creating more ICU beds, staff hiring, incentives for manufacturers of PPE and other medical equipment (that we had to beg other countries for and still mainly import) or increasing support of the health care system they keep reminding us that we're supposed to protect from collapse? Bulk of it was spent on paying people to sit at home, why not train them to do hospital laundry, clean, medical transport, package, cook you name it, at least we might have gotten some value for our spending and kept people working.

I think the point, for most of that "half a trillion" was to keep them not working. And any of the money went to the provinces, well that was up to the provinces to disperse, which here in AB, IMHO, didn't get spent all that wisely either.

But it sure would be nice if the various level of governments could get off the "reaction train" and start acting proactively. Not that I am holding my breathe.

[rbk]

Originally Posted by Macblaze

I think the point, for most of that "half a trillion" was to keep them not working. And any of the money went to the provinces, well that was up to the provinces to disperse, which here in AB, IMHO, didn't get spent all that wisely either.

But it sure would be nice if the various level of governments could get off the "reaction train" and start acting proactively. Not that I am holding my breathe.

Nearly 1/5 of that money was dolled out directly by the feds. My biggest gripe is that all levels of government continued to 'work' throughout lock downs yet not one policy or plan was created during the slow times to address issues that everyone knew were coming, not even a simple plan or goal(s) to re-open was looked at until people began demanding one and it was clear they had been sitting on their hands the entire time. It wasn't some state secret that hospitals were under staffed, under funded and under equipped pre-pandemic, in fact it was in the news monthly if not weekly, yet every level of government failed to do anything to help bolster it moving into Covid. To say that they couldn't know the extent is a farce as we've been bombarded with modelling for the past two years telling us how bad it was going to be and used them to continually lock down our country. The reaction train has simply revealed complete incompetence at every level of government and continues to do so.

[hpeer]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

I guess I don't understand Howard... how would this help our healthcare capacities? Do you mean we should divert more of our discretionary spending towards public healthcare systems?

I wrote a ling winded answer and deleted it. It is too complicated for here and off topic anyway. My personal musings about humanity.

Onward……….something else to consider.

Every year the World Economic Forum comes out with a World Threat Analysis. I look at it each year. It is the collective wisdom of some thousands of the best and brightest. They totally blew the Covid pandemic not even recognizing a biological threat to humanity. (I have my own list and did better than them, ha!). Yet they are the only group I know of who systematically attempts to assess the global risk.

Their new report is just out. Below is an excerpt from the summary. It is worth a look.

Global risks perceptions highlight societal and environmental concerns
Asked to take a view of the past two years, respondents to the GRPS perceive societal risks—in the form of “social cohesion erosion”, “livelihood crises” and “mental health deterioration”—as those that have worsened the most since the pandemic began. Only 16% of respondents feel positive and optimistic about the outlook for the world, and just 11% believe the global recovery will accelerate. Most respondents instead expect the next three years to be characterized by either consistent volatility and multiple surprises or fractured trajectories that will separate relative winners and losers.
For the next five years, respondents again signal societal and environmental risks as the most concerning. However, over a 10-year horizon,
the health of the planet dominates concerns: environmental risks are perceived to be the five most critical long-term threats to the world as well as the most potentially damaging to people and planet,
with “climate action failure”, “extreme weather”, and “biodiversity loss” ranking as the top three most severe risks. Respondents also signalled “debt crises” and “geoeconomic confrontations” as among the most severe risks over the next 10 years.

https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Th...eport_2022.pdf

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

... Like I said earlier, we certainly can expand the physical infrastructure, and build more beds and more ICUs. But as you note, it's the human resource which is more of a challenge. You can't create an ICU nurse, technician or doctor overnight. It takes years of investment and training...

This is what a 16-hour hospital shift is like for me while Omicron rages
This First Person article is the experience of Laura Sang, a family medicine resident physician at a hospital in Montreal.
She concludes the article, writing: “... So please, I urge you, find that strength inside you to continue to follow public health guidelines. Mask up, stay home, stay safe, stay strong.”
➥ https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montr...tage-1.6314226

The mostly unvaccinated patients overwhelming an Ontario ICU
➥ https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1992782403918/

[Mike OReilly]

Is this crazy?

CBC: Vulnerable people in B.C. and Alberta being paid to take COVID 19 vaccines for others, officials say

Homeless and vulnerable people in British Columbia and Alberta have been approached with offers of payment to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by those attempting to fraudulently get a vaccine card.
...

The Edmonton Police Service confirmed it is investigating this allegation, which was reported at the start of the year.

...
In December, B.C. health officials had said COVID-19 immunization records entered into the provincial registry that are suspected to be fraudulent are being reported to police.

The B.C. RCMP said they have no reports of homeless people being approached by strangers and offered cash to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

[danstanford]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Is this crazy?

CBC: Vulnerable people in B.C. and Alberta being paid to take COVID 19 vaccines for others, officials say

Absolutely, the only good thing about it would be the fact that someone is being vaccinated.

It certainly speaks to the real fear some people have of the vaccine. Sensible based on data, no. Real fear, yes.

[Mike OReilly]

And further to our resource discussion, this G&M story outlines how the feds have paid for the construction of 15 mobile 100-person hospitals which can be quickly set up to deal with surging needs. Sadly (and not a-typically), only four of these units have been delivered so far.

But even more importantly, they have been very lightly used by the provinces. Why? The experts quoted say it's due to lack of qualified staff.

Mobile hospitals Ottawa spent $300-million on sit in storage while Omicron strains Canada’s health system

Ottawa allocated $300-million at the beginning of the pandemic for the construction of 15 mobile hospitals, but only four 100-bed units have been completed and they are sitting in storage despite the strain on hospitals caused by Omicron across the country.
...
Two of those units were deployed early last year for several months at Toronto’s Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and Hamilton Health Sciences hospital network. In October of last year, an oxygen concentrator from one of Weatherhaven’s units was shipped to the Northwest Territories to handle an influx of COVID-19 patients in intensive care.
...
None of the provinces have yet asked for either of the mobile hospitals during the current Omicron wave. The SNC-PAE mobile respiratory care unit can handle 100 patients in five wards, including 20 intensive-care-unit beds with oxygen respirators. Weatherhaven’s portable tent hospitals also handle 100 beds and include ventilators.

A senior federal official said the the (sic) Health department assumes the provinces have not requested the mobile pandemic hospitals because they don’t have enough nurses or doctors to staff them.
...
Katharine Smart, president of the Canadian Medical Association, said she can understand why the provinces haven’t asked for the federal units given burnout, attrition and COVID-19 infections of nurses, doctors and other staff.

“Of course it would nice to have more physical space but that doesn’t help when you don’t have the human health resources to staff it,” she said. “The crisis in front of us is we need people to staff more space.”

[bensolomon]

Mike,

Hope you are doing well. Been following this thread. Just to give an on the ground experience report, our experience here, in the Philadelphia area of the US has been massive case positivity, and we are now seeing a marked rise in hospitalizations as well as ICU admissions and mechanical ventilation use. My personal, anecdotal experience has been that the unvaccinated and vaccinated immunocompromised (those with malignancies, collagen vascular diseases, splenectomy, etc) patients do much worse and almost invariably die once they become critically ill. It takes about two to three weeks for them to worsen, and they really suffer. Ruptured lungs, chest tubes, shock, multi-sytem organ failure.

At my hospital we don't determine Covid genotype therefore I can't tell if my ICU patients are Delta or Omicron. We had no covid in the hospital prior to Thanksgiving, and now 35% of our hospitalized patients are covid and in our ICU we have 75% covid.

Getting to the personnel aspect. The nursing staff and respiratory therapy staff have been decimated, and not just here, but nationwide. Two things have contributed: nurses and resp therapists getting sick with covid and travel nursing/respiratory therapy jobs. They can make triple per hour elsewhere because of shortages, and the hospital admin won't pay the existing nurses more money, but they will pay a nursing agency triple to get nurses. (See the futile cycle?). We also have some of my physician colleagues who have gotten sick so we scramble to cover their shifts both day and night.

The third prong of this pandemic is counseling the families and loved ones on the process of illness in these patients, which now is even harder because we don't allow visitation due to covid. We do let them in to say goodbye, however. It's heart wrenching to say the least.

Be well, everyone!

Ben

[Scorpius]

Originally Posted by danstanford

Absolutely, the only good thing about it would be the fact that someone is being vaccinated.

It certainly speaks to the real fear some people have of the vaccine. Sensible based on data, no. Real fear, yes.

Yeah, but what's the effect on some poor schmuck who has received payments from several people to take their shots for them? Do we know what the effect taking say 10 shots of the vaccine might have on a person?

[Lake-Effect]

Originally Posted by Scorpius

Yeah, but what's the effect on some poor schmuck who has received payments from several people to take their shots for them? Do we know what the effect taking say 10 shots of the vaccine might have on a person?

Sore arm, and REALLY protected against COVID.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by danstanford

Absolutely, the only good thing about it would be the fact that someone is being vaccinated.

Yes, although IF the stories are true, it suggests some vulnerable people are receiving more doses than they should. I don't think we know the medical downsides here.

Originally Posted by danstanford

It certainly speaks to the real fear some people have of the vaccine. Sensible based on data, no. Real fear, yes.

Yes. That's one way to look at it. Another is it speaks to the sense of entitlement, power and selfishness some people have in their disregard for the collective well-being of society.

Either way we choose to look at it, it ain't good.

Originally Posted by bensolomon

...Getting to the personnel aspect. The nursing staff and respiratory therapy staff have been decimated, and not just here, but nationwide. Two things have contributed: nurses and resp therapists getting sick with covid and travel nursing/respiratory therapy jobs. They can make triple per hour elsewhere because of shortages, and the hospital admin won't pay the existing nurses more money, but they will pay a nursing agency triple to get nurses. (See the futile cycle? Me: "yes, although this will open up a huge thread drift"). We also have some of my physician colleagues who have gotten sick so we scramble to cover their shifts both day and night.

Thanks for this insight into what's really happening on the front lines Ben. But mostly, thanks for your incredible work in fighting the ravages of this disease.

Stay well, and as safe as you can be.

[Zippee]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Is this crazy?

CBC: Vulnerable people in B.C. and Alberta being paid to take COVID 19 vaccines for others, officials say

I always appreciate this Canadian thread for mostly good information and fair discussion, thank you. It does show how factionalized things have become in many countries. Not really a joke, but if true perhaps the homeless should be given the homes of those who used them and then died, lol. Might solve two problems at once..

[Macblaze]

Originally Posted by hpeer

I wrote a ling winded answer and deleted it. It is too complicated for here and off topic anyway. My personal musings about humanity.

Just FWIW, those of us who get email notification do get to read the original post...nothing is ever deleted on the internet

[danstanford]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Y
Yes. That's one way to look at it. Another is it speaks to the sense of entitlement, power and selfishness some people have in their disregard for the collective well-being of society.

I find it astonishing that we seem unable to allow what I said to be expressed without it somehow being conflated with harm to society. I believe that getting vaccinated is a sensible and responsible thing to do. I also can muster empathy for those paralyzed by their fear of vaccines. It is my belief that if we could stop yelling at them about their responsibilities and instead hear their feelings we might have a fighting chance of modifying their beliefs. It has worked in my world as my employee not vaccinated is now vaccinated.

There are some reprehensible anti-vaxxers out there making irresponsible choices and causing harm to health care workers and indeed the rest of society. Also in place, and I would suggest the vast majority of the unvaccinated, are people accepting the limits their fear of vaccination has placed on them and quietly doing what they think is best for their lives. I don't agree with their choices but I do understand them.

[Macblaze]

Originally Posted by danstanford

Also in place, and I would suggest the vast majority of the unvaccinated, are people accepting the limits their fear of vaccination has placed on them and quietly doing what they think is best for their lives. I don't agree with their choices but I do understand them.

I don't suppose they are the ones paying vulnerable people to take what most non-vaccinated consider an "experimental" vaccine just so they don't have to. I think Mike's scorn is justified in these alleged cases...