Canadian COVID part-2

[danstanford]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

In terms of what to expect, an article in today's NYT discussed the subject. Here's a link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/31/o...demic-end.html. It is an opinion piece.

A difference no one seems to comment on, but which I think changes things is that we are inundated with information these days, we share it, and we are far more aware of how this pandemic is affecting people all over our world. Fwiw, my sense is that this increases fears, generally. And one affect of that is that some people delay needed medical procedures, especially if the procedure is distasteful in some way. This is not a staffing problem, it is from too much fear around, and that many are not able to self-soothe the same ways as they were used to.

Ann

I have never heard so many people say they cannot watch the television news before.

[N Coast Murray]

Pssst...come north of Cape Caution and wander off of the Inside Passage treadmill (like pulling off the highway onto a country road) where there are lots of quiet places, even on summer holiday weekends.

[Kelkara]

Originally Posted by N Coast Murray

Pssst...come north of Cape Caution and wander off of the Inside Passage treadmill (like pulling off the highway onto a country road) where there are lots of quiet places, even on summer holiday weekends.

shhh ... don't tell everyone.

[hjohnson]

Originally Posted by N Coast Murray

Pssst...come north of Cape Caution and wander off of the Inside Passage treadmill (like pulling off the highway onto a country road) where there are lots of quiet places, even on summer holiday weekends.

Alas, in a 5.5kt boat, I would spend my entire vacation just getting to Cape Caution.

[sv_pelagia]

Originally Posted by hjohnson

Alas, in a 5.5kt boat, I would spend my entire vacation just getting to Cape Caution.

?

We cruise at 6kn, and make it to Haida Gwaii and back....

[Macblaze]

Originally Posted by sv_pelagia

?

We cruise at 6kn, and make it to Haida Gwaii and back....

In... 2 weeks? a month? Some of us have a more limited definition of vacation

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by N Coast Murray

Pssst...come north of Cape Caution and wander off of the Inside Passage treadmill (like pulling off the highway onto a country road) where there are lots of quiet places, even on summer holiday weekends.

Now look here... if you want to really get off the beaten path, then northern Newfoundland and Labrador is the place to be. Or for Great Lakes cruisers, the northern shores of Lake Superior.

[sv_pelagia]

Originally Posted by Macblaze

In... 2 weeks? a month? Some of us have a more limited definition of vacation [emoji3]

ah yes... 2-3 mos.

[Mike OReilly]

Just did a perusal through the national stats. Hospitalizations are starting to trend down nationally, although not in all provinces yet. Still, it's looking better. But we have along way to come down from this massive wave.

The first graph shows national hospitalization data for the last 90 days. The second displays it for the entire pandemic. This shows the real impact of the latest (Omicron) variant. There's no reason to believe we're done with the variants.

https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/coronavirustracker/

[N Coast Murray]

Originally Posted by Kelkara

shhh ... don't tell everyone.

It's okay...the prospect of rounding Cape Caution keeps the riff-raff out and 90% of those who do have blinders on for Alaska

Lots of quiet places!

[Macblaze]

Originally Posted by N Coast Murray

It's okay...the prospect of rounding Cape Caution keeps the riff-raff out and 90% of those who do have blinders on for Alaska

Lots of quiet places!

I don't think of myself as riff raff but I will admit the surety of the Broughtons vs the "risk" of Cape Caution has kept me south of it...for now. Speaking of risk assessment

[Macblaze]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Just did a perusal through the national stats. Hospitalizations are starting to trend down nationally, although not in all provinces yet. Still, it's looking better. But we have along way to come down from this massive wave.

The first graph shows national hospitalization data for the last 90 days. The second displays it for the entire pandemic. This shows the real impact of the latest (Omicron) variant. There's no reason to believe we're done with the variants.

https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/coronavirustracker/

Here in Alberta, Kenney is still trying to appease his base by alluding to the end of February as "the end of Covid." I like to have hope but this discourse of on vs off is starting to make me a crazy. I really don't have much hope that this summer will be "wide open" — hopefully it is at least open with some exceptions but even that is still 50/50 in my mind. And now with O'Toole out the national scene is about to get shaken up... or at least louder.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Macblaze

Here in Alberta, Kenney is still trying to appease his base by alluding to the end of February as "the end of Covid."

This "end of Covid," or "I'm done with Covid," or "everyone's tired of the pandemic," is an amusing perspective to me. It's as if we can just will the pandemic away -- as if the virus cares what we want.

We may be "done with Covid," but Covid doesn't care what we want. We're just breeding ground and food stock for the virus. It will continue to use us until it is halted by counter-forces in its ecosystem.

We will get there, but that doesn't necessarily mean we'll go back to the way things were before the pandemic. Maybe we will, but maybe this new viral ecosystem of ours will demand permanent changes in our behaviour.

[pcmm]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

This "end of Covid," or "I'm done with Covid," or "everyone's tired of the pandemic," is an amusing perspective to me. It's as if we can just will the pandemic away -- as if the virus cares what we want.

We may be "done with Covid," but Covid doesn't care what we want. We're just breeding ground and food stock for the virus. It will continue to use us until it is halted by counter-forces in its ecosystem.

We will get there, but that doesn't necessarily mean we'll go back to the way things were before the pandemic. Maybe we will, but maybe this new viral ecosystem of ours will demand permanent changes in our behaviour.

I think the fatigue comes from the repeated lockdowns (or in this iteration in Ontario not calling it a lockdown but forcing a lot of businesses to close anyway) with little evidence that it actually accomplishes anything significant. We lockdown and the cases grow slowly, BUT the "science table" throws out wild projections of "worst case" like saying we could see 10k+ infections per day but never actually hit that number (thankfully) so they can say it works, but predictably when we reopen cases tick up (which is to be expected when people interact) which it then followed by the same "table" warning us that cases will go up if we stop the lockdown. At some point we need to understand that this thing is now part of the ecosystem and we need to learn to live with it in a managed risk mode.

anyway 85 days to launch!!! (assuming we don't get locked down again)

[N Coast Murray]

Originally Posted by pcmm

I think the fatigue comes from the repeated lockdowns (or in this iteration in Ontario not calling it a lockdown but forcing a lot of businesses to close anyway) with little evidence that it actually accomplishes anything significant...

You must have missed this:

Originally Posted by N Coast Murray

Regarding Canadian mask/mandate protestors.

The approximate median number of Covid deaths per million, per country worldwide is 3000 (see link below).

Canada, because of mandates, has had 'only' 889 Covid deaths per million. (34,000 people, so far).

If we had relaxed masking, mandates, and restrictions to the meet the global death by Covid average, we'd of had over 110,000 deaths.

Would the protesters really trade 80,000+ dead people so they could shop, travel, and go to bars freely?

The protesters are a real head scratcher to me!

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

The evidence is our low number of Covid deaths, per capita, compared to a lot of other countries.