Covid questions

[GDR]

I have had my first Pfizer shot but I'm starting to wonder about the whole process we're going through. Texas has been fully open for months. I have watched the Blue Jays play there in front of thousands of mostly maskless fans.  In Texas 43.4% of the population has received at least one does and in Canada 53.1% of the population has received at least one dose.

Here in BC where we have had a severe shutdown as of yesterday we showed with that we had 71.6 cases per million using a 7 day average. Texas was at 60.1. It is hard not to question what we are being told particularly in light of the damage this shut down has done to so many lives. 

https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/covid-19-in-the-u-s-how-do-canada-s-provinces-rank-against-american-states-1.5051033

[GDR]

I thought that I'd look into this a little more. Here are the overall covid death statistics comparing BC where we have been severely restricted compared to Texas. In Texas which on Oct 20 largely removed, but not completely, any restrictions but  limited many things to 75 occupancy,  on Mar 2nd opened the state up completely and made the wearing of masks optional.

BC has a population of 4.9 million. Texas has a population pf 29.2 million or 6 times the population of BC.

 

BC has had 25,358 covid deaths. Texas has had 51,449 covid deaths roughly twice that of BC which indicates that on a percentage basis BC overall has had 3 times the death rate that Texas has had.

 

[PinC]

Better check your stats again....BC has had 1680 deaths.

So the death rate per population in Texas is 5 times greater than BC which makes sense when you look at their stupid responses to COVID!!

[PinC]

The 25358 deaths is for all of Canada....

 

[GDR]

Rats, All I had to do is say nothing. The way I read that site was wrong. BC has had 1680 Covid deaths which would make it equivalent to 10,000 in Texas. Thanks for correcting me although the orignal post still stands in that Texas is doing better now than BC as a percentage of population with Texas being fully open since Mar 2 and with a lower percentage of people vaccinated. Thanks again for the correction.

[FA@AC]

I might be mistaken, but I believe that our American friends cite vaccination stats as those of the general population.  Here they're cited as a percentage of the eligible (adult?) population.

[GDR]

13 minutes ago, FA@AC said:

I might be mistaken, but I believe that our American friends cite vaccination stats as those of the general population.  Here they're cited as a percentage of the eligible (adult?) population.

I'm afraid I can't answer that. It has been suggested to me the numbers would come down at the end of flu season as in a other forms of the flu. It might be that is having an impact everywhere which should encourage the idea of opening things up more quickly.

[Kip Powick]

It may sound cavalier but I have given up and finally, don't care what is open, what is closed, and when will normalcy reign again. Thank goodness I have hobbies that are not infringed upon by COVID and I keep busy every day. 

I feel for those that have a job and have not been employed for months on end and I really hope you are maintaining a sustainable  mental balance between what could be depression, and hopefully, a love of life.

Take heart, especially if you are young, you have a lot of life to live, don't let this COVD thing get you down, as it is merely a bump on the road, a substantial bump, but just a bump. If you have lost a loved one, I sympathize with you but there is always periods of pain as we move through life to our ultimate destination.

Be safe, be grateful for each day, and I wish you nothing but blue skies and happy trails.

[JL]

To me it's all about managing the health care system's ability to cope. Nobody wants an India situation where they are dying in the hospital parking lots.

[conehead]

40 minutes ago, JL said:

To me it's all about managing the health care system's ability to cope. Nobody wants an India situation where they are dying in the hospital parking lots.

That’s exactly the purpose behind all the precautions we’ve experienced. The stay-at-home orders, social distancing, reduced capacity in stores.. it’s all to protect the health care system from collapsing. Always has been, and I don’t believe this has been emphasized enough to the public.

[GDR]

4 hours ago, JL said:

To me it's all about managing the health care system's ability to cope. Nobody wants an India situation where they are dying in the hospital parking lots.

I get that and don't disagree but there is the other side of the equation. I think of those who have lost their businesses and/or their jobs. For those in the very last months of their lives can't see family. The massive debt our governments are building up and the economic damage down the road.

I was simply trying to point out that at the current time we aren't doing no better with all of our restrictions here in BC than places such as Texas that have opened up completely and that we should take that into consideration.

[J.O.]

In the cold light of day when this thing is essentially over, there will be post mortems conducted to understand how we can be better prepared the (inevitable) next time. Unfortunately those analyses will be requested by the folks who were making the decisions and the temptation to influence the outcomes in their own favour will be strong (on all sides). IAC, I believe the USA will pay significantly higher societal costs in the long run due to the cavalier approach their leadership took in the early days. A steadfast (dare I say leader-like) approach to locking down from the White House would have prevented a lot of the vaccine hesitancy and self-interested bad behaviour that's occurring today. That's not to say those things don't exist in Canada, but they are far less pronounced.

[mo32a]

23 hours ago, GDR said:

Here in BC where we have had a severe shutdown as of yesterday we showed with that we had 71.6 cases per million using a 7 day average.

 

What severe shutdown did we have? You couldn't dine inside a restaurant or have a bunch of people over. Big deal.

I could still go golfing, eat on the patios, go to the grocery store, go for a walk, go for a hike etc.

There was no change from Monday to Wednesday for me or most of the people I know. 

[JL]

Humans got off easy with this pandemic exercise. Like accidents, I hope some good change comes so that we are better prepared for the next one. For example, the promise of creating a government vaccine lab (Canada's last one being shut down by Mulroney in 1980's).

[Guest1]

1 hour ago, JL said:

Humans got off easy with this pandemic exercise. Like accidents, I hope some good change comes so that we are better prepared for the next one. For example, the promise of creating a government vaccine lab (Canada's last one being shut down by Mulroney in 1980's).

And of course despite SARS, H1N1 etc. governments that followed saw no need to start one.

Quote

o understand the problem, we need to go back to the 1980s. At that time, the government-owned Connaught Labs was producing vaccines here in Canada and decision-making was in the public realm. But Connaught was partially privatized and then finally allowed to be sold to the French company Merieux (now part of Sanofi) by the Conservative government of Brian Mulroney.

Fast forward to the 2000s, when Québec-based vaccine manufacturer IAF BioChem went through a couple of sales and ended up being owned by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).

Sanofi and GSK still make vaccines in Toronto and Ste-Foy, but decisions about what vaccines to produce are not in Canadian hands.

 

[GDR]

Here are the latest figures. Texas, wide open since Mar 2nd, sees its 7 day average of cases per 100,000 dropping faster than BC.

Texas has dropped to 37.4 whereas BC is at 49.8. Both are reducing but Texas is reducing more rapidly.

[Guest1]

5 minutes ago, GDR said:

Here are the latest figures. Texas, wide open since Mar 2nd, sees its 7 day average of cases per 100,000 dropping faster than BC.

Texas has dropped to 37.4 whereas BC is at 49.8. Both are reducing but Texas is reducing more rapidly.

Texas coronavirus cases haven't surged since governor lifted mask order | The Texas Tribune

[J.O.]

The devil may be in the details. I'd be really surprised if the general mood in Texas wasn't shaming a whole bunch of sick people into not getting tested.

[Guest1]

 

That does not appear to have happened in Texas. The complete article can be found at:

Texas COVID-19 vaccines, cases, deaths and more: The latest numbers (texastribune.org)

Following are some excerpts from the story

What you should know:

• The latest: New cases, hospitalizations and deaths are as low as they were before the first wave last summer. More than one-third of Texans are fully vaccinated, and counties on the Texas-Mexico border that were among the hardest hit are now seeing some of the highest vaccination rates in the state.

• How many Texans have been vaccinated?

  As of June 1, 12.8 million people have received at least one dose and 10.3 million people, or 35.7% of Texas’ population, are fully vaccinated. A total of 22.3 million doses have been administered. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require two doses, and the Johnson & Johnson vaccine requires one dose.

  Texas received its first shipments of the COVID-19 vaccine on Dec. 14. The vaccines are available to everyone age 12 and older in Texas, regardless of occupation or health status.

• COVID-19 vaccine doses reported each day

  The state has administered 22.3 million doses as of June 1. The number of doses reported each day includes doses administered on previous days.
•  

[Rich Pulman]

6 hours ago, J.O. said:

The devil may be in the details. I'd be really surprised if the general mood in Texas wasn't shaming a whole bunch of sick people into not getting tested.

Or perhaps that so many people living in Texas have already had the virus that there’s a degree of “herd immunity” that’s only amplified by the number of people vaccinated.

[GDR]

Sorry, I forgot to link the site in my last post. The figures change and since I posted that BC has come down from what it was. Here is the site now.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/covid-19-in-the-u-s-how-do-canada-s-provinces-rank-against-american-states-1.5051033

[GDR]

Does anyone know why Manitoba shows worse than any US state or any other Cdn province?

[Guest1]

11 minutes ago, GDR said:

Does anyone know why Manitoba shows worse than any US state or any other Cdn province?

Here are some links that might be informative.

Why does Manitoba have nearly twice as many COVID-19 deaths as Saskatchewan? | CBC News

How did COVID-19 get so bad in Manitoba and what can we learn from that? | CBC Radio

[GDR]

Thanks KK. As near as I can tell Manitoba has had a pretty severe lock down in place and yet it is still higher than anywhere else in NA, including the US states that are fully open and unrestricted.

[GDR]

On 5/26/2021 at 1:40 PM, GDR said:

Here in BC where we have had a severe shutdown as of yesterday we showed with that we had 71.6 cases per million using a 7 day average. Texas was at 60.1. It is hard not to question what we are being told particularly in light of the damage this shut down has done to so many lives. 

 

Interestingly enough since I first posted this both Texas and BC have dropped considerably with BC actually showing better than Texas now. BC is now at 33.8 and Texas is at 44.1. 

However the fact still remains that the numbers in a state that has been completely open for over 3 months are coming down rapidly, although now more slowly than BC, but still better than many Canadian provinces.