The COVID-19 pandemic

[jamincan]

I think the only reason it's considered a sensitive question is because Covid vaccination and Covid in general has become political, and politics has always been a sensitive subject and definitely is not something you break the ice with. No one would consider asking someone if they've had the flu shot to be rude or impolite, but there also isn't a worry or fear that you might be ostracized or rejected if you respond the wrong way.

[danbrotherston]

I think the only reason it's considered a sensitive question is because Covid vaccination and Covid in general has become political, and politics has always been a sensitive subject and definitely is not something you break the ice with. No one would consider asking someone if they've had the flu shot to be rude or impolite, but there also isn't a worry or fear that you might be ostracized or rejected if you respond the wrong way.

This I think is on point.

But it also bugs me, some things shouldn't be political. I should be able to state unequivocally "I don't tolerate racism" without it being a political statement. Same with the vaccine.

Honestly, what do we do in a society where some political parties/political stances are objectively bad.

[ijmorlan]

You seem to watch a lot of Carlson -- didn't he get the vaccine?

Either way, one has to take American media, be it CNN or Fox, with a grain of salt, as it's more 'entertainment and drama' than news. I can't watch Fox, even though I am more 'central' on the political scale, at least compared to CNN, but Fox is crazy. The prime time line-up with CNN gets out of control as well. I love those guys, but they all need to be medicated.

As for the comparison I made, this is what I have heard over and over again. I couldn't have made that up myself. That said, I don't disagree with it, at least if it comes to random strangers. Would you be OK if you were out with your family or SO and someone came up to you and asked if you(s) were vaccinated? I think it's one thing if it's a business that has a mandate, and that has been clearly established, but otherwise, I don't think so.

That said, no one has asked me yet, other than someone in a medical office, who was 'shocked' that myself and 2 kids have been vaccinated. It was almost like vaccine shaming. This hasn't been from far right wing extremists, but rather left-wing nuts.

I don’t watch any Carlson directly, but I watch a certain number of videos by commentators commenting on him, so I see bits of him “in quotation”.

Many believe, and I am inclined to agree, that he is indeed vaccinated, but doesn’t want to say so because his audience of useful idiots would be less interested in watching him if they knew he was vaccinated. He’s not stupid, he just plays stupid on TV. Essentially, if he showed the leadership that one should be able to expect of a public figure, his answer would be “of course I am, it’s crazy not to be vaccinated”; but then almost everything he says on his show would be different from what it is. In short, Tucker wouldn’t be Tucker.

I do actually agree that it’s weird to walk up to random people and ask that question, but then it’s weird to walk up to random people and say pretty much anything at all to them. But in the context of getting together as a group or inviting someone into one’s home, it’s an entirely reasonable question and I would suspect any objector of being an anti-vaxxer. Also there is a difference between considering the question out of line in a particular situation (reasonable, depending on the situation) and considering it on a par with a question about intimate relations (absurd).

Finally people in medical offices have no business expressing or even intimating anti-vax sentiments on the job. That’s not free speech; it’s medical malpractice. As long as they’re vaccinated they’re OK to work in a medical office, but they need to keep the anti-vax stuff to their off hours and not use their medical credentials in any way.

[ac3r]

Tucker Carlson is almost certainly vaccinated. Fox Corp mandated their own vaccine passport system for employees to be able to work in their studios without a mask or need for distancing: https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/fox-...24970.html

He's a lunatic, but I'm sure he's still intelligent enough to accept that the vaccine is safe even though he peddles BS to his viewers that they're dangerous. Trump sold the same lies to his supporters but got vaccinated as well. Their lies don't match up with reality, but the gullible viewers don't know that.

[tomh009]

10-day averages for key regions in Ontario, plus the weekly trend as of 2021-07-24 (posting this every Saturday).

Region	Cases today	per 100K	10-day average	per 100K	Weekly trend
Grey Bruce	13	8.0	18	10.9	-31%
Waterloo	15	2.4	19	3.1	-47%
Huron Perth	2	2.0	2	2.0	+17%
Hamilton	17	2.9	12	2.0	+7%
Middlesex-London	9	2.2	7	1.7	+8%
Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph	3	1.1	4	1.5	-35%
Halton	3	.5	6	1.1	+3%
Peel	26	1.9	16	1.1	-12%
Durham	3	.5	7	1.1	+23%
Southwestern Ontario		.0	2	1.1	-37%
Chatham-Kent	2	1.9	1	1.0	+26%
Toronto	44	1.5	29	1.0	+10%
Ontario total					+11%

Notably the province-wide trend is back up now, even if only mildly so.

[jeffster]

You seem to watch a lot of Carlson -- didn't he get the vaccine?

Either way, one has to take American media, be it CNN or Fox, with a grain of salt, as it's more 'entertainment and drama' than news. I can't watch Fox, even though I am more 'central' on the political scale, at least compared to CNN, but Fox is crazy. The prime time line-up with CNN gets out of control as well. I love those guys, but they all need to be medicated.

As for the comparison I made, this is what I have heard over and over again. I couldn't have made that up myself. That said, I don't disagree with it, at least if it comes to random strangers. Would you be OK if you were out with your family or SO and someone came up to you and asked if you(s) were vaccinated? I think it's one thing if it's a business that has a mandate, and that has been clearly established, but otherwise, I don't think so.

That said, no one has asked me yet, other than someone in a medical office, who was 'shocked' that myself and 2 kids have been vaccinated. It was almost like vaccine shaming. This hasn't been from far right wing extremists, but rather left-wing nuts.

I don’t watch any Carlson directly, but I watch a certain number of videos by commentators commenting on him, so I see bits of him “in quotation”.

Many believe, and I am inclined to agree, that he is indeed vaccinated, but doesn’t want to say so because his audience of useful idiots would be less interested in watching him if they knew he was vaccinated. He’s not stupid, he just plays stupid on TV. Essentially, if he showed the leadership that one should be able to expect of a public figure, his answer would be “of course I am, it’s crazy not to be vaccinated”; but then almost everything he says on his show would be different from what it is. In short, Tucker wouldn’t be Tucker.

I do actually agree that it’s weird to walk up to random people and ask that question, but then it’s weird to walk up to random people and say pretty much anything at all to them. But in the context of getting together as a group or inviting someone into one’s home, it’s an entirely reasonable question and I would suspect any objector of being an anti-vaxxer. Also there is a difference between considering the question out of line in a particular situation (reasonable, depending on the situation) and considering it on a par with a question about intimate relations (absurd).

Finally people in medical offices have no business expressing or even intimating anti-vax sentiments on the job. That’s not free speech; it’s medical malpractice. As long as they’re vaccinated they’re OK to work in a medical office, but they need to keep the anti-vax stuff to their off hours and not use their medical credentials in any way.

Pretty much agree with everything there.

This medical person is NOT vaccinated, yet they have quite a bit of contact with people. To be clear, they're OK with masks, though not loving it either. They, along with others in some medical office, as well as different work locations with highly educated people, really believe that the vaccine might be worse than coronavirus, at least for healthy people, and simply don't want to risk the unknown.

I have found locally, vaccine hesitation (or simply not knowing how to get it) is concentrated in: highly educated individuals (MBA's and doctorates), people with issues with authority (I agree that WRPS shouldn't be taking the lead here, especially since some that I have spoken with don't trust Hilton), conspiracy theorists (mostly far right), the "my body, my choice" crowd, anti-vaxxers, pharmaceuticals are evil capitalists (mostly left and far left) and of course, those not in the "know", like immigrants that haven't adjusted yet.

Of that group, we can reach out to immigrants, we can alter prep for vaccinations for people with issues with the WRPS or authority in general, and maybe the highly educated. The conspiracy theorists, anti-capitalists, anti-vaxxers, and 'my body, my choice' crowd are likely never going to get their shot.

[jeffster]

Current 7-day Covid-19 cases per 100k

• Grey Bruce Health Unit 60.6
• Porcupine Health Unit 30.0
• Region of Waterloo Public Health and Emergency Services 21.0
• City of Hamilton Public Health Services 15.5
• North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit 15.4
• Huron Perth Public Health 10.0
• Middlesex-London Health Unit 8.9
• Chatham-Kent Public Health 8.5
• Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit 7.9
• Peel Public Health 7.4

• --snip--

• Timiskaming Health Unit 0.0
• Leeds, Grenville & Lanark District Health Unit 0.0
• Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington Public Health 0.0
• Thunder Bay District Health Unit 0.0

• TOTAL ONTARIO 7.5

Looks like we'll need to hit 90% of eligible, and potentially, and hopefully, vaccinate the under 12 crowd to keep the numbers in the green.

Now, for the bad news, but I was reading that Israel is starting to see more 'breakthrough' cases. And effectiveness of Pfizer appears to be reduced over several months. This might mean boosters will be needed in an ongoing basis until covid-19 is no longer a threat, if that ever happens. Israel will not be doing another lockdown, but rather will but other safety measures in place. Not helpful for Israel is that they haven't made it easy for the Palestine population to receive their shot, which likely is also causing problems.

[jamincan]

It's good to see Grey-Bruce's numbers breaking.

[neonjoe]

So we had a strange experience. We have a newborn at home and we’re going to hire the same Doula as with our first to help with him because he’s having sleep troubles. She asked if we were vaccinated and when we said yes, she said she cannot help us because she cannot be around vaccinated people for health reasons. My wife inquired more and she said her nurse friends are talking about getting headaches and having abnormal cycles when they are with people who received the experimental vaccine. First I heard of this conspiracy ugh… misinformation everywhere..

[tomh009]

UK covid numbers beginning to decline again. Is it possible they have reached a level of immunity that will see covid slowly decline due to a combination of natural immunity + vaccinations?

That sharp a sudden decline is surely not due to the onset of immunity. More likely people got freaked out but the peaking case rates and decided to isolate/distance/mask again.

Also, the UK COVID app has apparently been pinging madly because of people getting exposed to COVID-positive people. That requires 10 (I think) days of isolation by NHS rules. If even half of those pinged comply, that will dull the rise of the case rates.

[tomh009]

Looks like we'll need to hit 90% of eligible, and potentially, and hopefully, vaccinate the under 12 crowd to keep the numbers in the green.

We're currently at about 81% of the eligible population and still vaccinating about 1% of the same per week. While the rate is bound to keep gradually dropping, at this point I feel pretty confident that we'll be at about 85% (of eligible) by the end of August and that we can reach 90% sometime in the fall.

[tomh009]

SATURDAY 2021-07-24

Waterloo Region reported 14 new cases for today (9.2% of the active cases) and one more for yesterday for 15; 120 new cases for the week (-11 from yesterday and -49 from last week), averaging 9.5% of active cases. 144 active cases, -63 in the last seven days.

Next testing report on Tuesday.

Next vaccination report on Monday.

Ontario reported 170 new cases today with a seven-day average of 159 (-1), compared to 151 a week ago. 150 recoveries and three deaths translated to an increase of 17 active cases -- active cases are now up on three consecutive days -- and a new total of 1,424. +51 active cases for the week and 23 deaths (three per day). 19,131 tests with a positivity rate of 0.89%. The positivity rate is averaging 0.96% for the past seven days, compared to 0.67% for the preceding seven. 99 patients in ICU (-6 today, -13 for the week) with COVID-19.

New case variants reported today (these are substantially delayed so they do not match the new case numbers):

• Alpha (B.1.1.7): 107
  
• Beta (B.1.351): 4
  
• Delta (B.1.617): 12 (54% of variants over the past 10 days)
  
• Gamma (P.1): 10
  

124,261 doses of vaccine administered, with a seven-day average at 124,155 (previous week was 164,592). 70.43% of total provincial population vaccinated (+0.12% from yesterday, +0.78% from 7 days ago), 57.61% fully vaccinated (+0.71% from yesterday, +5.12% from 7 days ago). 

• 13 cases in Grey Bruce: 8.0 per 100K
  
• 17 cases in Hamilton: 2.9 per 100K
  
• 15 cases in Waterloo: 2.4 per 100K (based on provincial reporting)
  
• 9 cases in Middlesex-London: 2.2 per 100K
  
• 2 cases in Huron Perth: 2.0 per 100K
  
• 4 cases in Eastern Ontario: 2.0 per 100K
  
• 2 cases in Chatham-Kent: 1.9 per 100K
  
• 26 cases in Peel: 1.9 per 100K
  
• 44 cases in Toronto: 1.5 per 100K
  
• 3 cases in Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph: 1.1 per 100K
  
• 4 cases in Windsor-Essex: 1.0 per 100K
  

[danbrotherston]

I don’t watch any Carlson directly, but I watch a certain number of videos by commentators commenting on him, so I see bits of him “in quotation”.

Many believe, and I am inclined to agree, that he is indeed vaccinated, but doesn’t want to say so because his audience of useful idiots would be less interested in watching him if they knew he was vaccinated. He’s not stupid, he just plays stupid on TV. Essentially, if he showed the leadership that one should be able to expect of a public figure, his answer would be “of course I am, it’s crazy not to be vaccinated”; but then almost everything he says on his show would be different from what it is. In short, Tucker wouldn’t be Tucker.

I do actually agree that it’s weird to walk up to random people and ask that question, but then it’s weird to walk up to random people and say pretty much anything at all to them. But in the context of getting together as a group or inviting someone into one’s home, it’s an entirely reasonable question and I would suspect any objector of being an anti-vaxxer. Also there is a difference between considering the question out of line in a particular situation (reasonable, depending on the situation) and considering it on a par with a question about intimate relations (absurd).

Finally people in medical offices have no business expressing or even intimating anti-vax sentiments on the job. That’s not free speech; it’s medical malpractice. As long as they’re vaccinated they’re OK to work in a medical office, but they need to keep the anti-vax stuff to their off hours and not use their medical credentials in any way.

Pretty much agree with everything there.

This medical person is NOT vaccinated, yet they have quite a bit of contact with people. To be clear, they're OK with masks, though not loving it either. They, along with others in some medical office, as well as different work locations with highly educated people, really believe that the vaccine might be worse than coronavirus, at least for healthy people, and simply don't want to risk the unknown.

I have found locally, vaccine hesitation (or simply not knowing how to get it) is concentrated in: highly educated individuals (MBA's and doctorates), people with issues with authority (I agree that WRPS shouldn't be taking the lead here, especially since some that I have spoken with don't trust Hilton), conspiracy theorists (mostly far right), the "my body, my choice" crowd, anti-vaxxers, pharmaceuticals are evil capitalists (mostly left and far left) and of course, those not in the "know", like immigrants that haven't adjusted yet.

Of that group, we can reach out to immigrants, we can alter prep for vaccinations for people with issues with the WRPS or authority in general, and maybe the highly educated. The conspiracy theorists, anti-capitalists, anti-vaxxers, and 'my body, my choice' crowd are likely never going to get their shot.

I've definitely heard this from people, and it is frankly, just the most idiotic thing.

COVID is both KNOWN to be really bad, and completely unknown about how bad it could be. It's literally the worst of both worlds...

The rest is really on point. Especially that it was a bad choice to have WRPS involved. And it's revealing that regional folks like our chair don't even comprehend WHY that is a bad idea--even if they disagree. It shows such a disconnect in our region, it's extremely concerning.  But that's a larger issue.

[JoeKW]

Consider it a blessing in disguise. I wouldn't want someone like that near my baby.

[jeffster]

So we had a strange experience. We have a newborn at home and we’re going to hire the same Doula as with our first  to help with him because he’s having sleep troubles. She asked if we were vaccinated and when we said yes, she said she cannot help us because she cannot be around vaccinated people for health reasons. My wife inquired more and she said her nurse friends are talking about getting headaches and having abnormal cycles when they are with people who received the experimental vaccine. First I heard of this conspiracy ugh… misinformation everywhere..

That's weird. I mean, really, really weird.

I know in some that medical and teaching fields are generally anti-vax (naturopathic and Chiro, for example, some massage people, some midwives, and a lot of teachers) but I didn't know it existed with a doula, though I had no idea they would help with afterbirth stuff either.

I know with teachers, many believe that it can affect getting pregnant, though no evidence of that. Naturopathic and chiro's is pretty obvious why they're against it.