The COVID-19 pandemic

[robdrimmie]

What are the odds that the June 6 anti-lockdown rally featuring Maxine Bernier is a factor in the numbers? The timing is most likely coincidental but it does line up nicely.

[EdM]

Still, I believe we need more sites. 1 in Kitchener doesn't seem to be enough for a city of 275,000.

The Health Sciences Campus and New Vision Family Health Team sites are both RoW clinics. I volunteer at the latter; it's at 421 Greenbrook Drive.

[taylortbb]

To be honest, how does one get an appointment at that pharmacy? I never heard of it before, not has anyone at work. Is this a RoW clinic? Or is it run by the university? Are these students who are injecting people? Perhaps the old terminal may have been a better option.

Still, I believe we need more sites. 1 in Kitchener doesn't seem to be enough for a city of 275,000.

It's at the UW School of Pharmacy, but that's just a building they're using. It's not a pharmacy clinic, and it's not run by students. I don't see what would be better about the old terminal, which has no space for people to wait for 15 mins after their vaccination.

When someone books through the region's website they can pick from any of the regional clinics, which in KW includes Boardwalk, School of Pharmacy, and the New Vision Family Health Team. There's also the Cambridge clinics, and three rural clinics. You can see the map at https://rmw.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappv...31eb69d5a1 .

The biggest problem is we just haven't gotten enough doses, AND got unlucky in being a delta hotspot.

[tomh009]

The biggest problem is we just haven't gotten enough doses, AND got unlucky in being a delta hotspot.

Exactly. We're no longer being shortchanged on the doses now, but we are not yet getting significant additional volume, either.

[JoeKW]

Hopefully that changes with the moderna shipments this week.

[ac3r]

It seems we may not be moving to Phase 2 of the reopening plan due to the spread of the virus in Waterloo Region. This is - naturally - being primarily fueled by unvaccinated individuals.

Waterloo Region is experiencing an increasing number of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and outbreaks, believed to be due to the usual risk factors, combined with the spread of the Delta variant. Residents should assume that the Delta variant is circulating widely in Waterloo Region and that there are much higher case numbers of this variant than can be currently confirmed.

The Delta variant is here and spreading rapidly in our community. However, we can stop the spread together and keep our case rates down by getting fully vaccinated as quickly as possible and following public health guidance and measures. If case rates do not decrease, we may not be able to move to Step 2 with the rest of the province. As vaccination offers the greatest protection against the Delta variant, we will continue to work with our partners at the provincial government to increase vaccine availability and capacity in our community.

Source: https://www.regionofwaterloo.ca/Modules/...9cb0e2d68b

[jeffster]

To be honest, how does one get an appointment at that pharmacy? I never heard of it before, not has anyone at work. Is this a RoW clinic? Or is it run by the university? Are these students who are injecting people? Perhaps the old terminal may have been a better option.

Still, I believe we need more sites. 1 in Kitchener doesn't seem to be enough for a city of 275,000.

It's at the UW School of Pharmacy, but that's just a building they're using. It's not a pharmacy clinic, and it's not run by students. I don't see what would be better about the old terminal, which has no space for people to wait for 15 mins after their vaccination.

When someone books through the region's website they can pick from any of the regional clinics, which in KW includes Boardwalk, School of Pharmacy, and the New Vision Family Health Team. There's also the Cambridge clinics, and three rural clinics. You can see the map at https://rmw.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappv...31eb69d5a1 .

The biggest problem is we just haven't gotten enough doses, AND got unlucky in being a delta hotspot.

I took my mom both times, selected Kitchener as a preferred location, and was only given The Boardwalk each time. These other clinics, like the one on Greenbrook, literally 2 minutes from my house, I assume they’re smaller than The Boardwalk?

[jeffster]

What are the odds that the June 6 anti-lockdown rally featuring Maxine Bernier is a factor in the numbers? The timing is most likely coincidental but it does line up nicely.

Really zero. There is next to no scientific evidence that outdoor gathers contribute to Covid-19. We keep saying there is, in Canada, and especially Ontario, but the rest of the world, no. But it makes for good news the anti-lockdown gatherings.

I think part of the problem with this region is that they have put the onus on ‘people’ to sign up and get their shots, with little information making its way into mailboxes. We have a lot of low income individuals in town, many without smart phones or internet, how may not understand how they can get their vaccine. Toronto and other cities did a great job at opening up vaccination centres at community centres, because this is where these people tend to go.

But I really do think the region needs to start taking more affirmative action and use Canada Post to deliver flyers to all households.

Here is something to think about: We, according to the dashboard, still haven’t reach 75% for any age group below 59. However, we are vaccinated younger people (under 18) their first shots, and non-essential people their second shots. We can cry and complain that we haven’t had enough doses. I still blame the region for that, for not advocating enough, but, we have had enough shots to reach that target of 75% for all groups 30+, including second doses for essential or at risk.

It’s going to suck for us if we remain stuck in 1st phase, though I heard we might backtrack to a complete lockdown if things don’t improve (we’re very close to Grey under the old system). And this is entirely the fault of our PHU. It’s poor leadership and I cannot be convinced otherwise.

[taylortbb]

I took my mom both times, selected Kitchener as a preferred location, and was only given The Boardwalk each time. These other clinics, like the one on Greenbrook, literally 2 minutes from my house, I assume they’re smaller than The Boardwalk?

I don't know why you wouldn't have seen them. Almost everyone I know that's been vaccinated in KW at a public health clinic did so at the pharmacy school.

I don't know how big the Greenbrook one is, but I'd assume it's a little smaller. The pharmacy school is as big as The Boardwalk, I think. Though neither is as big as Pinebush, which is the region's largest.

[danbrotherston]

What are the odds that the June 6 anti-lockdown rally featuring Maxine Bernier is a factor in the numbers? The timing is most likely coincidental but it does line up nicely.

Really zero. There is next to no scientific evidence that outdoor gathers contribute to Covid-19. We keep saying there is, in Canada, and especially Ontario, but the rest of the world, no. But it makes for good news the anti-lockdown gatherings.

I think part of the problem with this region is that they have put the onus on ‘people’ to sign up and get their shots, with little information making its way into mailboxes. We have a lot of low income individuals in town, many without smart phones or internet, how may not understand how they can get their vaccine. Toronto and other cities did a great job at opening up vaccination centres at community centres, because this is where these people tend to go.

But I really do think the region needs to start taking more affirmative action and use Canada Post to deliver flyers to all households.

Here is something to think about: We, according to the dashboard, still haven’t reach 75% for any age group below 59. However, we are vaccinated younger people (under 18) their first shots, and non-essential people their second shots. We can cry and complain that we haven’t had enough doses. I still blame the region for that, for not advocating enough, but, we have had enough shots to reach that target of 75% for all groups 30+, including second doses for essential or at risk.

It’s going to suck for us if we remain stuck in 1st phase, though I heard we might backtrack to a complete lockdown if things don’t improve (we’re very close to Grey under the old system). And this is entirely the fault of our PHU. It’s poor leadership and I cannot be convinced otherwise.

Outdoors is not zero risk. And the risk increases without social distancing, or masks, and with other social interactions, which is the whole point of this group, they are intentionally spreading the virus.

Leaving that aside, this group is also with 100% certainty also breaking the rules in other, more dangerous ways, e.g., by visiting people. I have no doubt--hell, most of them were doing church services inside until recently--and that is likely the main problem they are causing.

We should of course do everything we can to push vaccinations as well.

[ijmorlan]

Step 1, perhaps: Do both injections and testing at the old bus terminal. There should be enough space and the location seems likely to be good for many of the populations we need to concentrate on including.

The bus terminal is not much more than a five minutes' walk from the pharmacy building. Do we really need two downtown sites so close together? Over 8,300 vaccinations done today alone. The region has only about 19,000 doses in inventory so it's not as if we could double the pace, even if we had more sites -- and more people to staff those sites.

Thanks, I had forgotten the Pharmacy building was doing vaccinations. To answer your question, probably not.

I think the point somebody else made about ease of navigating the process is very important. For myself, I find the vaccine process to be less convenient than it should be, but it’s not notably worse than many other forms or procedures I’ve used in the past. But for somebody with a little less familiarity and a lot less leeway to take time to figure it out, I can see the process being a significant barrier.

At some point I wonder if we can just go to “show up with your health card”. That’s about as simple a process as can be imagined and should help with getting a lot of less advantaged people vaccinated. Of course the downside would be unpredictable lineups.

[jeffster]

I took my mom both times, selected Kitchener as a preferred location, and was only given The Boardwalk each time. These other clinics, like the one on Greenbrook, literally 2 minutes from my house, I assume they’re smaller than The Boardwalk?

I don't know why you wouldn't have seen them. Almost everyone I know that's been vaccinated in KW at a public health clinic did so at the pharmacy school.

I don't know how big the Greenbrook one is, but I'd assume it's a little smaller. The pharmacy school is as big as The Boardwalk, I think. Though neither is as big as Pinebush, which is the region's largest.

Option never came up at all. I had selected Kitchener, and put in my moms age (80) and it selected The Boardwalk. When I was looking up clinics, I only knew of Pinebush and The Boardwalk.

When did Greenbrook and the school open? Greenbrook would have been a much better option for us.

[ZEBuilder]

Here is something to think about: We, according to the dashboard, still haven’t reach 75% for any age group below 59. However, we are vaccinated younger people (under 18) their first shots, and non-essential people their second shots. We can cry and complain that we haven’t had enough doses. I still blame the region for that, for not advocating enough, but, we have had enough shots to reach that target of 75% for all groups 30+, including second doses for essential or at risk.

Yes we may not have reached 75% of the population for people under 59 but it's increasing every day and the younger population is at less of a risk to get killed by the virus when compared to older populations, the only reason the older demographics have a higher number of vaccines is because they were able to get the vaccine first so they are going to be further along. For the 18-49 age group on average 68.09% of the population has had it which is still a large number, yes it may not be 75% but it's still close to it and you again have to consider the fact that the older demographic was able to get shots earlier.

The entire reason they're vaccinating people under 18 (12-17) is to have schools back to normal or something closer to normal for the older grades because not having a normal school year is detremental to the mental health of students. I've seen the effects the current system in place for highschool students which is quadmesters has had on mental health and just people's well being. I know if I was a highschool student I wouldn't want to do the same class for 4+ hours a day for 10 straight days with half of that time being online and then having to do your other class for 10 days half online and then going back to the first class like it's stressful on the students.

So vaccinating the younger demographic is just helping them get back to a semblance of normal for September so they can have a more normal school year. They haven't had a normal school year since the 2018-19 school year which is 2 years of their education being messed up because of this pandemic so vaccinating them means they can get back to something closer to normal which is going to be better for them.

[jeffster]

Really zero. There is next to no scientific evidence that outdoor gathers contribute to Covid-19. We keep saying there is, in Canada, and especially Ontario, but the rest of the world, no. But it makes for good news the anti-lockdown gatherings.

I think part of the problem with this region is that they have put the onus on ‘people’ to sign up and get their shots, with little information making its way into mailboxes. We have a lot of low income individuals in town, many without smart phones or internet, how may not understand how they can get their vaccine. Toronto and other cities did a great job at opening up vaccination centres at community centres, because this is where these people tend to go.

But I really do think the region needs to start taking more affirmative action and use Canada Post to deliver flyers to all households.

Here is something to think about: We, according to the dashboard, still haven’t reach 75% for any age group below 59. However, we are vaccinated younger people (under 18) their first shots, and non-essential people their second shots. We can cry and complain that we haven’t had enough doses. I still blame the region for that, for not advocating enough, but, we have had enough shots to reach that target of 75% for all groups 30+, including second doses for essential or at risk.

It’s going to suck for us if we remain stuck in 1st phase, though I heard we might backtrack to a complete lockdown if things don’t improve (we’re very close to Grey under the old system). And this is entirely the fault of our PHU. It’s poor leadership and I cannot be convinced otherwise.

Outdoors is not zero risk. And the risk increases without social distancing, or masks, and with other social interactions, which is the whole point of this group, they are intentionally spreading the virus.

Leaving that aside, this group is also with 100% certainty also breaking the rules in other, more dangerous ways, e.g., by visiting people. I have no doubt--hell, most of them were doing church services inside until recently--and that is likely the main problem they are causing.

We should of course do everything we can to push vaccinations as well.

It was estimated that of the Covid-19 cases, only 0.1% were caused by outdoor transmission. We need to follow science, not malarkey that is made up (or, Made in Canada).

While technically you’re correct in stating that outdoor isn’t ‘zero’ risk, it’s better for people to be outdoors rather than indoors where 99.9% of transmission occurs. That’s more science.

As for those rule breakers, I have no idea what they do in their spare time. But it doesn’t appear that THEY were getting sick. It seems that most of it is coming from our homeless shelter and…WRPS of all places (though not surprising, as they don’t follow the rules either). But there is zero evidence that those rule breakers at Waterloo Public Square are spreading the virus. And that is probably the reason why WRPS doesn’t give a shit what those folks do. It would never hold up in court as the science doesn’t back that philosophy coming out of our PHU.

A real problem with our Region is the we have Redman who is heading this task force. The same person that was caught Oktoberfesting without social distancing or masks, and got sick shortly after New Years Day. That shouldn’t be the face of our task force, but it is.

What we have to admit is that we failed as a region. Not the people living here, but those in charge of the rollout. We didn’t target properly. The fact that the homeless outbreak is so large — why weren’t these people inoculated? Have we become such a shitty region that we don’t care at all about the homeless? We couldn’t spare a few hundred doses? We couldn’t find the time, the manpower to treat these people? Were our rules of having proper ID too much? Could we have not taken their word of who they were? Or that of a social worker that recognizes the homeless? Where is our outrage? I get it that people from the “City” of Waterloo don’t give a rats ass, but I always thought that Kitchener and Cambridge were better. In an odd way, if we get held back from Stage 2, and it was a homeless person that pushed us over into that danger zone, we got what we deserve.

Our PHU and the task force failed. They want to blame people social behaviour for where we are at. Even going as far as blaming those participating in Waterloo protests. It’s not us. We neglected immigrants. We neglected marginalized people. We neglected low-income earners. We neglected to get “the word” out. Hell, I have done so much work trying to get my own mother vaccinated, and I had no idea we had a clinic 2 minutes from out house. WHAT? No Canada Post flyers. A website that is complicating, poorly written, and discouraging. WRPS personal being part of the outbreaks, like, what the hell? Our regional chairman partying than ‘sorry, not sorry’ when caught. And the good citizens of the region did all they could. But this was bound to happen. How many people got sick from interacting with WRPS personal? Do we know? Or is that hidden? What about folks taking care of those in homeless shelters? Again, no funds for a nurse to visit these places, but we have money for other BS reasons.

Yeah, I am ranting. We have become a national embarrassment to this province and to this country. Just about every American city is doing better than us. And you know what’s so odd? Texas, about as “Red” as they come, has a Covid-19 rate a fraction of what Waterloo Region has (and, unlike here, they fill their baseball stadium every day — and NO linked cases…outside…safe). How did we come to this?

[taylortbb]

When did Greenbrook and the school open? Greenbrook would have been a much better option for us.

They opened a week or two after The Boardwalk opened.