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(12-03-2021, 12:38 AM)plam Wrote: (12-02-2021, 07:53 PM)ac3r Wrote: That's got to be annoying. During 2020 - before anyone was vaccinated - I had personally confronted people at times telling them to put on a mask or at least move to the end of the train when there were clearly elderly people in the middle, since they tend to prefer the seats near the centre doors (particularly when they had walkers/wheelchairs). Most people would be fine with it and not argue.
These days, I notice it's often certain "types" who get on without them. I don't know how to describe them other than...the riff-raff of the city, especially when they get on with bikes and need to use the centre doors. At least now, most Canadians are vaccinated at this point so there is less risk. I could care less about maskless people at this point and I'm at risk from health issues myself. It's very unlikely to catch the virus just riding transit or walking through the grocery store anyway, you need fairly direct, sustained contact (like 10+ minutes) with someone in a closed setting such as a home or somewhere with poor ventilation.
I do not think that is true about 10+ minutes in a closed setting. Certainly there are cases where it's jumped from one hotel room to another with seconds of doors being open. Here's some discussion.
https://www.fastcompany.com/90662386/jus...ant-spread
Even if it was true, a lot of the seats on the Ion are facing each other, so if someone is maskless and unvaccinated, it puts you a greater risk. And facing seats is one thing that bothers me -- really not great for people with any sort of social anxiety. Not sure the reasoning behind that design, as I don't think it specifically allows for more seating, but maybe I am wrong. But in hindsight, it's not looking like a good idea.
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12-03-2021, 03:57 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-03-2021, 03:58 PM by jeffster.)
Current 7-day Covid-19 cases per 100k
• Algoma Public Health 201.9
• Public Health Sudbury & Districts 134.7
• Windsor-Essex County Health Unit 134.2
• Timiskaming Health Unit 116.2
• Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington Public Health 107.7
• Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit 95.5
• Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit 95.1
• Brant County Health Unit 87.6
• Chatham-Kent Public Health 87.5
• Southwestern Public Health 77.1
• Region of Waterloo Public Health and Emergency Services 33.7
• Renfrew County and District Health Unit 26.7
• Toronto Public Health 24.8
• Peterborough Public Health 24.3
• Peel Public Health 24.1
• Grey Bruce Health Unit 24.1
• Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit 22.8
• Northwestern Health Unit 20.5
• Leeds, Grenville & Lanark District Health Unit 16.7
• North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit 15.4
• Porcupine Health Unit 4.8
• TOTAL ONTARIO 40.8
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Interesting article from the CBC:
Keep in mind this is an "opinion" piece, but some good talking points.
Quote:....Indeed, officials have shown they are not above apparent falsehoods to further their aims. Last week, Ontario's Chief Medical Officer of Health Kieran Moore justified the immunization of children between the ages of five and 11 by claiming hospitalization and case counts for that age group were increasing. Yet, according to Ontario's own data, there had been zero hospitalizations in that age group in the past two weeks at the time of Moore's statement.
Always another threat
As the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) once knew, "There will always be a new disease, always the threat of a new pandemic." Accordingly, the number of boosters, or the percentage of fully-vaccinated citizens, needed for a return to normal will always be n+1. Meet one metric, and be met with two more. As the ACLU continues, "If [fear of disease] justifies the suspension of liberties and the institution of an emergency state, then freedom and the rule of law will be permanently suspended."
Already we see public health officials priming the pump for the next goalpost shift. Even if vaccine uptake is high among five to 11-year-olds, it will still not be good enough. According to Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada's chief public health officer, toddlers under the age of four will be next to need the shots, claiming with an absolute lack of shame that – unlike all the other times we were promised an end to the pandemic – vaccinating that group will be a "turning point." ....
https://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/opinion-...-1.6268380
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(12-03-2021, 04:03 PM)jeffster Wrote: Interesting article from the CBC:
Keep in mind this is an "opinion" piece, but some good talking points.
Quote:....Indeed, officials have shown they are not above apparent falsehoods to further their aims. Last week, Ontario's Chief Medical Officer of Health Kieran Moore justified the immunization of children between the ages of five and 11 by claiming hospitalization and case counts for that age group were increasing. Yet, according to Ontario's own data, there had been zero hospitalizations in that age group in the past two weeks at the time of Moore's statement.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/opinion-...-1.6268380
In Ontario, 1,308 cases for 0-11-year-olds in the past week, as compared to 1,037 in the prior week. That's now about 40% of the total new cases.
https://files.ontario.ca/moh-covid-19-we...-11-27.pdf
There may not be a lot of hospitalizations (though I don't know where to find the data) but the case counts for the kids are certainly increasing.
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(12-03-2021, 07:43 PM)tomh009 Wrote: (12-03-2021, 04:03 PM)jeffster Wrote: Interesting article from the CBC:
Keep in mind this is an "opinion" piece, but some good talking points.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/opinion-...-1.6268380
In Ontario, 1,308 cases for 0-11-year-olds in the past week, as compared to 1,037 in the prior week. That's now about 40% of the total new cases.
https://files.ontario.ca/moh-covid-19-we...-11-27.pdf
There may not be a lot of hospitalizations (though I don't know where to find the data) but the case counts for the kids are certainly increasing.
That article is pretty ridiculous...very high on the rhetorical flourishes, and pretty low on the data. Honestly, the author just embarasses himself, the COVID 19 restrictions have not been "burdensome" in almost a year...unless you are the kind of freedumb extremist who believes wearing a mask is burdensome.
It includes links to the data though...which shows that there are indeed children hospitalized with COVID-19 right now...
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Current 7-day Covid-19 cases per 100k
• Algoma Public Health 207.1
• Public Health Sudbury & Districts 138.2
• Windsor-Essex County Health Unit 127.6
• Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington Public Health 110.9
• Timiskaming Health Unit 110.1
• Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit 94.1
• Chatham-Kent Public Health 92.2
• Brant County Health Unit 88.3
• Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit 85.9
• Southwestern Public Health 78.5
• Region of Waterloo Public Health and Emergency Services 36.5
• Toronto Public Health 26.1
• Renfrew County and District Health Unit 25.8
• Peel Public Health 24.8
• Peterborough Public Health 24.3
• Grey Bruce Health Unit 24.1
• Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit 20.6
• Northwestern Health Unit 19.4
• North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit 18.5
• Leeds, Grenville & Lanark District Health Unit 17.9
• Porcupine Health Unit 6.0
• TOTAL ONTARIO 42.1
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Current 7-day Covid-19 cases per 100k
• Algoma Public Health 201.9
• Public Health Sudbury & Districts 139.7
• Windsor-Essex County Health Unit 127.6
• Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington Public Health 114.2
• Chatham-Kent Public Health 111.9
• Timiskaming Health Unit 104.0
• Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit 96.6
• Southwestern Public Health 87.0
• Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit 85.9
• Brant County Health Unit 81.8
• Region of Waterloo Public Health and Emergency Services 39.2
• Toronto Public Health 26.9
• Renfrew County and District Health Unit 26.7
• Peterborough Public Health 26.4
• Peel Public Health 26.3
• Grey Bruce Health Unit 24.7
• Northwestern Health Unit 21.7
• North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit 21.6
• Leeds, Grenville & Lanark District Health Unit 21.4
• Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit 20.6
• Porcupine Health Unit 6.0
• TOTAL ONTARIO 43.6
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Current 7-day Covid-19 cases per 100k
• Algoma Public Health 188.8
• Public Health Sudbury & Districts 150.7
• Windsor-Essex County Health Unit 117.5
• Chatham-Kent Public Health 112.9
• Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington Public Health 111.4
• Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit 95.4
• Timiskaming Health Unit 94.8
• Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit 87.7
• Southwestern Public Health 85.6
• Hastings Prince Edward Public Health 78.9
• Region of Waterloo Public Health and Emergency Services 41.1
• Durham Region Health Department 28.6
• Toronto Public Health 27.9
• Peterborough Public Health 27.0
• Peel Public Health 27.0
• Leeds, Grenville & Lanark District Health Unit 25.4
• Grey Bruce Health Unit 24.7
• Northwestern Health Unit 21.7
• Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit 19.6
• North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit 18.5
• Porcupine Health Unit 7.2
• TOTAL ONTARIO 44.3
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I think we can expect numbers to increase as family and friends continue to associate with each other more and more.
On the bright side, the newest variant seems to have more things in common with the 'common' cold than Covid-19 itself, or so I hear.
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Indeed, research is beginning to demonstrate that it's a fairly mild variant. It spreads easily, but it doesn't seem to have more serious impacts to health...which is great. Cases don't mean much as much as people love to obsess about the numbers. South African researchers have even suggested that this may "signal the end" of the virus: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...ir-stories
Quote:"So I actually think there is a silver lining here and this may signal the end of Covid-19, with it attenuating itself to such an extent that it’s highly contagious, but doesn’t cause severe disease. That’s what happened with Spanish flu."
[...]
"This virus may be similar to delta in its ability to spread or in being contagious. However, it’s the susceptibility of the population that is greater now because previous infection used to protect against delta and now, with omicron, it doesn’t seem to be the case."
But of course, the media and consumers of it immediately jumped on the fear porn bandwagon the moment this was discovered, leading to governments to create fairly racist travel bans to nations southern Africa but none to other countries where this particular strain has been detected as well as stringent national/local responses. I really hope we can learn from the mistakes of this pandemic when it comes to messaging, so that our response to the next one is not as chaotic. It has been very hard to get the right messaging out without either a) angering all the crazies and b) scaring all the paranoid crazies into hiding indoors and sanitizing their milk cartons and similar nonsense people started doing.
After 2 years I'm done with this. It's not even the virus or disease I am tired of, it's listening to everyone talk about it and all of the conspiratorial misinformation. I guess I can be happy that I live in Canada where we took it seriously and the majority of us got vaccinated, rather than live in some other countries where people are routinely fighting with the police in the streets because "tyranny"...
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Too early to tell about Omicron. Might be some promising signs, but in general there is more disease burden if it spreads more easily, even if it's less severe per infection. Still about a week before we get good data.
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No indication Omicron causes more severe disease than Delta: WHO https://t.co/ujgAfuFclt
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12-08-2021, 06:45 AM
(This post was last modified: 12-08-2021, 06:47 AM by jeffster.)
Yesterdays 7day Covid-19 cases per 100k
• Algoma Public Health 177.4
• Public Health Sudbury & Districts 165.8
• Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington Public Health 119.4
• Windsor-Essex County Health Unit 112.8
• Chatham-Kent Public Health 106.3
• Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit 97.2
• Timiskaming Health Unit 88.7
• Southwestern Public Health 87.9
• Thunder Bay District Health Unit 80.7
• Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit 79.8
• Region of Waterloo Public Health and Emergency Services 44.8
• Durham Region Health Department 30.6
• Toronto Public Health 30.1
• Peterborough Public Health 27.0
• Grey Bruce Health Unit 26.5
• Peel Public Health 26.2
• Leeds, Grenville & Lanark District Health Unit 23.7
• Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit 22.2
• Northwestern Health Unit 21.7
• North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit 19.3
• Porcupine Health Unit 6.0
• TOTAL ONTARIO 45.9
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Omicron significantly reduces Covid antibody protection in small study of Pfizer vaccine recipients: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/07/omicron-...ients.html
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(12-08-2021, 01:01 AM)ac3r Wrote: No indication Omicron causes more severe disease than Delta: WHO https://t.co/ujgAfuFclt
Even if it was less severe, it's probably still bad, because bigger number (of infections) times smaller percentage of effects is often still worse than smaller number times bigger number, at the ranges we're looking at here.
Vaccine efficacy against infection probably takes a noticeable hit, against hospitalization still pretty good, and boosters are likely to help, according to the experts.
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