The COVID-19 pandemic

[jeffster]

Current 7-day Covid-19 cases per 100k

• Chatham-Kent Public Health 99.7
• Windsor-Essex County Health Unit 96.3
• Brant County Health Unit 62.5
• City of Hamilton Public Health Services 52.2
• Niagara Region Public Health 48.5
• Ottawa Public Health 36.5
• York Region Public Health 36.1
• Peel Public Health 35.4
• Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health 34.9
• Toronto Public Health 32.5

• Region of Waterloo Public Health and Emergency Services 30.8

• Public Health Sudbury & Districts 17.6
• Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington Public Health 16.5
• North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit 16.2
• Northwestern Health Unit 13.7
• Algoma Public Health 13.1
• Grey Bruce Health Unit 11.8
• Renfrew County and District Health Unit 11.0
• Thunder Bay District Health Unit 8.0
• Porcupine Health Unit 6.0
• Timiskaming Health Unit 0.0

• TOTAL ONTARIO 34.0

[jeffster]

Really, the idea that the vaccine is experimental and untested is veering into Big Lie territory.

Not sure what you're suggesting. I wasn't calling the vaccine "experimental", in fact, I was explicitly calling allowing a virus to spread uncontrolled, as Alberta is doing, an "experiment".

Alberta was being stupid. Pressure from the general population, much like here, wanted a 'normal' summer. Unlike here, they got what they wanted. Now they're paying for it.

If anything, it did show the advantage of masks and crowd control over not having it. Lesson for places like Ontario: we're staying in "Step 3" for a long, long, time.

To be honest, I don't think anyone is going to be doing things right though...you can see my next post regarding that (once I have the time to post it).

[ijmorlan]

Really, the idea that the vaccine is experimental and untested is veering into Big Lie territory.

Not sure what you're suggesting. I wasn't calling the vaccine "experimental", in fact, I was explicitly calling allowing a virus to spread uncontrolled, as Alberta is doing, an "experiment".

Dan, I apologize for being unclear. I understand you were calling uncontrolled spread, not vaccination, experimental.

You correctly pointed out that letting a disease rampage through an entire population is the experiment. My intent was to add to and amplify what you were saying, because people who call vaccination experimental are helping to spread a Big Lie.

[tomh009]

WEDNESDAY 2021-09-15

Waterloo Region reported 27 new cases for today (14.1% of the active cases) and none additional for yesterday for 12; 177 new cases for the week (+7 from yesterday and +25 from last week), averaging 13.1% of active cases. 203 active cases, +20 in the last seven days.

Next test report on Friday.

Seven-day vaccination average is at 1,208 doses/day (previous week was 1,323). 75.37% of total regional population vaccinated (+0.60% from 7 days ago), 69.98% fully vaccinated (+0.84% from 7 days ago).

Ontario reported 593 new cases today with a seven-day average of 722 (+5), compared to 732 a week ago. 755 recoveries and four (new) deaths translated to a decrease of 167 active cases and a new total of 65,936. -104 active cases and 34 deaths for the week. 33,220 tests with a positivity rate of 1.79%. The positivity rate is averaging 2.85% for the past seven days, compared to 3.15% for the preceding seven.

165 people in the ICU, -1 from yesterday and -2 over the past week.

Seven-day vaccination average is at 31,975 doses/day (previous week was 33,033). 74.94% of total provincial population vaccinated (+0.66% from 7 days ago), 69.40% fully vaccinated (+0.86% from 7 days ago).

Cases/100K by regional health unit:

• 45 cases in Windsor-Essex: 11.6 per 100K
  
• 9 cases in Chatham-Kent: 8.5 per 100K
  
• 34 cases in Niagara: 7.6 per 100K
  
• 38 cases in Hamilton: 6.6 per 100K
  
• 11 cases in Eastern Ontario: 5.4 per 100K
  
• 10 cases in Southwestern Ontario: 5.0 per 100K
  
• 20 cases in Middlesex-London: 4.9 per 100K
  
• 141 cases in Toronto: 4.8 per 100K
  
• 26 cases in Halton: 4.7 per 100K
  
• 46 cases in Ottawa: 4.6 per 100K
  
• 4 cases in Northwestern: 4.6 per 100K
  
• 61 cases in Peel: 4.4 per 100K
  
• 7 cases in Leeds, Grenville & Lanark: 4.1 per 100K
  
• 4 cases in Huron Perth: 4.1 per 100K
  
• 5 cases in Brant: 3.7 per 100K
  
• 39 cases in York: 3.5 per 100K
  
• 18 cases in Simcoe-Muskoka: 3.3 per 100K
  
• 9 cases in Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph: 3.3 per 100K
  
• 20 cases in Waterloo: 3.2 per 100K (based on provincial reporting)
  
• 17 cases in Durham: 2.6 per 100K
  
• 4 cases in Kingston Frontenac: 2.0 per 100K
  
• 1 cases in Thunder Bay: 0.7 per 100K
  
• 2 cases in Sudbury: 0.5 per 100K
  

[danbrotherston]

Not sure what you're suggesting. I wasn't calling the vaccine "experimental", in fact, I was explicitly calling allowing a virus to spread uncontrolled, as Alberta is doing, an "experiment".

Dan, I apologize for being unclear. I understand you were calling uncontrolled spread, not vaccination, experimental.

You correctly pointed out that letting a disease rampage through an entire population is the experiment. My intent was to add to and amplify what you were saying, because people who call vaccination experimental are helping to spread a Big Lie.

Heh, no worries. I was just confused for a minute.

[jeffster]

Not sure what's going on here, but it makes zero sense.

https://twitter.com/GovCanHealth/status/...8761517056

This is the actually Twitter handle for PHAC. Perhaps they've been hacked? Or are these official names?

Either way, good way to confuse some people.

[jeffster]

Current 7-day Covid-19 cases per 100k

• Chatham-Kent Public Health 97.8
• Windsor-Essex County Health Unit 92.5
• Brant County Health Unit 59.9
• City of Hamilton Public Health Services 51.8
• Niagara Region Public Health 46.1
• Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health 39.4
• Peel Public Health 38.5
• York Region Public Health 36.6
• Ottawa Public Health 35.7
• Eastern Ontario Health Unit 35.5

• Region of Waterloo Public Health and Emergency Services 30.6

• Public Health Sudbury & Districts 18.1
• North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit 17.0
• Algoma Public Health 14.9
• Hastings Prince Edward Public Health 14.8
• Northwestern Health Unit 11.4
• Grey Bruce Health Unit 11.2
• Renfrew County and District Health Unit 10.1
• Porcupine Health Unit 6.0
• Thunder Bay District Health Unit 4.7
• Timiskaming Health Unit 0.0

• TOTAL ONTARIO 34.5

Ontario seems to be trending upwards again.

[jeffster]

Some news up regarding vaccination status' for the local school boards:

https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/new-data-of...-1.5587637

TL/DR:

For WRDSB: 66.5% of 69.7% (staff and trustees) have attested to being fully vaccinated.
For WCDSB: 89.2% of 80.9% (staff and trustees) have attested to being fully vaccinated.

That means for WRDSB that about 53% either: didn't complete survey, didn't disclose, or are only partially vaccinated or not vaccinated at all.

For WCDSB this is almost 28% that: didn't complete survey, didn't disclose, or are only partially vaccinated or not vaccinated at all.

Both school boards had very small numbers for staff with exemptions. 0.01% (1 person) for WRDSB and 0.2% for WCDSB.

I highlighted the bold as it gives us a good idea of how many people could go the exemption route, and it's very small.

[danbrotherston]

Not sure what's going on here, but it makes zero sense.

https://twitter.com/GovCanHealth/status/...8761517056

This is the actually Twitter handle for PHAC. Perhaps they've been hacked? Or are these official names?

Either way, good way to confuse some people.

Honestly, I thought that was an Onion article. I cannot imagine how this will help, but I can imagine how it will make things worse.

[jeffster]

Not sure what's going on here, but it makes zero sense.

https://twitter.com/GovCanHealth/status/...8761517056

This is the actually Twitter handle for PHAC. Perhaps they've been hacked? Or are these official names?

Either way, good way to confuse some people.

Honestly, I thought that was an Onion article. I cannot imagine how this will help, but I can imagine how it will make things worse.

I did more research and these are official names. Pfizer is being hit hard with their name choice, though. It's supposed to be a word play on "community + mRNA + immunity".

SpikeVax is a weird name for the vaccine, but, at least easy to remember.

[ac3r]

Not sure what's going on here, but it makes zero sense.

https://twitter.com/GovCanHealth/status/...8761517056

This is the actually Twitter handle for PHAC. Perhaps they've been hacked? Or are these official names?

Either way, good way to confuse some people.

Those are official Brand names of the vaccines (think acetaminophen being Tylenol). We were calling it the Pfizer or Moderna etc vaccine for a long time because a) the international nonproprietary name each one has is far too medical for most people to say (tozinameran and elasomeran respectively), and b) they had yet to have any official branding to market the vaccines as (with the exception of the European market, where the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has long been called Comirnaty). Most media outlets had stories about it hours ago: https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/vaccine-n...-1.6178484

I don't think it should cause any confusion, except for the galaxy brains in the world. Might take a few weeks for the general public to get used to the differences, but it'll enter the cultural nomenclature soon enough, or people will still continue calling it what they want.

[ijmorlan]

Excellent article in the Toronto Star:

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-col...e-jab.html

Summary: don’t forget, many many people who haven’t had a first dose yet have legitimate questions (e.g., is it OK if I’m pregnant?) or have trouble getting places for a variety of reasons or just don’t feel a strong personal impetus.

Good to remember when we’ve spent so much time thinking about the tiny remnant of people who are unalterably opposed.

[tomh009]

Some news up regarding vaccination status' for the local school boards:

https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/new-data-of...-1.5587637

TL/DR:

For WRDSB: 66.5% of 69.7% (staff and trustees) have attested to being fully vaccinated.
For WCDSB: 89.2% of 80.9% (staff and trustees) have attested to being fully vaccinated.

That means for WRDSB that about 53% either: didn't complete survey, didn't disclose, or are only partially vaccinated or not vaccinated at all.

For WCDSB this is almost 28% that: didn't complete survey, didn't disclose, or are only partially vaccinated or not vaccinated at all.

Both school boards had very small numbers for staff with exemptions. 0.01% (1 person) for WRDSB and 0.2% for WCDSB.

I highlighted the bold as it gives us a good idea of how many people could go the exemption route, and it's very small.

That's not quite right. The article provides confusing numbers and I had to read it twice for it to make sense.

For WRDSB: 66.5% of 69.7% (staff and trustees) have attested to being fully vaccinated.
(...)
That means for WRDSB that about 53% either: didn't complete survey, didn't disclose, or are only partially vaccinated or not vaccinated at all.

What WRDSB actually says is that 69.7% of staff and trustees responded. And 95.4% of those who responded (ie 66.5% of the total) said they were vaccinated. So, 66.5% of WRDSB staff are known to be vaccinated. A large proportion of the staff has not yet responded.

• 66.5% fully vaccinated
  
• 0.1% medical exemption
  
• 3.2% not fully vaccinated
  
• 30.3% not yet reported
  

The WCDSB numbers are equally confusingly reported, but I found the original data here:
https://www.wcdsb.ca/vaccination-attestation-summary/

• 80.9% fully vaccinated
  
• 0.2% medical exemption
  
• 8.1% not fully vaccinated
  
• 10.8% not yet reported
  

90.9% of the people who have submitted we fully vaccinated.

[tomh009]

THURSDAY 2021-09-16

Waterloo Region reported 35 (ouch!) new cases for today (17.3% of the active cases) and one fewer for yesterday for 26; 184 new cases for the week (+7 from yesterday and +26 from last week), averaging 13.4% of active cases. 208 active cases, +20 in the last seven days.

Next test report on Friday.

Seven-day vaccination average is at 1,195 doses/day (previous week was 1,390). 75.48% of total regional population vaccinated (+0.60% from 7 days ago), 70.14% fully vaccinated (+0.84% from 7 days ago).

Ontario reported 864 new cases today with a seven-day average of 732 (+10), compared to 723 a week ago. 668 recoveries and three (new) deaths translated to an increase of 193 active cases and a new total of 6,129. +73 active cases and 34 deaths for the week. 34,365 tests with a positivity rate of 2.51%. The positivity rate is averaging 2.82% for the past seven days, compared to 3.08% for the preceding seven.

167 people in the ICU, +2 from yesterday and +7 over the past week.

Seven-day vaccination average is at 31,557 doses/day (previous week was 33,496). 75.05% of total provincial population vaccinated (+0.64% from 7 days ago), 69.54% fully vaccinated (+0.86% from 7 days ago).

Cases/100K by regional health unit:

• 50 cases in Windsor-Essex: 12.9 per 100K
  
• 13 cases in Chatham-Kent: 12.3 per 100K
  
• 11 cases in Huron Perth: 11.2 per 100K
  
• 28 cases in Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph: 10.3 per 100K
  
• 39 cases in Middlesex-London: 9.6 per 100K
  
• 53 cases in Hamilton: 9.2 per 100K
  
• 122 cases in Peel: 8.8 per 100K
  
• 17 cases in Southwestern Ontario: 8.5 per 100K
  
• 17 cases in Eastern Ontario: 8.4 per 100K
  
• 78 cases in York: 7.0 per 100K
  
• 9 cases in Lambton: 6.9 per 100K
  
• 64 cases in Ottawa: 6.4 per 100K
  
• 27 cases in Niagara: 6.0 per 100K
  
• 31 cases in Halton: 5.7 per 100K
  
• 162 cases in Toronto: 5.5 per 100K
  
• 10 cases in Kingston Frontenac: 4.9 per 100K
  
• 30 cases in Waterloo: 4.9 per 100K (based on provincial reporting)
  
• 26 cases in Simcoe-Muskoka: 4.8 per 100K
  
• 31 cases in Durham: 4.8 per 100K
  
• 5 cases in Leeds, Grenville & Lanark: 2.9 per 100K
  
• 4 cases in Grey Bruce: 2.5 per 100K
  
• 9 cases in Sudbury: 2.3 per 100K
  
• 3 cases in Brant: 2.2 per 100K
  

[ac3r]

A young child in Waterloo Region who was infected with Covid-19 has died: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kitchener...-1.6179734