The COVID-19 pandemic

[jeffster]

—snip—

Don’t get be wrong, I am not against vaccinating younglings. I just find it odd that we still haven’t hit our targets with the older crowd. That said, a proper vaccination system could have all student vaccinated in a short time. A mass vaccination June 29 and August 24 at each school would have all children vaccinated 2 weeks before school starts. The logistics of this wouldn’t have been that hard. Unsure why something so simple when I went to school can’t be done these days.

[jeffster]

And guys, to be clear, I am not just upset that we’re number 1 at being the worst i the province, we’re number 1 by a long way. I mean, second place Peel isn’t even close, at less than 1/2 our numbers per capita. We’re trending in the wrong direction. And this could mean the livelihood of many this summer. If we don’t get to stage 2, or worse yet, go back to lockdown, people are going to lose their shit. These protests in Waterloo will seems like a church picnic. But we’re at risk at losing our summer. And we need to lay blame to where it exists. Our officials at the Region. They need to have some first under their feet or whatever, and they need to figure a better way to get things under control before it gets out of hand. And we’re very close to this getting out of hand. Most likely the cases are Delta variant, and they transmit more easily. And to be clear, I don’t believe lockdowns help as much as some here might feel. After all, we still have to go grocery shopping in crowded store and bumping into people continually, many that are ‘chinners’ (wearing masks to protect their chin only). These cases fall under community transmission. Not close contact, not travel, regardless of origin.

Whatever, if anyone here has suggestion on how to improve out outcome, please write to your local MP and MPP’s, as well as the Mayors of the city. I would also suggest writing to Chief Larkin. Surely the collective knowledge at this site might be able to come up with solutions before it’s too late, if it’s not already.

Maybe we’ll get lucky and the army will come in and vaccinate people. Who knows.

[danbrotherston]

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?

Those outdoor transmission numbers largely come from places which don't have large groups of people intentionally trying to spread the virus, we don't have local numbers largely because, as you correctly point out, our contact tracing has been an utter failure.

There is zero evidence of this (bolded passage). None of them are going to volunteer that information, and they are basically invisible within our population. We have no way to know who they are or what they do, and if they are getting sick. All we do know is that they are intentionally breaking the rules and acting dangerously. Hell, we don't even know that people in that crowd WEREN'T WRPS Officers...frankly, it would explain their excessively reluctance to deal with the protest.

As for my outrage, you'll find that I have MORE than enough outrage for everyone on your list.

But there is no universe where I am going to exonerate largely wealthy white people (and in many cases aggressively so) who are intentionally acting recklessly, just because we have ALSO failed in systemic ways. In fact, it is these very people who have the most agency and the most personal responsibility in our society, I want to hold them personally accountable for their behaviour more than others. In fact, it is very likely those people's behaviour that has caused some of our systemic failures.

[ZEBuilder]

—snip—

Don’t get be wrong, I am not against vaccinating younglings. I just find it odd that we still haven’t hit our targets with the older crowd. That said, a proper vaccination system could have all student vaccinated in a short time. A mass vaccination June 29 and August 24 at each school would have all children vaccinated 2 weeks before school starts. The logistics of this wouldn’t have been that hard. Unsure why something so simple when I went to school can’t be done these days.

What older crowd do you want to be vaccinated? The 60+ population in Waterloo Region is all over 75% vaccinated with a first dose and 29.93% with a second so what target are you talking about? Yes it would be possible to do something like that but what is wrong with allowing them to get vaccinated like everyone else? More then 50% of the 12-17 age group has a first dose its not like they're taking away doses from any other portion of the population if that was the case they wouldn't be getting doses, and second doses for them are being booked so they can be fully vaccinated before school starts. We aren't doing any worse then any other region in Ontario vaccination wise, as others have said we got less doses during the 3rd wave since the province was prioritizing hotspots in order to stop cases from completely exploding in them so regions that weren't hotspots are going to be further behind then places like Peel and Toronto, it's not the regions fault that the province was giving more doses to other areas of the province since they were in greater need of them at the time, every PHU is going to be advocating for vaccines just as much as the next so its not like the region has a say in the number of doses they have. Ontop of this all its not as if our vaccination numbers are slowing so its not as if a lack of vaccines is to blame for the current rise in cases its just we got unlucky.

[ZEBuilder]

Most likely the cases are Delta variant, and they transmit more easily. And to be clear, I don’t believe lockdowns help as much as some here might feel. After all, we still have to go grocery shopping in crowded store and bumping into people continually, many that are ‘chinners’ (wearing masks to protect their chin only). These cases fall under community transmission. Not close contact, not travel, regardless of origin.

Only 30% of our cases are from close contact so it is present yes but the bigger issue is people gathering as close contact accounts for 46% of our cases so the bigger problem is people who are gathering whether or not its illegal or legal its still the larger problem and if people are wearing masks in a store you're still protected from people who aren't wearing their masks properly. It still comes down to the fact though that our cases are primarily driven by people gathering which is caused by people being feed up with the rules because they're constantly changing.

[tomh009]

And in the grocery stores where I have been in the past six months, 99% of the customers are wearing their masks properly. The compliance is really good when shopping.

But there are many, many people having indoor get-togethers and parties in their homes, and have been for months now. These are not helpful.

[ac3r]

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.

There isn't enough space there unfortunately. The way they have it set up, they funnel cars through the lane closest to Joseph Street so they can fill out a questionnaire the security gives them, then they drive around into the tent, line up, get tested and exit. One lane is used for staff parking. It would fill up way too fast with only 4 lanes if they started doing vaccinations there because they need to take your information, give the injection and then have the "injectee" wait for 15-30 minutes (so if they drove their themselves, they wouldn't have anywhere to park their car and wait). I think it would also really cause traffic issues on the surrounding streets as well.

The better option would be to use something like the Catalyst137 parking lot or a similar large, currently unused location. Set up a few semi-permeant tents and do drive through vaccinations that way, or even open up the building to do them indoors for those who don't drive or who need to sit down (elderly etc).

[tomh009]

Surprisingly, the surge in cases in Waterloo Region is not high as I expected, and the number new cases as a % of active cases (a reasonably good proxy for Re) hasn't yet jumped that high. The positivity rate is quite high, but that is mostly driven by the big drop in the number of people getting themselves tested.

Overall, I'd say that while the regional situation is not good at the moment, it has not (yet!) gotten out of hand, with the indicators still substantially lower than the peaks. However, that might well change in a week or two if we cannot contain the number of new infections.

   

[jeffster]

And in the grocery stores where I have been in the past six months, 99% of the customers are wearing their masks properly. The compliance is really good when shopping.

But there are many, many people having indoor get-togethers and parties in their homes, and have been for months now. These are not helpful.

That is one part of the problem. Many out there will have more than 1 circle of friends. That said, if people are vaccinated, the risk of illness is very low, and risk of hospitalization is negligent.

Our poor numbers, though, are a result of certain groups not getting vaccinated. Someone mentioned upstream that it might be a trust issue for the homeless, for example. Either way, when it comes to certain groups, probably less questions, and more jabs is the answer. The clinics we have set up wouldn't be friendly for any homeless person.

Get nurses in shelters, vaccinate the homeless without questions.
Use schools to vaccinate 12-17 year olds.
Send out flyers informing where temp clinics are being set-up (use all community centres, etc).
Give more vaccines to pharmacies for walk-ins - send out flyers to area residents regarding walk-ins.

Stop being Canadian: ask friends, family, co-workers, neighbours, people you bump into "have you been vaccinated"? We need things back to normal...the sooner the better.

[Rainrider22]

I dont believe it is appropriate to ask someone if they have been vaccinated. People have a right to privacy with their health.

[ijmorlan]

I dont believe it is appropriate to ask someone if they have been vaccinated.  People have a right to privacy with their health.

Absolutely incorrect. We have a right to know whether we are exposing ourselves to a risk of infection.

In certain specific environments, I would go further and say it is irresponsible to allow anybody in the door who cannot provide proof of vaccination. I am thinking of hospitals, care homes, and similar places. School and university classrooms are also in this category.

Also, the police should be required to be vaccinated, since people are required to interact with them.

And I have utter contempt for any suggestion that the vaccine is “experimental”. It might have been that several months ago, but with over 2 billion shots administered and insignificant negative effects observed, combined with strong theoretical reasons to believe the vaccines are safe, there is simply no rational basis for believing there is a likelihood of harm from getting it. Anybody who disagrees is simply wrong, just as somebody who believes the Earth is a flying carpet carried by fairies is wrong.

The universe has enough ways of killing us without a fifth column of ironically-named homo sapiens helping out.

[jeffster]

Current 7-day Covid-19 per 100K

• Region of Waterloo Public Health and Emergency Services 78.0
• Peel Public Health 29.0
• Brant County Health Unit 24.5
• North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit 23.9
• Huron Perth Public Health 21.5
• Niagara Region Public Health 21.2
• City of Hamilton Public Health Services 20.8
• Durham Region Health Department 20.6
• Toronto Public Health 18.9
• Grey Bruce Health Unit 18.8

• TOTAL ONTARIO 20.9

I wouldn't be surprised if we're put back into lockdown on Friday. Our numbers just aren't improving.

[jeffster]

I dont believe it is appropriate to ask someone if they have been vaccinated.  People have a right to privacy with their health.

A person has the right to reply "none of your business". That said, I have talked to allegedly smart people who hadn't had their vaccine but they weren't sure how to get it since their family doctor ran out or never got any. There are others than need to be encouraged to get a vaccine. My friend hadn't had his yet. He also likes to travel, so I am like "how are you going to travel without your vaccination, as it might be required" -- 1 week later, he's signed up and got his jab, and a week later signed up for his second shot (he'll have to wait the 8 weeks, obviously).

At some point, though, I wouldn't be surprised if local businesses require vaccination proof to enter. I don't think this would be a charter violation.

[tomh009]

1M bonus doses of Moderna coming from the US:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/us-vacc...-1.6068714

[Rainrider22]

I dont believe it is appropriate to ask someone if they have been vaccinated.  People have a right to privacy with their health.

Absolutely incorrect. We have a right to know whether we are exposing ourselves to a risk of infection.

In certain specific environments, I would go further and say it is irresponsible to allow anybody in the door who cannot provide proof of vaccination. I am thinking of hospitals, care homes, and similar places. School and university classrooms are also in this category.

Also, the police should be required to be vaccinated, since people are required to interact with them.

And I have utter contempt for any suggestion that the vaccine is “experimental”. It might have been that several months ago, but with over 2 billion shots administered and insignificant negative effects observed, combined with strong theoretical reasons to believe the vaccines are safe, there is simply no rational basis for believing there is a likelihood of harm from getting it. Anybody who disagrees is simply wrong, just as somebody who believes the Earth is a flying carpet carried by fairies is wrong.

The universe has enough ways of killing us without a fifth column of ironically-named homo sapiens helping out.

I respect that that is your opinion, but it is not absolute. I and many people differ from your opinion.  That doesn't make you right, it doesn't make me right... but when you say Absolutely then I know there is no discussion to be had.  I am not scared of this.  If you are scared, stay at home