The COVID-19 pandemic

[jeffster]

Current 7-day Covid-19 cases per 100k

• Northwestern Health Unit 412.9
• Algoma Public Health 290.1
• Porcupine Health Unit 278.0
• Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington Public Health 210.1
• Public Health Sudbury & Districts 194.4
• Thunder Bay District Health Unit 191.4
• Timiskaming Health Unit 156.0
• North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit 150.3
• Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit 127.6
• Chatham-Kent Public Health 121.3
• Windsor-Essex County Health Unit 118.4
• Lambton Public Health 109.2
• Niagara Region Public Health 103.1
• Grey Bruce Health Unit 101.2
• Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit 100.8
• Middlesex-London Health Unit 88.9
• Hastings Prince Edward Public Health 87.8
• Renfrew County and District Health Unit 86.5
• Durham Region Health Department 85.9
• Southwestern Public Health 83.2
• Leeds, Grenville & Lanark District Health Unit 78.5
• Ottawa Public Health 78.3
• Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health 72.5
• Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit 71.5
• City of Hamilton Public Health Services 69.1
• Peterborough Public Health 66.2
• Halton Region Public Health 66.2
• Eastern Ontario Health Unit 64.7
• Toronto Public Health 64.2
• Huron Perth Public Health 60.8

• Region of Waterloo Public Health and Emergency Services 58.0

• Brant County Health Unit 53.5
• Peel Public Health 48.5
• York Region Public Health 44.2

• TOTAL ONTARIO 82.7

Nice to see that the region has been constantly in the bottom 5 for quite some time now. Huge turnaround from back late spring / early summer of last year.

[danbrotherston]

That doesn't seem to be the case in countries which have removed restrictions and mandates, though.

In the US cases, hospitalizations, ICU admissions and deaths have been continually trending downward even though all states have now removed mask mandates. In the last two weeks, they've seen (numbers referring to percentages) -51 cases, -43 hospitalizations, -44 for ICU beds and -26 in deaths.

In the UK, they have been seeing similar downward trends. There's a slight increase in cases recently, but one needs to remember they test a hell of a lot more than other countries...in the last two weeks they've gone up 7 percent. Deaths have nonetheless gone down a -25 percent decrease in the last 14 days.

Both countries have removed restrictions and mandates a while ago (with a few states lagging behind, such as Hawaii as well as Puerto Rico, though now I believe it's universal with the exception of certain school systems and private businesses) and yet even with omicron, things are looking good.

Things have gone up in Canada in comparison - +7 percent in cases and +33 percent in deaths - but I'm not sure how to explain that when we are still wearing masks here. Regardless, we can look at countries that have removed mask mandates to get a sense of what we are likely going to be in store for. Judging by US and UK data, it should be easily manageable. People will still die, but that's going to happen no matter what since we are past the point of eliminating this virus. Either we remove the mask mandates now (and reinstate them if necessary) or we never do.

And either we trust our public health officials - doctors, scientists, statisticians etc - when they say it will be okay to remove the mandates or we don't trust public health. Personally, I'm willing to trust them because they've presented their data and research to the PCPO and then they made the decision. And it isn't really a political decision as it's based on research. Some are suggesting it's to score political points, but I think that's nonsense since the election isn't for a while and it would make no sense to remove the mandates only for things to spike back up. That's shooting themselves in the foot, so I believe they have simply been looking at not only our own country but others to come to the conclusion that we can now take the chance to end them and reinstate if necessary.

Note: I'm pulling these numbers from the New York Times since they are a reliable source. Not sure if their Covid-19 info is available for free still, but the info can be found elsewhere.

"I'm not sure how to explain that when we're still wearing masks"...

This is simplistic thinking, there are many many factors which affect COVID numbers, masks do not eliminate covid (nor is everyone wearing masks) but they do REDUCE COVID. We've eliminated other restrictions which can cause an increase in transmission, we have other variants appearing, and we have waning immunity. Adding MORE upwards pressure on COVID numbers is stupid.

You cite some countries, but ignore others like the Netherlands and Denmark, both of which removed their mask mandates and are now also seeing a significant rise in COVID numbers again.

Which public health officials are you trusting? Because the vast majority of them are saying that we should keep wearing masks. This includes the Ontario Science Table, federal officials, local officials. In fact, the only provincial medical officers like Moore who are deeply compromised by their political positions and the proximity of the election.

And you're right, seeing numbers spike back up would be bad for the conservatives, probably, I think most of their voters don't really care about COVID or the real harms it causes these days, but the conservative government is idiotic, making bad decisions is practically a brand for them...but as much as I want to see the OPCs hoisted on their own petard, I'd much rather see COVID transmission lowered in our community.

And again, the cost of this is so low. At the absolute worst case, we keep wearing masks for a few more weeks or months, it costs nothing, on the flip side, we see hundreds more deaths. The idea that killing hundreds of people is a risk we're willing to take for the privilege of ... not wearing a face mask ... is utterly idiotic. We are utterly pathetic, the fact we cannot stand such a minor inconvenience....if the Russians invaded Canada and started shelling us, what would these people who can't bear to wear a mask to save a life do? They'd go fucking catatonic.

[jeffster]

Current 7-day Covid-19 cases per 100k

• Northwestern Health Unit 375.2
• Algoma Public Health 284.0
• Porcupine Health Unit 269.7
• Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington Public Health 215.8
• Public Health Sudbury & Districts 198.5
• Thunder Bay District Health Unit 190.7
• Timiskaming Health Unit 159.1
• North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit 144.9
• Windsor-Essex County Health Unit 120.0
• Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit 113.1
• Renfrew County and District Health Unit 103.1
• Lambton Public Health 102.3
• Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit 101.7
• Grey Bruce Health Unit 100.7
• Niagara Region Public Health 99.5
• Middlesex-London Health Unit 94.0
• Hastings Prince Edward Public Health 93.2
• Chatham-Kent Public Health 89.4
• Durham Region Health Department 80.2
• Southwestern Public Health 79.0
• Ottawa Public Health 78.4
• Leeds, Grenville & Lanark District Health Unit 77.4
• Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit 73.6
• City of Hamilton Public Health Services 73.1
• Peterborough Public Health 73.0
• Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health 70.5
• Huron Perth Public Health 66.5
• Eastern Ontario Health Unit 63.7
• Toronto Public Health 63.6
• Halton Region Public Health 61.9

• Region of Waterloo Public Health and Emergency Services 59.0

• Brant County Health Unit 56.1
• Peel Public Health 51.1
• York Region Public Health 43.5

• TOTAL ONTARIO 81.8

[tomh009]

Cases are a very unreliable indicator because test volumes are so low now.

Deaths are a lagging indicator so looking at a two-week span will not tell you the real story.

Here are charts for the last 30 days for hospital population. This still lags, but less so than deaths.

Damn, the USA, though. Could that be because nearly everyone has gotten sick?

Could be. Or they started kicking out people without insurance.

[jeffster]

Current 7-day Covid-19 cases per 100k

• Northwestern Health Unit 345.6
• Porcupine Health Unit 300.8
• Algoma Public Health 263.0
• Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington Public Health 219.5
• Public Health Sudbury & Districts 192.9
• Thunder Bay District Health Unit 189.4
• Timiskaming Health Unit 165.2
• North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit 117.9
• Grey Bruce Health Unit 116.0
• Windsor-Essex County Health Unit 113.9
• Niagara Region Public Health 107.1
• Lambton Public Health 106.1
• Hastings Prince Edward Public Health 105.0
• Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit 99.1
• Middlesex-London Health Unit 98.3
• Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit 96.7
• Renfrew County and District Health Unit 90.2
• Chatham-Kent Public Health 86.5
• Durham Region Health Department 85.3
• City of Hamilton Public Health Services 83.1
• Ottawa Public Health 80.8
• Leeds, Grenville & Lanark District Health Unit 80.8
• Southwestern Public Health 77.1
• Peterborough Public Health 75.7
• Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit 72.0
• Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health 69.9
• Huron Perth Public Health 67.3
• Halton Region Public Health 63.8
• Toronto Public Health 63.2
• Brant County Health Unit 61.9

• Region of Waterloo Public Health and Emergency Services 58.7

• Eastern Ontario Health Unit 52.2
• Peel Public Health 51.4
• York Region Public Health 46.1

• TOTAL ONTARIO 82.1

[jeffster]

Current 7-day Covid-19 cases per 100k

• Algoma Public Health 289.2
• Northwestern Health Unit 276.0
• Porcupine Health Unit 262.5
• Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington Public Health 236.0
• Public Health Sudbury & Districts 194.4
• Thunder Bay District Health Unit 194.1
• Timiskaming Health Unit 146.8
• North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit 124.9
• Windsor-Essex County Health Unit 114.6
• Grey Bruce Health Unit 113.0
• Hastings Prince Edward Public Health 108.6
• Niagara Region Public Health 104.8
• Middlesex-London Health Unit 103.2
• Lambton Public Health 100.0
• Renfrew County and District Health Unit 97.6
• Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit 96.4
• Durham Region Health Department 93.2
• Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit 90.7
• City of Hamilton Public Health Services 88.2
• Leeds, Grenville & Lanark District Health Unit 82.6
• Chatham-Kent Public Health 81.8
• Ottawa Public Health 80.6
• Southwestern Public Health 74.7
• Peterborough Public Health 73.7
• Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health 73.4
• Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit 71.5
• Brant County Health Unit 70.2
• Halton Region Public Health 68.5
• Huron Perth Public Health 63.0
• Toronto Public Health 61.6

• Region of Waterloo Public Health and Emergency Services 60.4

• Eastern Ontario Health Unit 55.6
• Peel Public Health 53.4
• York Region Public Health 46.1

• TOTAL ONTARIO 82.7

[jeffster]

March 13 "7-day Covid-19 cases per 100k"

• Northwestern Health Unit 298.8
• Algoma Public Health 295.4
• Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington Public Health 248.2
• Porcupine Health Unit 233.7
• Thunder Bay District Health Unit 194.7
• Public Health Sudbury & Districts 177.4
• Timiskaming Health Unit 146.8
• North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit 120.2
• Grey Bruce Health Unit 114.8
• Hastings Prince Edward Public Health 109.2
• Windsor-Essex County Health Unit 106.6
• Middlesex-London Health Unit 101.1
• Niagara Region Public Health 95.5
• Durham Region Health Department 92.6
• Renfrew County and District Health Unit 92.1
• Lambton Public Health 90.9
• Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit 88.4
• City of Hamilton Public Health Services 87.8
• Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit 87.7
• Leeds, Grenville & Lanark District Health Unit 82.0
• Chatham-Kent Public Health 80.9
• Ottawa Public Health 79.2
• Southwestern Public Health 78.5
• Brant County Health Unit 76.0
• Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health 72.5
• Huron Perth Public Health 71.6
• Halton Region Public Health 71.2
• Peterborough Public Health 71.0
• Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit 69.9
• Toronto Public Health 63.4

• Region of Waterloo Public Health and Emergency Services 60.6

• Eastern Ontario Health Unit 58.5
• Peel Public Health 48.4
• York Region Public Health 45.0

• TOTAL ONTARIO 81.6

[kps]

Damn, the USA, though. Could that be because nearly everyone has gotten sick?

Could be. Or they started kicking out people without insurance.

US has just started a federally-funded ‘test-to-treat’ program — pharmacies can do tests and dispense antivirals on the spot, free.

[jeffster]

Could be. Or they started kicking out people without insurance.

US has just started a federally-funded ‘test-to-treat’ program — pharmacies can do tests and dispense antivirals on the spot, free.

This is something the federal government doesn't believe in, right? I know certain things have been approved, but as far as I know, no one can get anything.

[jeffster]

Current 7-day Covid-19 cases per 100k

• Northwestern Health Unit 331.9
• Algoma Public Health 293.6
• Porcupine Health Unit 251.7
• Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington Public Health 248.2
• Thunder Bay District Health Unit 192.1
• Public Health Sudbury & Districts 169.8
• Timiskaming Health Unit 137.7
• North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit 121.8
• Grey Bruce Health Unit 117.1
• Hastings Prince Edward Public Health 109.8
• Windsor-Essex County Health Unit 101.7
• Middlesex-London Health Unit 101.1
• Niagara Region Public Health 97.8
• Renfrew County and District Health Unit 96.7
• Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit 91.2
• Durham Region Health Department 91.1
• Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit 89.2
• City of Hamilton Public Health Services 87.5
• Lambton Public Health 84.0
• Chatham-Kent Public Health 82.8
• Huron Perth Public Health 78.7
• Leeds, Grenville & Lanark District Health Unit 78.5
• Southwestern Public Health 78.0
• Brant County Health Unit 78.0
• Ottawa Public Health 77.8
• Peterborough Public Health 71.6
• Halton Region Public Health 71.6
• Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health 68.3
• Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit 67.2
• Toronto Public Health 65.2

• Region of Waterloo Public Health and Emergency Services 63.0

• Eastern Ontario Health Unit 55.1
• Peel Public Health 47.6
• York Region Public Health 45.4

• TOTAL ONTARIO 81.9

[jeffster]

Current 7-day Covid-19 cases per 100k

• Northwestern Health Unit 308.0
• Algoma Public Health 286.6
• Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington Public Health 242.6
• Porcupine Health Unit 236.1
• Thunder Bay District Health Unit 194.1
• Public Health Sudbury & Districts 172.3
• Timiskaming Health Unit 122.4
• North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit 121.0
• Grey Bruce Health Unit 119.5
• Hastings Prince Edward Public Health 116.9
• Middlesex-London Health Unit 100.1
• Niagara Region Public Health 99.5
• Windsor-Essex County Health Unit 99.1
• Renfrew County and District Health Unit 97.6
• Durham Region Health Department 96.3
• City of Hamilton Public Health Services 86.0
• Lambton Public Health 85.5
• Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit 85.1
• Huron Perth Public Health 84.4
• Peterborough Public Health 80.4
• Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit 79.8
• Brant County Health Unit 79.3
• Leeds, Grenville & Lanark District Health Unit 74.5
• Ottawa Public Health 74.1
• Southwestern Public Health 71.4
• Chatham-Kent Public Health 70.5
• Halton Region Public Health 70.3
• Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health 69.6
• Toronto Public Health 65.0
• Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit 64.6

• Region of Waterloo Public Health and Emergency Services 56.3

• Eastern Ontario Health Unit 55.6
• Peel Public Health 48.4
• York Region Public Health 46.1

• TOTAL ONTARIO 81.0

[jeffster]

Current 7-day Covid-19 cases per 100k

• Algoma Public Health 285.8
• Northwestern Health Unit 281.7
• Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington Public Health 263.3
• Porcupine Health Unit 252.9
• Thunder Bay District Health Unit 194.1
• Public Health Sudbury & Districts 173.8
• Hastings Prince Edward Public Health 131.2
• North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit 121.0
• Grey Bruce Health Unit 120.7
• Timiskaming Health Unit 113.2
• Middlesex-London Health Unit 103.6
• Windsor-Essex County Health Unit 103.3
• Durham Region Health Department 94.0
• Renfrew County and District Health Unit 93.0
• Niagara Region Public Health 92.5
• Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit 92.0
• Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit 87.9
• City of Hamilton Public Health Services 87.3
• Huron Perth Public Health 86.6
• Lambton Public Health 83.2
• Peterborough Public Health 81.1
• Leeds, Grenville & Lanark District Health Unit 79.1
• Brant County Health Unit 72.2
• Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health 72.1
• Ottawa Public Health 69.7
• Chatham-Kent Public Health 68.7
• Halton Region Public Health 68.0
• Toronto Public Health 66.0
• Southwestern Public Health 64.8
• Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit 61.9
• Eastern Ontario Health Unit 56.5

• Region of Waterloo Public Health and Emergency Services 54.8

• Peel Public Health 50.0
• York Region Public Health 46.7

• TOTAL ONTARIO 81.4

[ac3r]

Health Canada has approved Moderna for children aged 6 to 12: https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/moderna-a...-1.6388200

[danbrotherston]

The testing centre will be closing on the 23rd at 6:30PM and moving back to Grand River Hospital so this property will be finally free for redevelopment unless something happens and they need to reopen it. I have taken a couple trips there to scout and tour the site and I believe one of other crew was touring the place last month or so. Can't reveal what potential plans I'm involved in nor do I know what others have been considering, but I can definitely say there's a lot of interest from various developers for potential projects.

I'll be curious to see what happens with this place. It's far too small for a stadium despite people wanting to see one get built here. But I do hope we can utilize it for something more meaningful for the community rather than simply selling it off for condos. A park extension, public square and perhaps some civic oriented buildings would be most ideal in my opinion and I've been designing plans for such projects in AutoCAD/Revit in my free time.

Like, I dunno...us discovering that just because we pretend a virus is gone, doesn't mean that it is.

I don't see anything happening very quickly though.

[ac3r]

I don't think anyone is pretending the virus is gone. It will likely never be, no more than Swine influenza strains vanished when that pandemic subsided. But with hospitalization rates and death rates so low all over the world, we're likely entering the endemic phase of this virus seeing as how most first world nations are removing restrictions at this point. Computer models can only show us so much, so many countries are now trying to remove restrictions. The mitigation tactics have been largely successful depending on where one lives, but they've also caused harm to things like political issues, economic disaster, mental and physical health problems (depression, obesity etc) not to mention suicide and self-harm from isolation, problems with social development in children, problems with drug addiction and overdoses, businesses failing, people being thrown into poverty and homelessness not to mention the breakdown of our social order and political cohesion that this has all had on people.

There's a very, very, very fine balance between balancing public health responses and balancing all of that stuff (and more), which is also impacting or even taking the lives of people around the world. Our response to this pandemic had been nearly as novel to the virus itself has been on our health. We've been trying things that have rarely or if ever been utilized during a pandemic and it's very apparent that they've had serious impacts on people.

If the test centre needs to reopen to test higher volumes than what can be done at the hospital, it will likely reopen, but the directors of the hospital as well as regional public health have come to the conclusion that it isn't needed any longer. Test positivity isn't too high at this point and the amount of people needing to be hospitalized or dying is very small. Of course, people will still suffer from that, but it's getting no worse than seasonal influenza. I suppose we can thank the fact 90%+ of us have been vaccinated.

But I don't wish to detail this thread and make it about the pandemic. It's shutting down and so we'll see what happens with that as well as what happens with this site. It's a prime location of land and I hope the Region of Waterloo doesn't blow this opportunity to potentially create an amazing public space that can benefit the community. It's time to use this. And there is limited space downtown so they ought to capitalize on this. We'll probably have a million people living in this region by 2050 if not sooner, so now is the time to put this location to good use for everyone. The building itself is garbage given its age. The roof leaks, there's taps that have been running water since the day it closed down (and I mean really leak...when I was there, enough water was pouring out of two taps they could fill a swimming pool each week but the region apparently didn't want to fix that since the entire building was not being used) and the basement levels are flooded. There's so much potential here once we knock down this ugly postmodern structure and build something new.