Canada's COVID response poses an important question . . .
Why do we put up with an authoritarian Liberal government?
Canada’s vaccination success ranks highly among global peers with a vaccination rate of 85%, only surpassed by China, Singapore, Chile, Cuba and the UAE according to Our World in Data.
Until Canada rolled out vaccinations on a large scale and while relying primarily on lockdowns, social distancing, and mask mandates Canada’s case fatality rate (CFR) was worse than other countries including the United States, India, South Korea and the world average. It is easy to conclude the draconian lockdowns and mandated behaviors were a poor alternative to vaccines and while they imposed unconstitutional limits on personal freedoms, damaged livelihoods and caused business failures, they did little to prevent infections or severe outcomes from the disease. I have used March 31, 2021 as a reference point since at that time vaccination rates remained low and lockdowns were prevalent throughout Canada. 'The CFR is per 100,000 people and not a measure of the absolute number of cases. Those data come later.
Even the vaccines, while effective for an extended period, became ineffective when highly transmisible Omicron variant entered the fray and so-called “breakthrough infections” predominated the new cases of the disease. Canada persisted with its lockdowns and vaccine mandates notwithstanding, but these measures did not prevent a surge in new cases. We now have public health officials warning us daily that reported cases understate actual infections owing to limited testing capacity and the rapid pace of Omicron spread. Health experts worldwide have made efforts to estimate the actual number of cases and the picture in Canada does not encourage me to believe our public health response or mandates have done anything useful to protect Canadians, except for the widespread availability of vaccines for those who chose them. The expert estimates put Canada’s daily case rate today somewhere in the range of 50,000 to 250,000 cases of COVID. You won’t see that on CBC.
What has occurred is nature running its course. Omicron is highly transmissible but relatively mild, and persons infected enjoy strong immunity from re-infection. Political leaders won’t acknowledge this since there is no political capital in admitting nature, not intervention, is ultimately the shield against COVID. Debates over the efficacy of natural versus vaccine immunity raged all through last year with ideology rather than science as the primary motive for claiming vaccine acquired immunity was superior, but eventually the Center for Disease Control concluded and published studies with the opposite conclusion - that naturally acquired immunity is a more robust protection from re-infection. Awkward for political leaders but nonetheless supported by science. This disease is running its course and young, healthy people who preferred to take the risk (and not the certainty) they might become infected and if infected and not succumb (the 98% likelihood) enjoy a more robust immunity than any vaccine, have been vilified by Justin Trudeau and other ideologues. In fact, they have made a choice that for many was a wise one.
There seems little doubt that vaccines were valuable and even if a vaccinated person suffered a breakthrough infection, they usually encountered milder symptoms and like the unvaccinated but infected, enjoy an even more robust immunity on recovery. Yet even today, Trudeau’s government and does not recognize natural immunity as the equivalent of being vaccinated and continues to try and compel Canadians to submit to vaccination regardless of their personal choice, punishing those who refuse.
The Freedom Convoy was no more and no less than ordinary Canadians rebelling at the loss of freedoms they cherish in general and the vaccine mandates in particular. The use of the Emergency Act to quash the protest was totalitarian, not democratic, and highlights the terrible state Canada is in today.
It is up to all of us to restore Canada to the free country we grew up in and vote Trudeau and his left wing entourage out of Ottawa.
I have found Fox News to be a fairly honest source. They have contributors outside the MSM that do not appear to be in conflict of interest and provide accurate answers. They come from reputable schools such as John Hopkins. I give little heed to the MSM. They have become government prostituites.