Wow, Canada Certainly Has A Handle On This Coronavirus Screw-Up

All the smugness in the world can't hide incompetence: 

According to the latest estimates, 69 percent of Canada’s covid-19 fatalities — which is to say, more than two-thirds of the country’s over 23,000 dead — have occurred in long-term care homes used to house senior citizens. It’s a trend that has been consistent for the entire pandemic: A report released last week by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) found 7,260 Canadian seniors living in care homes died in the first wave (March to the end of August 2020), while 7,479 died in the second wave (which, for the report’s purposes, ended in February).

These numbers form a uniquely Canadian tragedy. Citing a recent report from the London School of Economics’ International Long-Term Care Policy Network, the CIHI notes that the “international average” for the share of care home residents as a percentage of covid deaths is41 percent, making Canada’s rate about 28 points higher than that of other nations. The New York Times currently estimates 33 percent of U.S. covid deaths are “linked to nursing homes,” while Britain’s Office for National Statistics offers a similar estimate for England and Wales. Even New York — whose governor has been embroiled in much scandal over alleged attempts to hide his state’s supposedly horrifying number of care home deaths — is not believed to have them representing more than 37 percent of its total.

Canada’s numbers can’t be dismissed as just one outlier province skewing the average, either. CIHI data says Canada’s four biggest provinces all have care home residents representing a majority of their covid deaths, with Quebec and Alberta on the high end (75.5 percent and 71 percent, respectively) and Ontario and British Columbia on the low (65.2 percent and 53.3 percent). ...

The admittedly cold rebuttal would declare the disproportionate number of senior home deaths as vindication that Canada is actually doing an excellent job at preventing larger spreads elsewhere. Consider that, according to the Long-Term Care Policy Network, a staggering 75 percent of Australian covid deaths occurred in seniors’ homes — a fact that shocks only until you remember Australia has had fewer than 1,000 covid deaths overall. If we accept that the pandemic’s effects were inescapable at some level, then having most of your country’s deaths concentrated in a community that has been identified since the beginning as the “highest risk” can be darkly validating.

A great deal of Canadian covid commentary has consisted of strained efforts to weave the country’s experiences into something flattering and patriotic, but the virus has shown scant interest in playing along. In the end, it seems Canada’s most pronounced covid legacy will simply be the death of thousands of isolated grandparents holed up in unpleasant conditions. There may be nuance in that story, but no joy.

 

The comments following this article were penned by people obviously so insecure and baffled by the Canadian response to tragedies that were avoidable that they contemptible.

Though these comments will seem blurry to the eyes of the willfully blind, the reality is simple: old people were left to die in their own waste but liquor stores were kept open. 

That's not Trump's fault. That is Canada's.

It still is: 

Justin Trudeau staffer Matt Stickney cautioned against publicizing Canada's acquisition of nasal swabs, because releasing the numbers would “signal we're good” while the Liberals were still actively asking for international help with supplies.

The subject was flagged in an email sent to federal issues advisor Sabrina Kim.

Kim brought up several proposed points “for comms,” including the delivery of swabs:

I see this from PCO [Privy Council Office] today on swabs — let me know if you think it's good to have & I'll triple check w folks that we're good to use:

282,300 additional swabs have been received in Canadian warehouses, with delivery of additional orders expected in the coming days.

As of this morning (April 14), Cardinal Health Canada has begun delivering orders of swabs to provinces and territories in batches from the company's eight regional warehouses across the country.

A separate order of 100,000 swabs from US-based Puritan Medical Products is expected to arrive in Canada tomorrow.

The full email was circulated to a handful of Trudeau staffers and included a variety of points, including testing capacity in New Brunswick and apparel firms ”bringing workers back” to make medical gowns.

Stickney replied saying that he was “nervous” to “touch” the swabs angle because he didn't want to publicize that Canada was “good” for supplies while media ran with stories of nasal swab shortages.

...I think we just go with NB and testing.

I'm nervous to touch swabs as we're still asking for help internationally and don't want to signal we're good.

 

Deal with it.

Also:

In a reversal of earlier pandemic trends, Canada is on the verge of matching — perhaps surpassing — the United States in the number of COVID-19 cases relative to its population.

Updated data compiled from the Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 dataset shows that the United States sits at roughly 196 COVID-19 cases per one million people, and Canada, as of Tuesday, was at 180 cases per one million people.

While this amounts to, in raw numbers, a difference of some 59 million cases, it’s a worrisome trend, experts say.

Anthony Dale, the president and CEO of the Ontario Hospital Association, said the United States has suffered “the biggest public health catastrophe in probably the modern Western world’s history.”

While the situation is improving south of the 49th because of a massive vaccination campaign, Canada is trending the opposite direction, yet we’re still feeling a bit of “Canadian exceptionalism” Dale said, even as we’re “probably about to surpass” the U.S. in terms of community spread.

“We’ve been somewhat blind to our overall performance internationally because we’re sitting right next door to the United States and the disaster that clearly was their experience during this pandemic,” Dale said. “They have clearly experienced much worse outcomes overall than Canada, make no mistake, however, it’s the future I’m worried about, and we’re trending in a worrisome direction in comparison to them when it comes to community spread.”

 

Pure arrogance. 

Even the CDC advises not going to Canada.

**

As if the COVID-19 pandemic hadn't produced enough ways to complicate life at the border between Canada and the United States, here comes another: whether or not to require proof of vaccination.

 

 

Oh, my. That's awkward:

Dr. Samantha Hill of the Ontario Medical Association recently went on CP24 to “invite” Wuhan virus skeptics to tour hospital COVID wards. I took her up on her offer. She promptly reneged. Why did Dr. Hill offer a fake invite on TV? What is the OMA hiding? https://t.co/6mWtc81vmK

— David Menzies (@TheMenzoid) April 8, 2021