Sunday October 3rd 2021
COVID-19 has changed our lives, I think we can all agree with that simple statement, no matter what your personal opinion on this pandemic might be, it has changed our lives and world.
Here in Ontario we have now seen four surges in new case counts, and we have endured three provincial lockdowns in eighteen months, but we seem to be avoiding another lockdown for now, and being the largest population base in Canada we need to look at the numbers to see why.
Population:
This chart just shows the populations of all the different provinces and territories, it also shows the growth over the last decade.
We want to look at two provinces specifically for this comparison, so pay attention to Ontario and Alberta.
Ontario 14,733,119
Alberta 4,428,112
COVID-19 cases:
This chart shows the new COVID-19 cases, again by province and territories. And once again we want to look at two main provinces but Saskatchewan is worth a note because their number is terrible as well.
Ontario 668
Alberta 1630
Saskatchewan 471
I remember in July when Alberta and Saskatchewan removed all restrictions with regard to mask wearing, social distancing, and venue restrictions. With promotions and ads, and on every Canadian newspaper, heck Alberta even allowed the Calgary Stampede to take place with few or no restrictions. And I thought that sure would be nice, to be able to enjoy a “normal” summer, as I for one was feeling very restricted here in Ontario in comparison. But right about now I’m thankful for all those annoying restrictions. So while Ontario has 3 times the population of Alberta and 12 times the population of Saskatchewan, Alberta has over 2 times the cases than Ontario and Saskatchewan’s case rate is even worse.
My next thought was maybe the outbreak in Alberta was just because of a low vaccination rate so next I was going to look at the numbers comparing Ontario’s and Alberta’s vaccination rates, here are the numbers.
But as the charts above show Ontario and Alberta are not too far apart when we look at both the percentages of total population with vaccinations as well as the percentage of the eligible population vaccinated.
Conclusion? While vaccinations are important, because the majority of the cases are of the unvaccinated people, and an even higher percentage of the people in the hospitals and the ICU wards are unvaccinated. So the big difference has to be the restrictions!
So those restrictions that we all loathe, do work, the mask wearing, the social distancing, the venue limitations and now the vaccination passports are keeping Ontario’s fourth wave of new case counts under control, so as Alberta is implementing another lockdown, Ontario is allowing more fully vaccinated people into venues as a comparison, and if the vaccination passports keep us from a fourth lockdown then I will wear my mask indoors, and follow whatever guidelines the sciences team suggests to move us forward.
Here is today’s graph of the world vaccination rates, and let me start by saying that China’s data is suspect, as accurate and factual information from China is virtually nonexistent. Next I notice that India is getting one dose into the arms of citizens, kind of like Canada did when vaccines were hard to get. Russia is just plain failing with only a 33% vaccinated rate, and another number that looks suspect is the United Arab Emirates, can the population of 12 and under only be 7% of total population? And remember when the Olympics were being held, and Japan was so far behind on vaccinations and now their even ahead of the United States
But whether you believe the numbers or not here is a glance at where a few countries are on the vaccination front.
So please don’t be offended if I put on my mask when I’m in a group, or avoid people that I know are not vaccinated, or I just avoid groups in indoor settings, don’t take it personal, I’m just protecting me.
The Buchanan's Rolling Down The Road 
Let’s hope the number of people getting vaccinated will continue to go up.
Here’s hoping for a great winter (and I hate winter weather in Ontario).
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