# Canada and the Coronavirus **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Tags:** covid-quarantine\ **Created:** [March 30, 2020, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-and-the-coronavirus/850643 "2020-03-30T05:02:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 50
**Author:** ![Biffster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biffster/32/339_2.png) [@Biffster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffster)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2022, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-and-the-coronavirus/850643/984 "2022-01-27T04:09:45Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Are they? We’ve been hearing for two years how overwhelmed hospitals are around the corner but the disaster never seems to come. I mean, maybe they are, but we are never really given solid info on this. A guy just died in a waiting room. Thousands of surgeries have been cancelled or postponed in the past few months. How much worse do you need it to get? ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2022, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-and-the-coronavirus/850643/985 "2022-01-27T05:37:16Z")
> [@Biffster](#): > > A guy just died in a waiting room. People have been dying in waiting rooms in Canadian hospitals for my entire life. I don’t think people realize how flimsy the system is ALL the time. ---
**Author:** ![Mikemike2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikemike2/32/305_2.png) [@Mikemike2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mikemike2)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2022, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-and-the-coronavirus/850643/986 "2022-02-07T19:09:35Z")
I know tests were plentiful in Sk, but not in Alberta. I was pretty sure I have had Covid for the last week, and yesterday was finally able to get a kit and confirm covid. I am isolating. I have had 3 vaccine shots. I was pretty sick, especially fatigue, but am starting to feel better. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2022, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-and-the-coronavirus/850643/987 "2022-02-11T04:12:43Z")
How are you doing? Hope all’s well. ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2022, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-and-the-coronavirus/850643/988 "2022-02-16T16:52:55Z")
Hooray! The pandemic’s over! Restrictions are being lifted across Canada; why, in Quebec, where I live at the moment, the vax passport will no longer be required as of March 14 - this is just fantastic news. I guess, unbeknownst to me, that everyone globally was triple vaxxed over the last couple of months, and that every last virus was destroyed, so we no longer have to anticipate anything bad, like a new variant crashing the party in four or five months and everyone pretending to be shocked, and the various levels of government acting as though it’s March 2020, and we’re all scrambling like idiots to get masks and set up new vaccination sites, find health-care personnel, and deal with rising numbers of idiots, anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers. I cannot fucking believe it - it’s like we are doing everything possible **not** to manage this thing so that every fucking time it becomes a panic-stricken crisis when it doesn’t have to. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2022, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-and-the-coronavirus/850643/989 "2022-02-16T18:46:52Z")
> [@velomont](#): > > I guess, unbeknownst to me, that everyone globally was triple vaxxed over the last couple of months, and that every last virus was destroyed, so we no longer have to anticipate anything bad, like a new variant crashing the party in four or five months and everyone pretending to be shocked, Yeah, it all seems a bit abrupt. Alas, letting them piss on the electric fence seems to be the only means left to us for getting them to learn. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2022, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-and-the-coronavirus/850643/990 "2022-02-16T19:19:09Z")
4 or 5 months? Should we be so lucky. 4 to 5 weeks, seems more likely. ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2022, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-and-the-coronavirus/850643/991 "2022-02-16T19:54:15Z")
And I fear that it’s going to happen again and again and again. I hear the talking heads and others saying that we have to learn how to live with it as an endemic. I completely agree with that but IMHO we are definitely not doing that. Lifting all restrictions and pretending that covid is gone every 4 or 5 weeks or months (as the case may be), and then playing catch-up and laying off large numbers of hospitality workers is not the way to do this. As an example, there is a micro-brewery, with a tasting room (or quasi-bar), as well as a patio on their front lawn, in a nearby industrial park. In the first wave they had to close down the tasting room but, in Oct 2020 when the weather was still nice, they weren’t allowed to operate their patio because of existing bylaws. In velomont’s world, these bylaws would be amended so that the effects of covid restrictions could be mitigated. Additionally our gov’ts are going to have to cough up a ton of cash to attract and keep health care personnel and possibly even do intelligent organizational and physical restructuring in and to health care facilities. But we’re not doing that and we just seem to be spiraling downhill. ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2022, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-and-the-coronavirus/850643/992 "2022-02-16T22:15:05Z")
The vaccination passport idea was the allow vaccinated people to engage in public spaces and protect the unvaccinated from catching the disease. Well ~85% are vaccinated, assume 8% simply can’t (Cancer, too young, some medical condition etc.) and you’re down to 7% of people. Scream and push and hammer away to vaccinate 50% of them and we’re at 90% … a mere 17% overall improvement What do vaccination passports get us then? They don’t protect us from getting covid - simply being in public is the risk factor there. They don’t protect the unable to vaccinate since both vaccinated/unvaccinated can infect people (yes differing levels etc etc.). They do protect the wont be vaccinated but that’s what 7-10% of the population? They do impose logistical and practical loads on public spaces and failure to comply with them carry few consequences, or if they do it falls on the business in the first place. So I dont have a huge problem with them being gone, though I’d rather see them rolled into a modernized vaccination record system. The things to minimize disruption again are advanced monitoring, hardened vaccination delivery process, improved building codes for ventilation, expanded ICU capacity (including people), and a way to minimize a spike’s ability to wreck general medical procedures like chemo, hip surgery etc. All of those can be helped by provincial actions. My money, however, is on governments (and people) being surprised by the next wave the same way Canadian drivers can never seem to remember how to drive in the snow when it falls for the 1st time. ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2022, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-and-the-coronavirus/850643/993 "2022-02-21T18:14:19Z")
> **[update-covid-19-canada-epidemiology-modelling-20220218-en.pdf](https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/phac-aspc/documents/services/diseases-maladies/coronavirus-disease-covid-19/epidemiological-economic-research-data/update-covid-19-canada-epidemiology-modelling-20220218-en.pdf)** Interesting views on hospitalizations maybe peaking again if transmissions increase but I’m hopeful for the two lesser scenarios. Oh and the wastewater testing is just awesome compared to poking people’s nasal cavities ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2022, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-and-the-coronavirus/850643/994 "2022-02-22T18:52:58Z")
> [@velomont](#): > > I completely agree with that but IMHO we are definitely not doing that. Lifting all restrictions and pretending that covid is gone every 4 or 5 weeks or months (as the case may be), and then playing catch-up and laying off large numbers of hospitality workers is not the way to do this. Well, that would not constitute living with an endemic disease. That is a pandemic reaction. ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2022, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-and-the-coronavirus/850643/995 "2022-02-22T21:47:01Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Well, that would not constitute living with an endemic disease And that’s my point. First of all, with the numbers of anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers domestically, and the levels of vaccinations globally, particularly in the third world, I don’t believe that the pandemic is over. I don’t believe that there are any guarantees against the numbers, virulence, and deadlines of future waves. That doesn’t mean that we all have to mask up all the time forever, but it does mean that expectations of taxation policies and associated social safety nets, as well as associated policy adjustments may be required. Personally, for example, I would have no problem with paying more, either via taxation or higher prices, as appropriate, if health care personnel would be paid more, if more were hired, and if vaxx passport requirements were maintained. Where I live now there are pointless and stupid bylaws that actively hurt small businesses each time there’s a wave and a clampdown; things like that need to be reviewed for the longer term. But the way the federal conservative party , Jason Kenney, and Scott Moe are behaving is the exact opposite of what is required for the next while. ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2022, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-and-the-coronavirus/850643/996 "2022-02-22T22:12:12Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Well, that would not constitute living with an endemic disease. That is a pandemic reaction. It was a pandemic reaction in the spring of 2020. Now it is a series of pandemic failures conducted by a huge number of people who are spectacularly ignorant and uneducated, in denial and/or living with blinders on. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canada-and-the-coronavirus/850643.md?page=49)