About 13% of Canadians can’t get the vaccine at the moment because they’re under 12.
I just assume some are too immune compromised for whatever reason to receive a dose. I’m hoping I’m wrong about the “wont get it” crowd.
Though I suppose if you’re too compromised to be jabbed you likely wouldn’t be expected to be in general social circulation so they already are doing their bit (sort of) to break the transmission chain.
85% would be really fantastic. Fingers crossed.
And about your friends - I know folks like that too. I simply can’t wrap my head around why they think they have rights but no responsibilities to the society they live in.
According to results of an Insights West survey released Monday, just five per cent of British Columbians are confident they will not be getting a COVID-19 vaccine. Another three per cent said they were “unlikely” to get a dose and two per cent said they were unsure.
So that’s only 5% hardline wingnuts. The other 5% are possibly reachable.
85% is certainly within reach, at least in some areas.
NB seemed to stall at close to 75%. We were on target to hit 75 about June 7 and were seeing 1.4 to 1.6% increases in first dose vaccinations pretty consistently. Then it stalled and the daily went down to. 2 to. 5%. Delayed hitting 75% by about a week. It’s still slowly climbing but I can see us not hitting 80%.
Part of the problem is that some stats are only counting adults, some are 12+, and some are total population. I know I look at the damn stats so often, it’s hard to keep them straight.
I use that handy vaccine tracker link you posted to keep me up to date with total population numbers vs eligible population.
Exactly. The vast majority of protection is provided by the first dose even against the new delta mutant. Realtime data coming out of the UK is showing protection for people with single doses against the predominant delta mutant. More people protected, less spread.
Save your breath; they aren’t listening to reason. The absolute pig-ignorance of the anti-vaxxers will drive you to insanity.
We are just now running up against the limits of voluntary vaccination; I’m not precisely sure where the number is but I’d guess circa 80%, at which point the remainder are, aside from the very rare people who cannot get it for medical reasons, refusers. There is no logic or evidence you can muster to convince them. They will only be moved by consequences.
And @Grey is right (though his figure of 10% “can’t get it” is way too high, but right in his general point.) It’s too tight. The consequences must be made significant.
The great majority of the current vaccine rollout in Ontario is now second doses; they’re running out of people willing to get the first dose, so a guess of 80% willing to get the vaccine at all is a fairly good estimate. IMHO, that’s not enough. Refusers need to feel consequences for their unwillingness to not be a danger to public health.
Banned from air travel. Mandatory 14-day quarantine upon re-entering the country from ANY destination. Most nonessential businesses permitted to deny service. I’d start there.
The aforementioned Facebook argument was regarding equating stigmatization of HIV+ status with Covid vaccination status. I argued that HIV+ is something you already have, that no one wanted, and currently can’t be permanently fixed (although the mRNA vaccines are VERY promising) vs. a vaccine that your chosing not to get and that refusers are stigmatizing themselves. He claimed that is not possible, I pointed out that smokers do it to themselves every day.
The Friend of a Friend insists that he doesn’t own no one an explanation about nuthin’. I countered that vaccines are not 100% and for the sake of me, my family, and the community I do not want to be in an enclosed space with him until the numbers are down to 0. He summarily dismissed me as “one of those people”, which I could not care less about.
I’m trying to stay optimistic about the ultimate voluntary uptake rate. Saskatchewan of course is at the back of the pack in this regard, where we’re slowly creeping up on the 70% of eligible population with first shot line that the government set out as the target for re-opening. While it’s true that new first shots have slowed to a crawl, it’s also true that the younger demographic hasn’t really had any window where it’s been quick and easy to get a shot, because by the time the initial rush of people in their age group had diminished after they became eligible the old fogies were granted eligibility for second shots. Now it’s a pretty simple fact that the under 40 crowd are in no way as threatened on an individual basis by this pandemic than the over 40 crowd, and thus the over 40 crowd has a much more substantial built-in incentive to get vaccinated. So it’s true that the kids aren’t rushing out to get vaxxed, but it’s also true that it is and always has been an effort to get a shot here. If you want an appointment through the Saskatchewan Health Authority, you’re looking at a couple weeks wait and for me at least the closest available appointments were over a drive away. If you want to get a shot at a pharmacy, you have to sign up to get on a list for each individual pharmacy and wait for them to get back to you. If you don’t want the hassle of booking, you’re looking at waiting in line at a drive-thru or walk-in clinic, most likely for at least an hour or two.
I am hopeful that in a few weeks to a month as the pent-up demand for vaccines begins to ebb, and getting a shot is as easy as popping in to the pharmacy while you’re getting your groceries, that we’ll have a slow but significant increase in the ultimate uptake numbers. We do see this in the US, for example. From the point at which the US first saw the slope of the new first shots line begin to level off they’ve added a further 10% of the total population. We’re roughly at that same point on our curve, and if the same holds true that would get us ultimately to about 75% of the total population, with the remaining 25% split roughly evenly between the ineligible under 12 group and the unable/unwilling. And the prairies are going to be dragging those numbers down, so the rest of you should be slightly better off. That’s actually pretty good. Should be enough to keep future outbreaks reasonably limited in scope and impact even if we drop most other control methods.
This is not to say that I wouldn’t support making it socially inconvenient to be unvaccinated, however. We’ll never get the actual anti-vaxxers unless we resort to health authority employees stalking the streets with dart guns, but if it’s more inconvenient to be unvaccinated than it is to get your shots then the young crowd who don’t feel threatened by covid and can’t be bothered to get vaccinated at the moment but who aren’t anti-vax in principle should come around.
Well, that I agree with. He owes no one an explanation… and he shouldn’t be allowed to fly, re-enter the country without a quarantine, etc. His business is his, but should come with consequences.
Explanations don’t mean squat. What matters are actions. Get the vaccine or you can’t get on an airplane. Get the vaccine or you can’t go to a ballgame. The choice is yours.
Today’s dose 2 update:
Got an email from Rexall with a link to choose the brand of my second shot. It takes me to a page where it says “Our records show that your first one was Pfizer, please check this box and confirm that your second dose will be Pfizer.” My first dose was AZ, and that’s not given as an option.
So I call the number and wade through the telephone tree. To my surprise, they actually pick up pretty quickly. I explain the conundrum and she sighs, as I guess a lot of people are getting that incorrect link. She says just go ahead and select it, as they’ll confirm what my first one had been when I go for the second. She asks which one I want for round two and I say “Pfizer, but honestly I’ll take what I can get, I just want this over with.”
I ask how many days she figures it’ll be before I get the next email with the link to book. She misunderstands the question and lists the days this week when they’re giving AZ and which they’re giving Pfizer. Which wasn’t what I asked but the info is interesting, they’re splitting them by days.
I clarify that I was wondering how many days away my booking link was likely to be and she says they’re working on the [people who got their jabs in] the first week of April. So as I got mine on April 22, I’m still two or three weeks away? Yes, but it depends how many they get of what vaccine, and they’re getting a lot.
Tl;dr so much for the eight week gap between doses, looking like it’ll be closer to ten or eleven. Still better than the early August originally proposed but I’m very much champing at the bit. And at least there was movement on it, plus Pfizer seems like my likely option, which I prefer.
I got my booking link 8 weeks to the day. Actual second jab won’t be for a few weeks after that, but I’m not particularly bothered: just having it scheduled is a relief. And it’s not like we can easily travel yet, anyway: I’m hoping they get the border sorted and overseas travel clarified in the meantime.
I got an email from Metro saying my August dose 2 appointment is cancelled and they’ll schedule another one at some undetermined date and offer me a choice, depending on what they have. I do not know if “any of the above, just get me my vaccine” will be an option, but I’ll take it. If they don’t come up with that email soon I’ll book elsewhere - I am eligible in a week.
It’s been exactly eight weeks for me today since dose 1. Though my co-worker, who got her jab five days after me at the same pharmacy, got the same email this morning, at the same moment. I gather Rexall is doing them in batches.
Yes. It would be good if most of these came from private businesses rather than by government edict. Many of the refusers are Anti-government Randian types. They can’t bitch if their local grocery store refuses them entry, the same way they are not allowed in the store with no pants, or they’re not allowed to shit in the produce bins.
Trouble is, so many people demand their rights, but don’t give a toss about their responsibilities.
I booked my 1st vaccine April 23, got it May 5. Still have not gotten a notice to book my 2nd.
It’s only been 43 days so far… I’m hoping to get it by July 5, which would be 2 months.
I got my first Pfizer shot on April 23, and got my second shot at a pharmacy yesterday. I think second shots are ramping up faster here because the rate of people coming in for their first shot has declined substantially. We’re running into the limits of voluntary compliance.
My wife just told me that a man in his 80’s just died of the Delta variant, and he was fully vaccinated.