We Could Have Been Largely Free of the Pandemic by Now -Andrew Nikiforuk 25 Mar 2021

[Austrian Economics]

A couple of points: it's not as simple as just "being like Australia or New Zealand" primarily because Canada is not an island.

In Australia and New Zealand, most goods come in by ship. The crews are not allowed off.

In Canada, 177,000 essential workers, mostly truck drivers, cross the border every week carrying vital goods. The goods are not dropped off at the border since no facilities exist to handle them this way, so the trucks must drive straight to the destination. The drivers cannot be quarantined, so the goal of zero Covid cases is a hopeless pipe dream. Nikiforuk's piece does not even acknowledge that this issue exists.

Secondly, Australia and New Zealand do not have zero Covid cases. Periodically, a case escapes through staff at the air traveler quarantine facilities, triggering lockdowns. Then it's back to house arrest whose effects are made worse by the fact that the lockdowns are completely unpredictable.

If you want zero Covid cases in Canada, close the border completely and turn off the power grid. That'll get rid of Covid in about two weeks, with civil war following in week three.

[furrowtickler]

Agree AE ...
Oh and shit off all air travel , but let’s close the windows but leave the doors wide open and blame a handful of snowbirds .
None of that happened or will so his plan is a pipe dream at best

[chuckChuck]

Nikiforuck mentions several other countries that have much better covid records than Canada and guess what they are not all islands. So there goes the argument that being an island is the only reason why Australia and New Zealand have done a better job.

Have truckers been part of the problem? Then weekly or biweekly tests and stricter controls could have been implemented. The biggest part of the spread has simply been community spread amongst Canadians some who think its a hoax and many who didn't take it seriously and some who had to go to work and couldn't avoid exposure.

From Nikiforuk's article:
"Larry Brilliant, the man who led the campaign that eradicated smallpox, knows how badly the West including Canada has failed. Whenever he talks to public health people in Taiwan, Vietnam, Singapore, Korea, New Zealand or Iceland, here’s what he hears: “They basically say, what the **** is wrong with you people? They don’t understand. They don’t understand how we could have blown it as badly as we have. And we have indeed blown it really badly.”

[fjlip]

These thousands of "scientists and EXPERTS" we are bombarded with on every news cast 24x7, know SFA! We are all EXPERTS on something we can't see hear smell. More infectious, more deadly? Compared to WHAT? How in hell are we supposed to understand those statements? So far the first strain is NOT deadly, rarely infectious so? Wait for it...Au and NZ soon into their winter....outbreaks, spikes, variants coming right up. And soon on the news...vaccines don't do squat to variants, they are all useless, need more improved shots, more $billions for pharma! Oh give up already!

[oneoff]

or... numbnuts could of worked with trump instead of his hero , china, and we would be at 40% instead of 12% vaccinated
and going 40 days or more between shots when recommended is half that time
these extra deaths , and lots of young people falls squarely on the LPC

If you think the US; or the European community or even India will not fully look after themselves before considering a foreign country like Canada; then you are mistaken.

Trump did it with PPE; and both Trump and Biden gave zero vaccine doses produced in the USA; so far. Where you get the 20 day interval to a second dose is unsubstantiated; as is the 40% vaccination figure drawn from thin air.

And in a few days someone should update that "new infections per million population in Alberta) that now has almost another week of data since Alberta relaxed its masking protocols. When last observed a couple days ago, the trend line was beginning; its upward spike...again. And my warning some 10 days ago on another thread was a whole lot more on target for Regina's future than any of the handfuls of who clearly said I know less tha nothing. We'll see how many excess deaths you've supported...even enabled. Lots of time to be sorry yet. Just maybe your kids and young adults will fill the hospitals YET.

Should be red faces all around; if deniers ever learn about spreading misinformation and outright lying.

[Sheepwheat]

If you think the US; or the European community or even India will not fully look after themselves before considering a foreign country like Canada; then you are mistaken.

Trump did it with PPE; and both Trump and Biden gave zero vaccine doses produced in the USA; so far. Where you get the 20 day interval to a second dose is unsubstantiated; as is the 40% vaccination figure drawn from thin air.

And in a few days someone should update that "new infections per million population in Alberta) that now has almost another week of data since Alberta relaxed its masking protocols. When last observed a couple days ago, the trend line was beginning; its upward spike...again. And my warning some 10 days ago on another thread was a whole lot more on target for Regina's future than any of the handfuls of who clearly said I know less tha nothing. We'll see how many excess deaths you've supported...even enabled. Lots of time to be sorry yet. Just maybe your kids and young adults will fill the hospitals YET.

Should be red faces all around; if deniers ever learn about spreading misinformation and outright lying.

I gotta ask, where did you hide oneoff?

[jazz]

I gotta ask, where did you hide oneoff?

Obviously in a closet with CBC turned on.

We enabled the coronavirus? Are you serious? Regina had zero deaths today. Just about everyone over 70 has had one shot of vaccine. isnt the vaccine the end of the pandemic? or did the goal post move again.

The variants have been running rampant in every country, not just Sask. How did people travelling from Britain and Brazil get in here anyway?

[Dr Tone]

Just about everyone over 70 has had one shot of vaccine.

Where? 75 year olds haven’t even got it in our area!

[Austrian Economics]

Taiwan: island
Iceland: island
New Zealand: island
Australia: island
Singapore: island
South Korea: virtual island due to the decades long closure of the border with the North.

What works for one geographical location may not work for another. Covid policy is a lot more complicated than Nikiforuk would have us believe.

[jazz]

Where? 75 year olds haven’t even got it in our area!

Sask govt just put out the call for eligibility in the age group 64-69, so from that I assume most 70+ yr olds have been booking and getting the shots imminently. In the north they have opened up eligibility right down to 50yrs.

Just about everyone in LTC has had two shots.

With 99% of the deaths in the 60 plus crowd and most of those in care homes, if the virus isnt blunted in the next few weeks, whats the alternative? Lock down again? There is no covid booster in the works that is around the corner.

[Guest]

Where? 75 year olds haven’t even got it in our area!

Shit lots of 85 yr olds not done here
Vaccines going to cities

[oneoff]

I gotta ask, where did you hide oneoff?

Just trying to stay away from trolls. It only takes a few days for more evidence to accumulate; but there will come a time (soon) when blame will be apportioned.

The same insurrectionists will remain unrepentant.

[oneoff]

I propose once cc posts the thread be declared dead to replies. No more feeding troll

Another case of the kettle calling the pot white or black.

[oneoff]

Obviously in a closet with CBC turned on.

We enabled the coronavirus? Are you serious? Regina had zero deaths today. Just about everyone over 70 has had one shot of vaccine. isnt the vaccine the end of the pandemic? or did the goal post move again.

The variants have been running rampant in every country, not just Sask. How did people travelling from Britain and Brazil get in here anyway?

God I hope you never get to make any significant public welfare decisions. Maybe if you succeed in destroying public confidence you'll achieve the coups you seek.

[oneoff]

Sask govt just put out the call for eligibility in the age group 64-69, so from that I assume most 70+ yr olds have been booking and getting the shots imminently. In the north they have opened up eligibility right down to 50yrs.

Just about everyone in LTC has had two shots.

With 99% of the deaths in the 60 plus crowd and most of those in care homes, if the virus isnt blunted in the next few weeks, whats the alternative? Lock down again? There is no covid booster in the works that is around the corner.

First you've got to get the newborne calf's mothers attention.

You poor poor fu**kin idiot. Is this pandemic getting better on its own...or not???

All those old age pensioners you refer to above will get their first vaccine an average of about a week from now. And they are, without exception looking forward to their appointment; and that 1 1/2 inch needle that tickles more than hurts. And their most likely Moderna shot is going to create a sore spot that they won't rub (if smart and remember they are more reasonable than the deniers and trolls posting nothing but their irrational beliefs) it will subside with few aches and pains except in rarest of cases. Well worth any temporary discomfort and RISKs..

Now here comes the important information that is a guaranteed a waste of bandwidth.

Until that friendly jabber efficiently does her job; no one has any protection whatsoever beyond their social distancing and properly wearing the provided mask and other behaviors.. Not a bit more protection for the following week either; but.........in the following days a person's body has created a positive reaction that DOES PROVIDE THE PROTECTION WE ALL SEEK TO GET SOME REAL CONTROL OF THE ORIGINAL COVID VIRUS AND ITS now mutant (VARIANT) offspring.

Oh if only everyone could let those basic facts sink in.

But that is not apparently possible. The reaction proves that a vocal minority won't read; nor can apparently use cognitive abilities; and like that hormone laden new mother cow.....they are reacting in a fashion that even a 2*4 won't bring some of them to attention.

As you know.....The only cure for such cases is to ship them. End of problems in future.