I'm a nurse vaccinating in Montreal. Just to add to the discussion, I'm happy to report that a great number of people are coming in for AZ, and they have the most sensible views, seeing through the media noise and hype. I've realized that by and large, people aren't as stupid as we think they are. I also believe that fully vaccinated people should be lifted from restrictions. I know, I know, the anti-vaccers will scream about discrimination and human rights. Sorry but vaccinated people have rights too ... not to be exposed to fulminating super-spreaders of variants like them maybe? Some days I just feel mad at the whole mess.
Oh I can sooo relate, I live in Germany but follow CAN news closely (family ties) and in the space of 2 weeks I was told the AZ vaccine was both very safe and too dangerous for me to take. Lockdown restrictions are so confusing here with every city and state having different rules that the government had to nationalise lockdown rules. The vaccine roll has, as an understatement, been a massive clusterfuck (pardon my French). But slowly things are getting better and I expect by Mid to late summer anyone who wants a jab will get it. I expect pretty the same for Canada
Thank you for this excellent analysis. As a follower of rules, respecter of science and of public programs, I go along with public health restrictions and offerings. But...even I am getting a bit tired of these messages. Too much immediate information of random studies given without context has been a problem. I understand that science changes (no masks to masks) but every little blip without an explanation or clear understanding of statistics has been detrimental.
I stopped reading when he claimed that pausing AZ was a statement that it was more dangerous than covid. It was not such a statement. Inferring that is bad-faith communications, there's an onus on the reader as well as the writer.
As other posters are noting, most are not afraid of AZ, they haven't taken that lesson that the CEO was all-to-eager to read-into the pause. Most understand that pro-active harm done has to be taken far more seriously than harm done by omission, that the trust in the vaccine system is important to many vaccines across many diseases and decades.
The Line is certainly, um, diverse this week. One rant about how WE were the stupid ones to trust Doug Ford to do anything, it's all on us; another about how the public are the dumb ones that need the most-careful statements at all times from public health.
There have been bad calls but everybody I talk to knows the larger story: stay away from people, stay away from their breath. All the rest falls out from that.
This article pairs nicely with last week's dispatch. The public health experts sound like they are talking to children because the press has enabled them to for the last year.
Imagine if public health officials had met questions like this since March 2020:
"Quarantining healthy citizens was not included in any provincial or federal pandemic response framework. What data do you have about the benefits of this? And the harms? How can you be confident that this will be of such substantial benefit to the public that it justifies the unprecedented and indefinite suspension of numerous Charter Rights?"
Or, "How come you continue to report the case fatality rate rather than the infection fatality rate? Aren't you concerned that that will make it harder for Canadians to judge a commensurate pandemic response? I think Canadians can understand that there are many people who are getting the virus who don't go and get tested.
Etc.
If public health officials had been cutting their teeth on questions like that last spring, they'd have their message clearer now.
I hope someone can help me. I linked to the CBC article that is supposed to show that “National Advisory Committee on Vaccinations determines that the risk from the AstraZeneca vaccine to those same individuals is higher than the virus itself?” but I cannot find a statement like that in the article anywhere. What am I missing?
Like everything in Canada right now, it has been politicized. After all Health Care is run by Government regardless of mass incompetence and waste. The media has been politicized and has become a voice for the government to spread their message. The internet has been politicized and again there is but one message allowed. It is beginning to feel a whole lot like a totalitarian regime just as they have in China. Forced incarceration or stay at home measures with consequences should you disobey. Soon forced vaccination or one will not be able to travel. Its beginning to get extremely frightening. Now they speak of a guaranteed income to which all Canadians pay for but the government will be controlling. Meaning they have the power to stop payment should you disagree with the way things are moving in Canada. I would suspect we would be handing them complete control over whether we eat or obey. Canada and Canadians frighten me due to their passive dominance by government and the ideal being pushed that they know best. That statement is the furthest thing from truth I have heard to date. Freedom comes at a price and many men and women died for us to have it. Its given up on the ideal that the government will care for you. Its the last thing Government will do. They have not the knowledge or respect for humanity and care only about power and control.
I'm a nurse vaccinating in Montreal. Just to add to the discussion, I'm happy to report that a great number of people are coming in for AZ, and they have the most sensible views, seeing through the media noise and hype. I've realized that by and large, people aren't as stupid as we think they are. I also believe that fully vaccinated people should be lifted from restrictions. I know, I know, the anti-vaccers will scream about discrimination and human rights. Sorry but vaccinated people have rights too ... not to be exposed to fulminating super-spreaders of variants like them maybe? Some days I just feel mad at the whole mess.
Oh I can sooo relate, I live in Germany but follow CAN news closely (family ties) and in the space of 2 weeks I was told the AZ vaccine was both very safe and too dangerous for me to take. Lockdown restrictions are so confusing here with every city and state having different rules that the government had to nationalise lockdown rules. The vaccine roll has, as an understatement, been a massive clusterfuck (pardon my French). But slowly things are getting better and I expect by Mid to late summer anyone who wants a jab will get it. I expect pretty the same for Canada
Thank you for this excellent analysis. As a follower of rules, respecter of science and of public programs, I go along with public health restrictions and offerings. But...even I am getting a bit tired of these messages. Too much immediate information of random studies given without context has been a problem. I understand that science changes (no masks to masks) but every little blip without an explanation or clear understanding of statistics has been detrimental.
I stopped reading when he claimed that pausing AZ was a statement that it was more dangerous than covid. It was not such a statement. Inferring that is bad-faith communications, there's an onus on the reader as well as the writer.
As other posters are noting, most are not afraid of AZ, they haven't taken that lesson that the CEO was all-to-eager to read-into the pause. Most understand that pro-active harm done has to be taken far more seriously than harm done by omission, that the trust in the vaccine system is important to many vaccines across many diseases and decades.
The Line is certainly, um, diverse this week. One rant about how WE were the stupid ones to trust Doug Ford to do anything, it's all on us; another about how the public are the dumb ones that need the most-careful statements at all times from public health.
There have been bad calls but everybody I talk to knows the larger story: stay away from people, stay away from their breath. All the rest falls out from that.
This article pairs nicely with last week's dispatch. The public health experts sound like they are talking to children because the press has enabled them to for the last year.
Imagine if public health officials had met questions like this since March 2020:
"Quarantining healthy citizens was not included in any provincial or federal pandemic response framework. What data do you have about the benefits of this? And the harms? How can you be confident that this will be of such substantial benefit to the public that it justifies the unprecedented and indefinite suspension of numerous Charter Rights?"
Or, "How come you continue to report the case fatality rate rather than the infection fatality rate? Aren't you concerned that that will make it harder for Canadians to judge a commensurate pandemic response? I think Canadians can understand that there are many people who are getting the virus who don't go and get tested.
Etc.
If public health officials had been cutting their teeth on questions like that last spring, they'd have their message clearer now.
I hope someone can help me. I linked to the CBC article that is supposed to show that “National Advisory Committee on Vaccinations determines that the risk from the AstraZeneca vaccine to those same individuals is higher than the virus itself?” but I cannot find a statement like that in the article anywhere. What am I missing?
Like everything in Canada right now, it has been politicized. After all Health Care is run by Government regardless of mass incompetence and waste. The media has been politicized and has become a voice for the government to spread their message. The internet has been politicized and again there is but one message allowed. It is beginning to feel a whole lot like a totalitarian regime just as they have in China. Forced incarceration or stay at home measures with consequences should you disobey. Soon forced vaccination or one will not be able to travel. Its beginning to get extremely frightening. Now they speak of a guaranteed income to which all Canadians pay for but the government will be controlling. Meaning they have the power to stop payment should you disagree with the way things are moving in Canada. I would suspect we would be handing them complete control over whether we eat or obey. Canada and Canadians frighten me due to their passive dominance by government and the ideal being pushed that they know best. That statement is the furthest thing from truth I have heard to date. Freedom comes at a price and many men and women died for us to have it. Its given up on the ideal that the government will care for you. Its the last thing Government will do. They have not the knowledge or respect for humanity and care only about power and control.
Thank you.