COVID has killed 46,389 Canadians from a total of 4,336,860 cases. Currently, there are 59,575 reported active cases in Canada. If you look at the resolved cases – killed and recovered – the disease is lethal 1.08% of the time. New cases are popping up daily.
Indeed, CBC recently reported an average 385 people are still dying every week. However, it is typically the most vulnerable – the elderly, people with underlying conditions, people who are immune compromised – who succumb.
The reported number of active cases and the number dying from COVID are probably a lower estimate. Many people testing positive now do not report the results and deaths resulting from COVID are not being attributed to the disease. Rather someone will die of complications which is given as the cause of death.
Epidemiological studies, by a wide range of professionals around the world, estimate the number of deaths from COVID to be at least three times those reported.
So, it is important that everyone gets vaccinated. It is important that we take precautions. And it is important to understand that the disease is still with us.
The past few weeks have seen the Public Order Emergency Commission investigating the circumstances around the “freedom convoy’s” occupation of Ottawa for almost three weeks in February. Whether or not the government should have invoked the emergency measures act is still to be decided.
But watching some of the protesters proclaim the occupation of Ottawa was a “peaceful affair” with “broad public support” is beyond bizarre. Anyone who watched the nightly newscasts or lived through the affair knows it was anything but a party. Angry individuals shouting to oust the Liberal Government, blowing horns, and offering to shoot the Prime Minister can’t really be considered peaceful.
However, what I find interesting is the underlying rationale provided by the participants. They were tired of mandates. They were doing it for the country. They were defending our freedoms.
They wanted the government to know it can’t tell them what to do or that they should get vaccinated.
Maybe so. But if the government hadn’t taken the actions it did, how many more Canadians would be dead? Given a choice between losing a loved one and wearing a mask, well, there is no contest.
Todd Whitcombe is a chemistry professor at UNBC.
