Covid Pandemic

[PortKells]

I saw a comment today from Dr. B H saying that Covid will be with us another year. fits in with her misleading comment from last year that Covid would wane with everyone getting vaxxed.
What a joke even following the so called science is in correct l've been out and about quite often so far without contracting Omni.

Why won't it be with us another year or many more? It's now in a ton of animal populations. It will continue to o mutate and evade vaccines and natural immunity. I read that there was evidence omicron mutated in mice..that does not bode well if you are hoping it will just disappear. The hope is that it mutates into a less virulent form but that is a roll of the dice.

[SouthSardiswx]

Why won't it be with us another year or many more? It's now in a ton of animal populations. It will continue to o mutate and evade vaccines and natural immunity. I read that there was evidence omicron mutated in mice..that does not bode well if you are hoping it will just disappear. The hope is that it mutates into a less virulent form but that is a roll of the dice.

That's my point Kells when vaccines first came out it was presumed this is our way out, and then Delta now Omicron.
It just seemed like alot of misinformation as to how Covid would evolve.lMO

[PortKells]

That's my point Kells when vaccines first came out it was presumed this is our way out, and then Delta now Omicron.
It just seemed like alot of misinformation as to how Covid would evolve.lMO

A lot of us also thought it was on its way out after mass vaccination. That was clearly wishful thinking. Omicron laughed at that notion. Omicron has f***ked me up real good. Still suffering from chest pain, palpitations, it sucks. It could be a lot worse though I've been reading about people's terrible experiences with long covid much worse than this.

My point being, nobody knows where this will go. Bonnie is probably trying to be conservative in saying that it will persist, but I'm sure she would love to be wrong.

[SouthSardiswx]

A lot of us also thought it was on its way out after mass vaccination. That was clearly wishful thinking. Omicron laughed at that notion. Omicron has f***ked me up real good. Still suffering from chest pain, palpitations, it sucks. It could be a lot worse though I've been reading about people's terrible experiences with long covid much worse than this.

My point being, nobody knows where this will go. Bonnie is probably trying to be conservative in saying that it will persist, but I'm sure she would love to be wrong.

Agree Kells, sorry your still suffering from the after affects, l'm not sure if misinformation is the correct wording maybe miscommunication Dr. B H has always stated based on the science.
But she sure looks perplexed during her pressers these day's kinda like she doesn't know what will happen next. IMO

[PortKells]

Agree Kells, sorry your still suffering from the after affects, l'm not sure if misinformation is the correct wording maybe miscommunication Dr. B H has always stated based on the science.
But she sure looks perplexed during her pressers these day's kinda like she doesn't know what will happen next. IMO

No worries sards. The good news is I'm on my feet and back at work. I just can't do sports which kills me..but I've been reading different long hauler stories and it is heartbreaking. So I'm thankful it's not that bad.

I want to suggest maybe skipping the Bonnie conferences. I stopped a while ago..it might give you some mental relief from all this insanity. And I think she's had enough and its probably reflected in her overall tone.

[SouthSardiswx]

No worries sards. The good news is I'm on my feet and back at work. I just can't do sports which kills me..but I've been reading different long hauler stories and it is heartbreaking. So I'm thankful it's not that bad.

I want to suggest maybe skipping the Bonnie conferences. I stopped a while ago..it might give you some mental relief from all this insanity. And I think she's had enough and its probably reflected in her overall tone.

l stopped watching as well but it's hard to miss it on Global news hour.

[moonshadow0825]

l stopped watching as well but it's hard to miss it on Global news hour.

we stopped watching the first half of the news programs, gets the crappy, depressing stuff out of the way for the most part.
I will say mental health is much better for it.

[SouthSardiswx]

we stopped watching the first half of the news programs, gets the crappy, depressing stuff out of the way for the most part.
I will say mental health is much better for it.

I tried Moonbeam, just can't pull myself away from the top stories of the day call me sadistic. just habit l suppose.

[Typeing3]

Source: https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnis ... n-canadian

January 8th, 2022:
Even Trudeau knows targeting unvaccinated un-Canadian

In May 2021, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the definitive statement on why Canada did not have mandatory vaccination laws and why he opposed them.

It’s a position he is now undermining with his indiscriminate political rhetoric linking the unvaccinated to racists and misogynists.

It’s also a position Federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos is actively eroding by publicly pressuring the provinces to consider society-wide, mandatory vaccinations, obviously with Trudeau’s blessing.

On May 9, 2021, on the Brandon Gonez Show, a weekly online political talk show on YouTube, Trudeau said:

“What do you do with someone with an allergy? What do you do with someone who’s immunocompromised, or someone who for religious reasons or … deep convictions, decides that no, they’re not going to get a vaccine? We’re not a country that makes vaccination mandatory.”

At that time, Trudeau also opposed vaccine passports, saying they would be divisive, a position he has since reversed himself on in polls showing growing public anger aimed at the unvaccinated and calls for harsher measures.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association explained in December 2020 why Trudeau’s original position was the right one and why he and his health minister are now wrong.

“We have already seen the damaging stigma that has attached to people who have tested positive for COVID,” the CCLA said.

“The pandemic has highlighted the haves and the have-nots in too many ways. Those most at risk end up being those most likely to face real challenges in implementing the recommended public health measures. The historically disenfranchised also tend to suffer the consequences of institutional commandments or just plain bullying by the powerful. We should be searching neither for ways to divide us, nor increased fear mongering. We could instead drill down on how best to achieve public health goals while also respecting personal freedom and choice.”

Far from the unvaccinated being racists and misogynists, Statistics Canada reported in April 2021 that groups most likely to be vaccine resistant included Blacks, Metis, Latinos and Arabs — all with valid historical reasons to be wary of authoritarian initiatives by governments.

A survey of 30,000 Canadians on their attitudes toward vaccination conducted by pollster Bruce Anderson of Abacus Data last summer concluded the typical vaccine-resistant individual is a 42-year-old Ontario woman who votes Liberal.

“The hesitant are not conspiracy theorists,” Anderson wrote in Maclean’s.

“They aren’t angry at the world. They don’t think COVID-19 is a hoax. They aren’t radicals of the left or the right — 61% of them say they are on the centre of the spectrum. Two-thirds have post-secondary education.

“About half (46%) live in Ontario and well over half (59%) are women. A quarter were born outside Canada. Their average age is 42 … If they were voting in a federal election today, 35% would vote Liberal, 25% Conservative, 17% NDP, 9% Green.”

The key reason the hesitant are reluctant to be vaccinated, Anderson wrote, is that “they don’t have a lot of trust in government. They also try to avoid prescriptions, dislike putting anything unnatural in their bodies and 83% say they are reluctant to take any vaccines. Most worry that COVID-19 vaccines haven’t really been tested for a long time.”

Anderson identified a group equal in size to the vaccine hesitant he called vaccine refusers — with each group representing about 2.1 million Canadians at the time — who were more militant in their opposition to vaccines.

In Canada, it is the provinces, not the federal government, that would implement society-wide mandatory vaccination policies, so what Trudeau, his health minister and his government are really doing is tossing a stick of dynamite at them under the guise of taking action against Omicron.

Canadians are already among the most vaccinated and vaccine-boosted people in the world. As of Friday, 87.6% of eligible Canadians had received at least one dose of a COVID vaccine and 81.1% are fully vaccinated. No country is going to achieve a 100% vaccination rate.

The main reason why large parts of the country, including Ontario and Quebec, are repeatedly being put into severe lockdowns compared to other comparable, developed countries is due to the chronic lack of surge capacity in our hospitals, due to a combination of decades or provincial and federal government underfunding and administrative incompetence.

A prime minister dividing Canadians against each other by targeting the unvaccinated — a group that includes children under five years of age who cannot be vaccinated — is not the leader Canada needs.

[Rubus_Leucodermis]

There is nothing new about vaccine mandates.

https://www.historymuseum.ca/blog/vaccine-mandates/

[Typeing3]

Perspective from the USA. Much of this also applies here, and more given the federal mandate did not go into effect there whereas it did here, and passports are not in use in every single state there, whereas they are in use in every single province here.

Source: https://www.nationalreview.com/2022/01/ ... d/#slide-1

January 7th, 2022
The Covid-Vaccine Mandates Are Unprecedented

All debates should start by acknowledging that these requirements are not like anything we’ve seen before.

The starting point for any arguments about mandating Covid vaccination should be that the policies currently being proposed, implemented, and contemplated are unprecedented.

This has nothing to do with whether you believe that vaccines are beneficial and that more people should be taking them (I do) or whether you think that the benefits of requiring them outweigh civil-liberties concerns (I don’t). People can disagree about whether taking unprecedented steps to coerce people into getting vaccinated is justified. But everybody should agree up front that the Covid-vaccine mandates are not like anything we’ve seen before.

At the outset, it is worth reviewing what vaccine mandates have already been imposed or are being discussed.

On Friday, the Supreme Court will hear two challenges to President Biden’s vaccine mandates. One case concerns the requirement, issued as an OSHA emergency order, that large employers require their workers to either get vaccinated or submit to weekly testing. Given the difficulty of getting tested right now — with reports of six-hour waits in surging regions — weekly testing can no longer be seen as a plausible alternative, in effect making Biden’s policy a vaccine mandate. A second Biden mandate applies to all health-care workers at facilities receiving funding through either Medicare or Medicaid. Taken together, these rules, if the justices allow them to go into effect, would apply to 100 million workers.

Biden has also said he would consider issuing a vaccine requirement for domestic travel if his medical team recommends it. Anthony Fauci, the president’s chief pandemic adviser, has already said the idea should be “seriously considered.”

Separately, liberal cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Boston, and Washington, D.C., have adopted sweeping rules to bar the unvaccinated from a wide range of activities — and the rules apply to customers as young as five. In New York City, kindergartners aren’t allowed in restaurants, movie theaters, museums, aquariums, zoos, or a number of other places without showing proof of vaccination.

Defenders of these broad requirements have attempted to downplay how extraordinary they really are by pointing to other, more limited, ways in which society has tried to get people vaccinated that have no particular relevance to the current actions.

Some have tried to normalize the vaccine mandates by arguing that they date back to George Washington. It is true that Washington required his Continental troops to be inoculated against smallpox. But this was to counter the fact that he was struggling to maintain enough soldiers and could not afford to lose any to disease. It was a wartime measure that did not affect those who were not in the Continental Army.

Others point to Jacobson v. Massachusetts, a 1905 Supreme Court decision in which justices allowed Massachusetts to implement a vaccine mandate. But regardless of what one believes about the decision, it referred to a state law rather than federal rule, and the law allowed people to opt out of vaccination by paying a fine that would be equivalent to $150 in today’s money.

More contemporaneously, people cite vaccine mandates in public schools, which have been common for decades. Again, this is nowhere near the same. Public schools, which are governed at the state and local level, mandate that students receive certain vaccinations as a condition of enrollment, with a few exceptions depending on the area (such as for medical or religious reasons). The public-school mandates do not apply outside of school. They do not prevent people from holding jobs or entering a wide range of public spaces.

It’s also worth noting that public-school mandates have typically involved vaccines such as MMR (against measles, mumps, and rubella), which offers lifetime protection. The current Covid vaccines have shown waning efficacy after a few months. Israel, which has been a leading indicator so far, has begun giving out a fourth dose to those in their 60s. Meanwhile, the CDC has shifted away from describing people as “fully vaccinated” if they received two doses and instead is using the term “up to date,” which includes those with a booster. The agency’s recently updated isolation guidance lumps together those who have received two doses of an mRNA vaccine with the unvaccinated.

The idea of receiving regular shots to counter a virus is not in itself unprecedented. The flu shot, for instance, is offered annually. But the difference is that the flu shot is not generally required by schools in the same way as MMR, and certainly not as broadly as the Covid-vaccine regime being implemented and contemplated.

What we are moving toward is a system in which vaccination is required for an expanding number of activities while there is a constantly changing definition of what it means to be vaccinated. This will require a level of coercion and surveillance of people trying to hold down jobs and participate in everyday life that has never before been imagined in the United States.

Advocates for such policies must be forced to grapple with this reality.

[Typeing3]

Study from last year. Quoted the abstract below. Click the source link to see the entire study if interested.

Source:
https://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2021/21_0123.htm

July 1, 2021
Underlying Medical Conditions and Severe Illness Among 540,667 Adults Hospitalized With COVID-19, March 2020-March 2021

Introduction

Severe COVID-19 illness in adults has been linked to underlying medical conditions. This study identified frequent underlying conditions and their attributable risk of severe COVID-19 illness.

Methods

We used data from more than 800 US hospitals in the Premier Healthcare Database Special COVID-19 Release (PHD-SR) to describe hospitalized patients aged 18 years or older with COVID-19 from March 2020 through March 2021. We used multivariable generalized linear models to estimate adjusted risk of intensive care unit admission, invasive mechanical ventilation, and death associated with frequent conditions and total number of conditions.

Results

Among 4,899,447 hospitalized adults in PHD-SR, 540,667 (11.0%) were patients with COVID-19, of whom 94.9% had at least 1 underlying medical condition. Essential hypertension (50.4%), disorders of lipid metabolism (49.4%), and obesity (33.0%) were the most common. The strongest risk factors for death were obesity (adjusted risk ratio [aRR] = 1.30; 95% CI, 1.27–1.33), anxiety and fear-related disorders (aRR = 1.28; 95% CI, 1.25–1.31), and diabetes with complication (aRR = 1.26; 95% CI, 1.24–1.28), as well as the total number of conditions, with aRRs of death ranging from 1.53 (95% CI, 1.41–1.67) for patients with 1 condition to 3.82 (95% CI, 3.45–4.23) for patients with more than 10 conditions (compared with patients with no conditions).

Conclusion

Certain underlying conditions and the number of conditions were associated with severe COVID-19 illness. Hypertension and disorders of lipid metabolism were the most frequent, whereas obesity, diabetes with complication, and anxiety disorders were the strongest risk factors for severe COVID-19 illness. Careful evaluation and management of underlying conditions among patients with COVID-19 can help stratify risk for severe illness.

21_0123_01.jpg

Figure 1.
Prevalence of the most frequent underlying medical conditions in a sample of adults hospitalized with COVID-19 in Premier Healthcare Database Special COVID-19 Release.

[PortKells]

Typeing wasn't it known all along that immunocompromised folks were the ones more likely to end up on a bed or dead? Or were you more just interested which conditions were the more significant Risk factors?

One factor you have to realize is that our modern health care system is keeping millions of people alive that would otherwise have died of their conditions. That is one reason IMO covid has been so bad. Now once you throw in bad health habits like smoking or obesity, it's a powder keg.

[Typeing3]

Typeing wasn't it known all along that immunocompromised folks were the ones more likely to end up on a bed or dead? Or were you more just interested which conditions were the more significant Risk factors?

Yep, that's been known since the beginning. For me it was more interesting to see which conditions were the most significant risk factors. I knew about obesity being the most significant factor but fear and anxiety being one of the top comorbidities is really insane and very sad. I put the blame firmly on the media and governments for that one. IMO, that stat relates fairly well with that mass hysteria paper I shared a while back.

One factor you have to realize is that our modern health care system is keeping millions of people alive that would otherwise have died of their conditions. That is one reason IMO covid has been so bad. Now once you throw in bad health habits like smoking or obesity, it's a powder keg.

Completely agree. No argument at all there.

[Typeing3]

Three separate polls released during the past couple weeks in chronological order.


#1
Source: https://angusreid.org/omicron-incidence-restrictions/

January 31, 2022
Incidence of Omicron: One-in-five Canadians report COVID-19 infection in their household since Dec. 1

A new study from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute offers insight into just how widespread the Omicron variant of COVID-19 may be in Canada.

These latest data estimate that approximately one-in-five households (21%) have had at least one case of COVID-19 positivity since December 1, 2021. A considerable portion of these positive tests (36%) – self-reported by respondents in this survey – came just after the holiday season, in the first two weeks of January, while 42 per cent occurred in December.

These data also estimate the incidence of COVID-19 among individuals during that same period. Overall, 9 per cent of Canadians saying they have received a positive test – either at home or at a testing center – for COVID-19 since December 1.

ARI estimates that additional five per cent of Canadians – at least – have been infected during that period, based on an analysis of the number of self-reported symptoms, and the positivity rate among those with similar symptom profiles who were tested.

Notably, this 14 per cent aligns closely with the number of Canadians who say they are “almost certain” that they have had COVID-19 in the past two months, added to those who have a positive test confirmed.

With Omicron now appearing to have peaked, many Canadians are leaning toward reducing restrictions related to COVID-19 control in Canada. A majority (54%) now say it is time to remove restrictions and let Canadians manage their own level of risk, an increase of 15 percentage points since this question was asked in early January.

#2
Source: https://globalnews.ca/news/8611838/covi ... leger/amp/

February 11, 2022
Nearly 30% of Canadians say it’s time to ‘learn to live’ with COVID-19: poll

A new poll suggests almost 30 per cent of Canadians believe it’s time to lift pandemic restrictions and “learn to live” with the COVID-19 virus, while more than 40 per cent want measures to ease carefully.

Public health experts said Thursday the results of the Leger survey indicate a level of fatigue among the population. But being tired of the pandemic doesn’t mean the threat is gone.

“We do need to adopt a more sustainable approach to COVID-19, but that doesn’t mean throwing caution to the wind,” said Roman Pabayo, an epidemiologist with the University of Alberta.

“I still think we need to be cautious as we move forward and make decisions on removing restrictions in a scientifically-informed, public health-informed way.”

Forty-three per cent of Canadians surveyed by Leger identified their feelings about the current state of the pandemic as “prudent” — the most popular answer of four options — saying they did not want to lift restrictions too quickly.

But 29 per cent said they were ready to move on, indicating they were “adequately vaccinated” and viewed the Omicron variant as “less serious.”

The other 28 per cent were evenly split among those who said they were anxious and those who were angry.

Fourteen per cent didn’t feel comfortable at all lifting safety measures, while the other 14 said they have been opposed to mandates and measures “for a while” and wanted governments to “give us back our freedom.”

The survey, released Thursday, included online responses from 1,546 adult Canadians collected on Feb. 4 to 6. It cannot be assigned a margin of error because internet-based polls are not considered random samples.

Asked whether governments should lift all restrictions, 58 per cent replied no but 32 per cent said yes — up from 20 per cent in January and marking the highest level of support among Canadian respondents since 26 per cent in June.

Dr. Fahad Razak, a global health specialist with the University of Toronto, said he understands Canadians’ exhaustion, but policy-makers should stay mindful of epidemiologic metrics before tossing restrictions completely.

Razak said there’s been an “under-appreciation” of the “near-record levels” of infections, hospitalizations and deaths seen in Canada during this wave.

“But the second (metric) is the spin-out effects,” he said. “While surgeries and other critical procedures are on hold or not going at full pace, I think it’s premature to talk about a wider reopening.”

Respondents from Alberta were the most opposed to mandates, with 24 per cent saying they were angry about the current state of the pandemic, while 22 per cent of those in Atlantic Canada felt most anxious about lifting restrictions.

Alberta and Saskatchewan recently announced an end to their vaccine passport systems, with Alberta also lifting mask requirements for kids in schools starting Monday.

Ontario, meanwhile, has taken a more gradual approach, lifting some restrictions and monitoring trends over a three-week period before easing more measures.

Razak and Pabayo said provinces choosing to rapidly withdraw restrictions need to be ready to adapt if hospitalizations, intensive care admissions and deaths begin to increase.

The survey landed as the president of the Canadian Medical Association thanked Canadians for their hard work and encouraged them to continue to follow public health guidelines as restrictions ease.

“COVID-19 has not disappeared and uncertainty remains,” association president Dr. Katharine Smart said in a statement.

“The virus is still with us, and unfortunately will be for some time to come. Pandemic measures should be scaled back safely and gradually, based on scientific evidence and the input of health care professionals, to avoid causing unnecessary harm to communities and citizens.”

Vaccination status seemed to influence how people responded to the Leger poll.

More than 75 per cent of unvaccinated respondents said they wanted their freedom back, while 46 per cent of vaccinated individuals called for a careful reopening strategy.

Eighty-four per cent of unvaccinated respondents said they were totally dissatisfied with federal government measures to fight the pandemic, while 60 per cent of vaccinated participants were totally satisfied with the way Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has handled the COVID-19 crisis.

Data from Health Canada shows that more than 88 per cent of the country’s vaccine-eligible population has had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, and nearly 83 per cent are fully vaccinated.

But only about 43 per cent of Canadians had received a third dose as of Thursday, a metric Pabayo said should improve before restrictions are fully lifted.

The COVID-19 vaccines have remained effective in preventing severe disease and death from Omicron.

More than two-thirds of Canadians surveyed believe they’ve had COVID-19 within the last three months, whether they tested positive or not, with 54 per cent saying they had mild symptoms and 16 per cent indicating they had no symptoms at all.

Nearly half of respondents — 48 per cent — indicated they were personally afraid of contracting COVID-19, with 14 per cent saying they were “very afraid” and 34 per cent “somewhat afraid.” Forty-two per cent said they were not afraid of a COVID-19 infection.

Razak said communication around learning to live with COVID-19 should be properly explained, arguing the phrase “doesn’t recognize the significant burden that has already been experienced.”

“People are fatigued. The goals have to be clear,” he said.

“Prevention of severe illness, protecting kids, getting therapeutics to those who need (them) — those are goals we could still try and align around and those would be the kind of parameters that are important to keep an eye on.”

#3
Source: https://nationalpost.com/news/two-third ... strictions

February 14, 2022
Two-thirds of Canadians ready to drop COVID-19 restrictions

Two-thirds of Canadians believe it’s time to drop COVID-19 restrictions and begin living with the virus, according to a new poll.

The survey, conducted by Maru Public Opinion for Postmedia, revealed that 64 per cent of respondents believe that unless hospitals and intensive care units are affected by a sudden surge of COVID-19 patients that compromises the care of other people, governments should lift pandemic restrictions.

Respondents living in Quebec (71 per cent), Alberta (65 per cent) and Ontario (65 per cent) were found to be the most likely to hold this view. Those who are least likely reside in British Columbia (48 per cent), Manitoba and Saskatchewan (41 per cent), and Atlantic Canada (39 per cent).

John Wright, executive vice president of Maru Public Opinion, said that there is a general understanding that Canadians want fewer restrictions. He said considering the last six months of polling, nothing is surprising about this.

“There is a recognition that COVID is going to become a part of our lives,” he said. “As a result, people want things to start to open up and make decisions based on their own cognizance.”

According to the poll, 56 per cent of Canadians say the unvaccinated should not be pressured into getting the shot. The majority believe that if someone has not gotten it by now, they won’t, and pressuring them is creating backlash that is “worse than living with them in our communities.”

On the topic of who precautions should be determined by, 53 per cent of respondents believe that it should be left up to them to choose what measures they take to protect themselves and not the government or health-care officials. This view is held by the majority in Alberta (62 per cent) and Quebec (62 per cent) and the minority in British Columbia (41 per cent) and Atlantic Canada (44 per cent).

That being said, the poll found that 45 per cent of Canadians believe that now is the time for chief medical officers and health officials to stand back.

While most people are ready for strict mandates to be lifted, Wright said that they are also open to having certain restrictions imposed depending on the impact on their local health-care systems. He said that people are open to having medical personnel ready to pull them back, should they need to.

The survey of 1,506 Canadian adults who are Maru Voice Canada panelists was conducted on Feb. 9. A comparable probability sample of this size has an estimated margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

Prabhat Jha, professor of global health and epidemiology at the University of Toronto and executive director of the Centre for Global Health Research at Unity Health Toronto, said the response to COVID has to depend on the level of community transmission and hospitalization. As we see improvements, he said it would be a good idea to think about lifting or reducing restrictions.

There are some restrictions that Jha said should be lifted first, such as arrival testing at airports, which he said did not help limit the spread of variants, and closing schools, which he said has been proven to not drive down the rate of community transmission.

He also said the use of vaccine passports must be debated as the definition of “fully vaccinated” is not clear. If governments want to prevent transmission, then it needs to be three doses, said Jha. If they want to keep people out of the hospital, then two.

“Two-dose vaccine passports aren’t very useful,” he said. “So, they would probably have to be phased out.”

Most epidemiologists agree that some mandates should stick around.

Timothy Sly, professor emeritus of epidemiology at Ryerson University, said that vaccines and masking requirements should remain as top priorities. He said both getting vaccinated and wearing a mask are the best ways of preventing COVID-19.

Most epidemiologists agree that some mandates should stick around.

Timothy Sly, professor emeritus of epidemiology at Ryerson University, said that vaccines and masking requirements should remain as top priorities. He said both getting vaccinated and wearing a mask are the best ways of preventing COVID-19.

Also, testing and isolation when positive is “hugely important,” said Jha, because you do not want to infect others.

As Canada moves towards treating COVID-19 as an endemic, and living with the virus, Sly said we will have to get used to living differently. What this means, we do not know yet, but he said wearing masks in crowded indoor areas and showing proof of vaccination or negative tests may become the norm.

“Releasing all of the precautions too soon is something we would probably regret enormously,” said Sly. “We must do it carefully and driven by data.”