‘We are not prepared’: The flaws inside Public Health that hurt Canada’s readiness for COVID-19

‘We are not prepared’: The flaws inside Public Health that hurt Canada’s readiness for COVID-19

As a global pandemic began to take root in February, China held a series of backchannel conversations with Canada, lobbying the federal government to keep its borders open.

With the virus already taking a deadly toll in Asia, Heng Xiaojun, the Minister Counsellor for the Chinese embassy, requested a call with senior Transport Canada officials. Over the course of the conversation, the Chinese representatives communicated Beijing’s desire that flights between the two countries not be stopped because it was unnecessary.

“The Chinese position on the continuation of flights was reiterated,” say official notes taken from the call. “Mr. Heng conveyed that China is taking comprehensive measures to combat the coronavirus.”

Canadian officials seemed to agree, since no steps were taken to restrict or prohibit travel. To the federal government, China appeared to have the situation under control and the risk to Canada was low. Before ending the call, Mr. Heng thanked Ottawa for its “science and fact-based approach.”

Looks like the Globe released this from the paywall. Interesting but distressing read of our ruling class at work.

h/t CT

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How Canadians will know when it’s their turn to get vaccinated

With the recent announcement that Health Canada has approved Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, the second being made available to the public, Canadians are likely wondering when it will be their turn to get inoculated.

But with the country currently in the first phase of vaccine rollout, that’s still unclear, with much depending on what they do and where they live.

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What keeps Trudeau from Sanctioning China for Human Rights Abuses?

At the start of the pandemic doctors and other Chinese citizens were reprimanded or legally punished for putting out any information on the pandemic that was not in line with the Chinese government’s narrative that it was under control.

This is a pattern of behaviour from the authoritarian Chinese government not likely to stop unless an outside force puts pressure on them to stop.

Of course, the UN Human Rights Office is not going to do anything substantial about China’s gross abuse of human rights seeing as they simply stated that they were “concerned” by the obvious move to silence those trying to get the truth about the virus to the public.

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How China silenced voices and rewrote Covid history

How China silenced voices and rewrote Covid history

At the start of the year the Chinese government faced two major challenges; an unknown disease which threatened to tear through its population and a wave of voices online telling the world what was happening.

By the end of 2020, a glance at Chinese state-controlled media shows that both appear to be under control.

The BBC’s Kerry Allen and Zhaoyin Feng take a look back at the country’s online government censors who worked harder than ever to supress negative information, the citizens that managed to break through the Great Firewall, and how the propaganda machine re-wrote the narrative.

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Ontario finance minister on holiday trip outside Canada as health officials urge people to stay home

Ontario finance minister on holiday trip outside Canada as health officials urge people to stay home

Ontario Finance Minister Rod Phillips travelled outside of the country for a personal vacation recently, his office said Tuesday.

Toronto’s NEWSTALK1010 radio station reported the trip was taken after the legislative session ended earlier this month and said it appears to contravene recent pleas by Premier Doug Ford for people to stay home over the holidays.

In a statement on Tuesday, Phillips said the trip was “previously planned.”

This is classic.

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The “Loud Words” that Ruled the Lockdowns in 2020

The “Loud Words” that Ruled the Lockdowns in 2020

Contrary to rumors, Governor Cuomo did not issue an executive order on 22 March to “lock down” New York State. Instead, as the state’s official Covid-19 site clarifies, Cuomo announced “the ‘New York State on PAUSE’ executive order.”

The acronym implies that activities just halted temporarily, as if in hitting “pause,” Cuomo were only fetching a bowl of popcorn in the midst of an action film. Just press “play” again, and voila!—the hero would open his parachute, land safely, and save the world from the virus. Everything would continue as before.

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True toll of Wuhan infections may be nearly 10 times official number, Chinese researchers say

True toll of Wuhan infections may be nearly 10 times official number, Chinese researchers say

Nearly half a million residents in the Chinese city where the novel coronavirus first emerged may have been infected with COVID-19 — almost 10 times its official number of confirmed cases, according to a study by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The study used a sample of 34,000 people in the general population in Wuhan — the original epicentre of the pandemic — and other cities in Hubei province, as well as Beijing, Shanghai, and the provinces of Guangdong, Jiangsu, Sichuan and Liaoning to estimate COVID-19 infection rates.

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Spain will register people who refuse Covid vaccine, says health minister

Spain will register people who refuse Covid vaccine, says health minister

Spain’s health minister has said the country will create a vaccination registry that will include those who refuse to be vaccinated against Covid-19, yielding a document that could potentially be shared with other countries in Europe.

Days after EU countries began rolling out the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, Salvador Illa said that those who reject the vaccine for “whatever reason” would be documented, as is done currently for those with certain other treatments.

“What we will have is a registry, that will also be shared with our European partners … of those who have been offered it and rejected it,” Illa told the broadcaster La Sexta. “The document will not be made public and it will be done with the utmost respect for the legislation on data protection.”

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Ontario reports 2,553 new Covid cases

Ontario reports 2,553 new Covid cases


When it comes to pandemics, COVID-19 might not be ‘the big one’: WHO

TORONTO — Experts say that as bad as the novel coronavirus pandemic has been, worse outbreaks may be coming.

At the final World Health Organization (WHO) press conference on COVID-19 in 2020, Dr. Mike Ryan, head of the WHO emergencies program, called the current pandemic a “wake-up call” on emergency preparedness.

“It may come as a shock to people that this pandemic has been very severe — it’s spread around the world extremely quickly, it’s effected every corner of this planet — but this is not necessarily ‘the big one,'” Ryan said.

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COVID-19 didn’t take a holiday, and the vaccine rollout should not have been allowed to either

As of Monday morning, 52,179 doses of novel coronavirus vaccine had been administered in Canada.

Another 350,000 or so doses are sitting in freezers, unused.

In many provinces, the vaccination rollout has slowed considerably, or even stopped, for the holidays.

Come on people! It’s only Old Folks kicking the bucket!

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Security sent to observe toboggan hill in Mississauga, Ont. amid reports of crowding

TORONTO — The City of Mississauga said it found no one breaking the province’s COVID-19 lockdown rules at a toboggan hill on Sunday afternoon despite numerous reports of crowding and little social distancing.

It happened at Birchwood Park, off Lakeshore Road West and east of Southdown Road, where dozens of children and families could be seen sliding down the snow-covered hill and making their way back up to the top.

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