To loyal readers of pandemicpondering.com.
The recent trucker’s protest has sparked interest in the Canadian COVID-19 response. From a medical perspective, the two countries have very similar citizen health demographics, but Canada has had only 1/3 as many per capita deaths than the US (and only 30,000 total). This number is startling compared to the almost 900,000 deaths in the United States.
Tomorrow, I will discuss the interesting differences in the pandemic response between Canada vs. the US with Dr. Donald Vinh, an infectious disease specialist at McGill University Health Centre in Montreal. The conversation will take place at 10:00AM EST on Flashpoint with Devin Scillian on WDIV (channel 4) in Detroit.
For those who miss the show or are outside the area, the interview will also be posted on their website after the broadcast time.
Pandemic Pondering 
I just watched the webcast of the discussion – I was astounded at the level of hostility displayed in the comments afterwards.
Really great effort, though.
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Thanks Robert!
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Dr. Baker, I enjoyed the interview. I do think that we were mislead, not mistaken, when we understood that the vaccines would prevent us from getting or transmitting COVID. The CDC website said verbatim about Moderna: “94.1% effective at preventing laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 infection in people who received two doses.” So at first, stores and schools allowed fully vaccinated to enter without masks. Then we saw a morph to masks “regardless of vaccination status,” which was confusing. With Omicron, breakthrough cases seem to be the norm. This is really going to cause people to lose faith in what they are told about vaccines. (BW I am triple vaxxed and had my flu shot). Thanks for any ideas on this.
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Yes, the statements by the CDC complete confused everyone and certainly gave inappropriate expectations given the little data we had at the time. If you had been told that the vaccine would protect you from getting seriously ill or dying from covid even if you got infected (which is where we are at now) you would have still taken the vaccine. Importantly, the safety of the vaccine has held up.
Unfortunately, the definitions continued to change as well. A person with minimal symptoms or even one who is asymptomatic and has a bit of virus in their nose (as amplified 30 million times by PCR) is considered a “breakthrough infection,” equated to someone who is unvaccinated and dying in an ICU. This is not right and I think this was proffered by the CDC to make fully vaccinated people wear masks and isolate to protect the unvaccinated (who remain a 1/3 of the US population). Especially with omicron healthy, fully vaccinated people did not have had much to fear and should have been given more freedom.
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Great convo on Flashpoint! Thanks Dr B for taking the time.
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