KAWARTHA LAKES-Approximately 60 people took to the streets in Lindsay to protest a number of recent government initiatives surrounding COVID-19.
The event was billed as a “freedom rally” called “Our Choice Our Kids”. It’s unclear who organized it.
People held up signs saying, keep Canada strong and free, my body my choice, freedom for all and facts over fear and say no to lockdowns. Some kids held placards saying “I want to grow up free”
The protest comes on the heels of the Ontario government announcing a “vaccine passport” will come into effect on September 22. Anyone who has not had two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine will not be allowed to enter an indoor gym, restaurant, movie theatre or ice rink etc.
The government says the move is to limit the spread of the virus.
“As the world continues its fight against the Delta variant, our government will never waver in our commitment to do what’s necessary to keep people safe, protect our hospitals and minimize disruptions to businesses,” said Premier Ford. “Based on the latest evidence and best advice, COVID-19 vaccine certificates give us the best chance to slow the spread of this virus while helping us to avoid further lockdowns. If you haven’t received your first or second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, please do so today.”
Others see vaccine passports as a polarizing and unnecessary move.
“There are discrimination concerns, there are equality concerns and fundamentally it undermines the idea that (vaccination) is a choice that people make for themselves,” said lawyer Cara Zwibel, of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association told the National Post. “We could have done things differently right from the outset. We might have said everyone over 65 has to stay home, and the rest of you can go on and live your lives. Because at least at the very beginning — I know now variants have changed things — at least at the very beginning it was really those people that were most seriously at risk from COVID. But we didn’t do that,” Zwibel said.
Some experts called for targeted protection for the elderly.
In October 2020 more than 6300 medical practitioners and public health scientists from around the world signed a declaration written by three epidemiologists and public health experts from Harvard, Oxford, and Stanford universities, urging “focused protection” of the people most at risk.
The authors, Martin Kulldorff, professor of medicine at Harvard, Sunetra Gupta, professor of theoretical epidemiology at Oxford, and Jay Bhattacharya, professor of medicine and economics at Stanford, said at the time, that because older people were 1000 times more likely to die of covid-19 than younger people, an “age stratified” approach could allow resources to be focused on older and high risk patients, while allowing younger and healthier people to attend school and keep businesses open.
They argued that focused protection would reduce the “collateral harms” of lockdown, including deaths from suicides, drug overdoses, and increases in domestic violence which have all come to pass in the months since.
Read more here: https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m3908
And here:https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m3908#ref-2
1.5 million people or 4% of the Canadian population has had a confirmed case of COVID-19. 27,000 of those diagnosed with a confirmed case, have died. Thats a death rate of 1.8%
Find those stats here:https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus-data?country=~CAN
Of those 27,000 deaths, almost 4,000 occurred in Long Term Care residents. With 15,500 confirmed cases of COVID in Long Term Care the death rate is almost 26 %.
Find those numbers here:https://www.publichealthontario.ca/-/media/documents/ncov/epi/covid-19-daily-epi-summary-report.pdf?la=en
According to Statistics Canada, nearly 80,000 people died from cancer in 2018 by comparison. “Tobacco continues to be the number one cause of preventable disease and death in Canada” according to the Lung Association. An estimated 48,000 Canadians die each year as a result of smoking. Countless others live with chronic diseases. Despite public health education and prevention efforts, approximately 15 per cent of Canadians currently smoke.
Read more here:https://www.lung.ca/lung-health/lung-info/lung-statistics/smoking-and-tobacco-statistics
The Canadian government says exposure to second-hand smoke alone caused 831 deaths among Canadian adults in 2002. We were not able to find any updated statistics.
In 2018, more than 53,000 Canadians died from heart disease, according to Statistics Canada. It is the second leading cause of death.
In the City of Kawartha Lakes 1.6 % of the 75,423 residents have tested positive for COVID-19. 45 people with confirmed cases of the virus died along with 13 probable. Of those, 28 deaths were at Pinecrest Nursing Home in Bobcaygeon and 17 were at Caressant Care in Lindsay. At least two other deaths were elderly and linked to Long Term Care outbreaks.
As of August 30, just over 76 per cent of HKPR residents aged 12+ have received both doses of vaccine, but local Medical officer of Helath Dr. Bocking says she hopes a greater percentage of residents will get vaccinated in order to help prevent further spread of the Delta variant this fall/winter.
“Getting vaccinated not only helps protect you, but it helps protect others in our community,” Dr. Bocking says. “There are some people, like children, who cannot be vaccinated against this virus, so we need to see as many people vaccinated as possible to help stop any further spread this fall.”
To learn more about the vaccine or vaccination clinics, visit www.hkpr.on.ca.
