Despite 2 years of learning SARS-CoV-2, Canada remains ineffectual against widespread community infection of COVID-19.
“There are some things that cannot be ignored. This Canadian spike in COVID-19 breakthrough infections is not going away, by wishing it away,” says Dr. Fred Harris, team leader of the Civil Society Partners against COVID-19 tracking team in Singapore.
Canada COVID-19 Data for 15 Nov 2024 Courtesy: CSPaC.
“It’s somewhat of a fool’s game to blame the rise in cases that has been taking place for many weeks on subvariants of Omicron,” noted Dr. Harris.
“Public policy makers in Canada have failed to protect Canadians. Ottawa and some provinces jumped the gun thinking COVID-19 was all over. It is certainly not, and 2022 will be a difficult year if people do not start masking up on their own and maintaining the highest level of personal hygiene,” he added.
“There is plenty of Omicron in many incarnations to infect a huge number of Canadians, killing a smaller percentage than say Delta variant, but still accounting for a large number of hospitalizations and deaths (1% of 500 Delta patients = 0.5% of 1000 Omicron cases = 5 deaths either way),” he added.
Click graph to enlarge and read. Canada COVID-19 Hospitalizations to 5 May 2022 Source: Civil Society Partners against COVID-19
Yes. Wear a mask. Wear a NIOSH N95 & be hygiene conscious.
“It makes no difference which variant kills you. Think of Omicron variant and its subvariants as being problematic in the whole. Don’t be confused by the media yacking about this or that variant. It’s all deadly to the vulnerable, unprotected. Wear an N-95 mask and properly wash the hands before and after touching anything. Eye covering is also an important aspect of protection. Omicron is able to penetrate the eyes and the nose. Cover both,” says Doc. Harris.
“Researchers continue to scout other transmission routes for the SARS-CoV-2, including eyes. Attaining infection of SARS-CoV-2 through the eyes is much less common than through the nose or mouth. That eye may be exposed to the transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 by touching the contaminated hand or by rubbing,” which is why hand hygiene is so important. Wearing glasses may slow that hand down. For sure, eye protection blocks coughed or sneezed droplets which if infected will infect the target eyes. Read more on this subject?
COVID-19 Variants in Canada, data from Public Health Canada Agency. Click to enlarge and read.
Hospitalization graph for Canada is telling. The news is very bad. Hospitalizations are leveling at an extremely high count, higher than all of 2020 and 2021. 2022 Must not continue like this.
Canada COVID-19 Hospitalizations to 9 May 2022 Source: Civil Society Partners against COVID-19
Canada COVID-19 cases climb steadily. Source: Civil Society Partners against COVID-19
“Canada, your government is wrong about respirator masks. Do not leave home without a face piece protective respirator like the N95, the KF94 or the KN-95,” says Dr. Kathy Poon, a biostatistician and epidemiology intern in Singapore.
The Canadian industry is manufacturing many new approved N-95 respirator masks including folded flat variants and cup versions (Novo Textiles). 3M Company is manufacturing its high-quality specialized respirators in Brockville, Ontario, Canada.
Teaching children to mask up is EASY. Medical practitioner in the middle is wearing a ‘Duck Bill’ Kimberly-Clark heavy fluid N95. She is a RINJ Foundation emergency medical worker in war zones where women and children suffer the most. The preschooler and the girl are each wearing 3M cup masks. Photo Credit: Melissa Hemingway
3M Workers in Brockville, Ontario are now delivering some of the best, certified N95 respirators in the world including the 3M-1870 shown in the initial video frame.
Recently, The RINJ Foundation, The Nurses Without Borders and other civil society partners who work in high risk, heavy fluid trauma environments or just birthing clinics, wear Kimberly-Clark heavy-fluid ‘Duck-Bill’ N95s. Until lately, there was no choice. But as Dr. Nassima al Amouri points out, “from an email I was forwarded, I learned ‘If you are looking to buy respirators approved by NIOSH to N95 standards, fluid resistant and cleared by the USA FDA, you may be interested to know that we now manufacture our 3M 1870 respirator in our 3M Canada factory in Brockville, Ontario.'”
Dr. Nassima al Amouri, a medical director of RINJ Women, has commented that there are some smaller nurses who when wearing the ‘Duck-Bill’ respirators, which are extremely efficacious, “nevertheless they very definitely look like a duck walking down a long hall toward the observer, but honestly, we could not survive without this humour. None of our people have become ill with COVID-19, and that is what counts,” Dr. al-Amouri added.