The third wave of the pandemic is now out of control in Ontario while the murderclowns in our provincial government continue to stand idly by, as BC goes into a “circuit breaker” lockdown to try and get a hold of their own skyrocketing numbers – because apparently fourteen months into this pandemic, nobody can grasp that exponential growth means that cases grow exponentially. Funny how that happens.

https://twitter.com/moebius_strip/status/1376630821717569538

This is the story (shared with permission) of a patient in her 40s with #COVID we just intubated.

If @ongov provided essential workers with better protection, she would be at home with her family. pic.twitter.com/KfjFJPZYeu

— Michael Warner (@drmwarner) March 29, 2021

Meanwhile, there was confusion over new advice on the AstraZeneca vaccine as the National Advisory Committee on Immunisation informed provinces on Sunday that they were advising on pausing doses for those under 55, but didn’t make a broader announcement about that until late in the afternoon Monday, leaving a mess of confusion for much of the day. It seems that the blood clotting issue, while still extremely rare, is of a type that can have a forty percent fatality rate, and it’s been seen more prevalently in women under 55 (though it is suspected that it may simply because more women have been vaccinated in the healthcare fields and hence it is showing up more often there). That being said, they have decided to hold off on that age group until they can get more data, which could come in the next few weeks – especially as there have been no reported case of clotting in Canada thus far. It should also be noted that there would be very few AstraZeneca doses given to those under 55, because most provinces are not there yet in terms of their vaccine roll-outs, so those under 55 who have received it are likely some essential workers. (More from Dr. David Fisman in this thread).

While this was going on, there was a little too much made of the (temporary) disunity between Health Canada and NACI, in spite of the fact that they are separate, that NACI is arm’s-length from government, and that they each have different roles to play. Too many people – especially in the media – were just throwing their hands up and proclaiming their confusion, which allowed certain actors like the Conservatives’ health critic to take advantage of the situation and insisting that the minister wasn’t “controlling her bureaucrats” (NACI are not “her bureaucrats), and trying to paint a situation like the government is out of control. Yes, it’s a fluid situation, and there should have been earlier guidance released after the provinces were notified and started pausing their own appointments, but I’m not sure it’s entirely fair to consider the situation as being out of control, or so confusing that nobody knows what was going on. I think there were a lot of dramatics (or possibly histrionics) from people who should know better, but perhaps I’m being too generous.

Good reads:

• Justin Trudeau co-chaired a meeting of world leaders to try to avoid an international debt crisis brought on by the pandemic.
• Surprising nobody who has been paying attention, Liberals are saying they’re not interested in a spring election (never mind what bored pundits tell you).
• The government is blaming the likes of Senator Murray Sinclair for creating mistrust on the St. Anne’s residential school compensation, for which they ordered a review.
• The investigation into last year’s Snowbird crash concludes that a bird strike was responsible, and better emergency training for pilots is needed.
• The head of Facebook Canada is warning that an Australia-style blackout could come if they don’t like the upcoming legislation on web giants.
• As expected, Pablo Rodriguez showing up at committee instead of the prime minister resulted in a three-hour-long gong show of a proceeding.
• Erin O’Toole says he’ll release his “comprehensive” environmental agenda before the next election, whenever that will be.
• O’Toole also told a Winnipeg business audience that we need to diversify our export markets to withstand any future Chinese retaliation.
• Kevin Carmichael looks at how companies like Canadian Pacific Railway are embracing Environmental, Social and Governance as part of their path forward.
• Robert Hiltz make the case that Jason Kenney is so bereft of actual solutions for his province’s woes that he is reduced to picking fights with cartoons.

Odds and ends:

For the CBA’s National Magazine, I look into whether the Human Rights Tribunal exceeded their statutory authority in awarding damages to First Nations children.

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