I have to say I’m not very happy about the direction in which the COVID pandemic is going here in British Columbia and Canada overall.

NOTE: This is an opinion piece and everyone should clarify COVID pandemic and vaccine facts/figures for themselves from their own sources.

So, the latest figures for yesterday weren’t very good. Since there is quite a large number of new infections I do question why this is happening. Is the province failing to tighten up to prevent these new cases or are people now just fed up and ignoring the rules? Maybe a mix of both? There was a downward trend in cases but in the past few days it’s going up again, stats for yesterday (3rd March):

  • New Cases = 542
  • New Deaths = 7
  • Hospitalized patients = 246 people, 64 in intensive care

I am troubled that the highest number of new cases always seems to be in my own area suggesting more work needs to be done here, but will it? Probably not.

I am also concerned by the mess of the vaccine rollout. Most of our friends and family in the US and UK have had their 1st dose and on the way for the 2nd one, some have had their 2nd dose already.  It’s been tough to interpret what really is happening in Canada but this is the information I have gathered:

  1. British Columbia has decided to increase the gap between the 1st and 2nd dose of the vaccine against the recommendation of the manufacturers. The UK gap is up to 12 weeks, BC has increased that to 17 weeks. Many freaked out. The Chief Science Officer of BC got concerned, the health department said she can’t comment because she wasn’t included in the decision-making process, but I want to why she wasn’t included as I think you would want buy-in from everyone especially the Science person.  BC Health has been criticized before for not including others in the decision-making process, including teachers.
  2. Canada failed to build facilities to produce the vaccine here, unlike the UK. It is building them now but this is useless for current needs, it will only be good for the next pandemic.
  3. Canada procured its vaccines way too late.
  4. Canada is a member of a vaccine pool, really meant for developing countries. Canada was the first to order from it.
  5. 500,000 vaccines arrived from India yesterday, however, that is controversial since India has only vaccinated 1% of its population.
  6. Trudeau has ordered enough vaccines for 5 times the population which means it eats up the supply that may have gone to developing countries.
  7. Canada is at the bottom of the league table among developed countries to roll out the vaccine.
  8. There is likely to be diplomatic rifts later on due to its greed in procuring too many vaccines.
  9. Regarding the 4 months/17 weeks gaps there have been some studies suggesting it is possible, one of those studies it quotes hasn’t been peer-reviewed yet. So, it appears that they are making these decisions based on Canada’s failure to procure enough vaccine for 1st and 2nd dosage inline with the manufacturers’ recommendation so it has no choice to go in this direction.
  10. Most likely, vaccinating the whole BC population with dose 1 first is not a bad idea but leaving 17 weeks for the 2nd dose I think is a risk, I hope they know what they are doing, I have lost some faith in them somewhat.

I feel as fed up as other people about the whole situation.