Canada border crossing

wilber1 wrote:
Sweden's per capita death rate is about 2.5 times Canada and about 1.5 times the US. its testing rate per capita is just over half Canada and the US. I don't know that they are a great example to follow.

When it comes to ‘community transmission’ small counties with densely packed populations and an extremely small ‘rural’ (read ‘isolated’) population are incubators, breeding viruses.

To compare countries like the US and Canada with a huge rural, spread out populations to compact densely populated countries is a little less than relevant....... to put it very politely.

Kinda like the people that give DP based advice to people with a B asking questions.

Moderator- I think you’d better close this down. It’s turned weird
And not about Canada/US border crossings.

MDKMDK wrote:
While we're on the topic of Sweden, here's an interesting take on their predicted verus actual results...it's a short read, don't be scared.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/can-we-trust-covid-modelling-more-evidence-from-sweden?fbclid=IwAR1BVpIlED2Bp8sJg3CLbGr1ONonQtSe3xv7UdOVF6Ejm8HM5xvGGRzsfAw

As was stated the more you test the more you will likely find. Perhaps deaths and ICU cases are a better comparison.
Sweden with a population approximately equal to our 4 western provinces reports 3313 deaths and 500+ in ICU.
Our 4 western provinces have a total of 269 deaths and 26 in ICU.
Quebec on the other hand had the misfortune to have the virus get into the population before they realized, have results more in the line of Sweden despite having a somewhat lower population.
Sweden is counting on having better immunity in the population going forward. Time will tell.

While we're on the topic of Sweden, here's an interesting take on their predicted verus actual results...it's a short read, don't be scared.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/can-we-trust-covid-modelling-more-evidence-from-sweden?fbclid=IwAR1BVpIlED2Bp8sJg3CLbGr1ONonQtSe3xv7UdOVF6Ejm8HM5xvGGRzsfAw

wilber1 wrote:
Sweden's per capita death rate is about 2.5 times Canada and about 1.5 times the US. its testing rate per capita is just over half Canada and the US. I don't know that they are a great example to follow.

Look at China's numbers. By their (stated) numbers, they're one of the best examples to follow. Should we just do that at face value, or delve into the speficis of each country, before formulating an opinion?

Sweden's per capita death rate is about 2.5 times Canada and about 1.5 times the US. its testing rate per capita is just over half Canada and the US. I don't know that they are a great example to follow.

pianotuna wrote:

MDKMDK wrote:
The US has the most confiremd cases because they also have the most efficient and widespread testing regimen going on in most regions.

No, they don't have the greatest number of tests per million people. If you remove the "small" countries, USA is still at #25 at 31,695 per M. That works out to just a smidgen over 3% of folks being tested.

But Canada is #27 so we have nothing to boast about.

Opening up is making folks in many of those areas candidates for a Darwin award.

I was disappointed to see the portable hand washing sink gone at the local pharmacy today. Almost no one was wearing a mask.

Now Don, I didn't say "per million people". I just said the most tests. Period. The more you test, the more cases you find. Simple?

I'm going by these sites for stats.
https://www.coronatracker.com/analytics
and
http://corona.tuply.co.za/
Actually, I think they're using the same data feed.

Sweden did almost nothing to lock down, they just told their people to use common sense, and wear PPE if they wanted. Stay home if you're not feeling well, and stay away from people who appear ill. Social distance as best you can, but they didn't shut their doors. Their numbers of confirmed cases are well below the leaders, but are slightly higher than ours per capita. Have they done more tests per capita? I don't know, maybe. It's all about the testing, according to most "experts". They're at number 24 on cases, while we're at numer 14 on the Global Covid19 Trackers. Our number could be higher, if we had better testing. As I said, PHAC has finally "OK'd" an antigen test as acceptable. How long have we been at this, now?

Why was California's initial cases per capita much lower than the rest of the US, considering their population? Maybe they've already been exposed to the virus, a lot earlier than the rest of the country, they do get a lot of Asian visitors, and developed herd immunity, possibly last year. No one, except maybe the PRC, know when this thing really started, and when the transmission pattern began. It could have been in North America last summer for all the info we're getting from those at the epi-center. Remember West Nile Virus? After that was over they figured the virus had been around in North America for decades, but since no one ever looked for it as a pathogen, there were no stats, because no one knew what it was. It was probably passed off as a severe flu, until someone named it. Just like SARS 2.0 (Covid19).

That's the problem, we don't know, the experts don't seem to know, they seem to be guessing a lot, and those at the probable place of origin aren't saying much to help us figure it out. Except, "Not me, not us". Word is they're trying to hack into the vaccine labs databases to try to see what we know or can prove, and to try to get rid of it, or rewrite it.

Maybe the pharmacy folks are just fed up with being told what to do, as if the average person doesn't know how, or is too stupid. I find the general attitude of the "experts" to be condescending and a little bit insulting, at times.

Again, just in my *apolitical* opinion.

Eric: Maybe this belongs in a separate thread in the "Around the Campfire" or the equivalent, but it does have to do the US/Canada Border crossing.

Let’s not turn this into a political thread or I will have no choice but to close it.

Eric .... (Moderator)

MDKMDK wrote:
The US has the most confiremd cases because they also have the most efficient and widespread testing regimen going on in most regions.

No, they don't have the greatest number of tests per million people. If you remove the "small" countries, USA is still at #25 at 31,695 per M. That works out to just a smidgen over 3% of folks being tested.

But Canada is #27 so we have nothing to boast about.

Opening up is making folks in many of those areas candidates for a Darwin award.

I was disappointed to see the portable hand washing sink gone at the local pharmacy today. Almost no one was wearing a mask.

The US has the most confiremd cases because they also have the most efficient and widespread testing regimen going on in most regions. Outside of major cities, like NY, LA, SF, (although Cali isn't doing that bad either) where the population is crammed in like sardines, they aren't doing that badly. Health Canada just rolled the dice (it seems to be a **** shoot with them) and OK'd a new antigen test. No wonder we look better than some of the others, we haven't been effectively testing. Not that it matters in the long run anyway. We can't hide under our beds forever, if we expect to be able to recover from this mess. It's just going to take someone with some cojones to give the word.
I like the US Executive Branch's approach to allowing the individual governors and state medical people to have more control over their domain, and to allow them to handle their own restarts by location, based on their greater familiarity with their own back yard. In spite of what some might believe, there isn't a one size fits all fix for this situation. It's foolish to think you can set benchmark dates, and have everyone jump in at the deep end then. That would be reckless.

All just my opinion, of course.

EDIT: Changed "Trump" to "US Executive Branch" to reduce the political "feel".