1) Nearly two weeks after posting the highest rate of #COVID deaths per million population among industrialized nations, Quebec has ceded the top spot back to the United States, as U.S. booster vaccination has stagnated. But this is beginning to happen in Quebec, too.
2) Quebec’s booster vaccination program was problematic from the start, as authorities were slow to give a 3rd dose to elderly Quebecers living in their homes. The chart below shows that this tardy decision is likely responsible for the second highest death wave in the #pandemic.
3) But as flawed as Quebec’s booster campaign has been, the situation in the United States has proved even worse. At the same time, more and more U.S. states have been lifting #pandemic restrictions, resulting in #COVID deaths creeping up. Please take a look at the chart below.
4) For the past two days, Quebec’s booster vaccination rate has stalled at 46%, amid reports of near-empty vaccination halls in the evenings. Please see the chart below. This is a worrisome development given the likely proliferation of the BA.2 “stealth” strain here in Quebec.
5) On Wednesday, Quebec’s public health institute released projections warning that #COVID hospitalizations could either tick up in an optimistic scenario or spike in February under the pessimistic forecast. montrealgazette.com/news/local-new…
6) And on Thursday night, the truckers’ convoy in Ottawa metastasized with big rigs pulling into Quebec City. One of the trucks was plastered with a sticker that had choice words not only for PM Justin Trudeau but Premier François Legault. Will the Premier cede to their demands?
7) Meanwhile, the number of Quebec students absent due to #COVID19 has jumped from 50,000 to 65,000. More than 43,000 of those students attend elementary schools, with just 63% of them having received their first vaccine dose.
8) Thus, all these factors combined — a stealth #COVID strain on the loose, stalled boosters, rising infections among students amid easing restrictions and political pressure by truckers on a Premier in an election year — do not augur well. End of thread. Please go get your shot.
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