Thread by @ClimateAudit

in Ontario, as in most jurisdictions, we were warned in early April of impending disaster in ICUs. In fact, overall ICU was dropping like a stone even as lurid overcrowding narrative was retailed. Media keeps telling scare stories about crowded ICUs. Released data only to Jun 30

2/ this data was very cordially provided by media contact at Canadian Institute for Health Information, which publishes voluminous information about Canadian health system. cihi.ca Given present policy concerns, I'd like it if they improved timeliness of key stats

3/ rather than hospitals being overwhelmed during intense spring COVID, daily surgeries fell to under 25% of 2019 levels. Burden on health system was not excessive overall demand, but, in case of surgeries, an unprecedented decrease in production. Data to Aug available next week

4/ as a final graph for today, here is Inpatient Daily Bed Occupancy during spring COVID peak - about 4000 patients LESS in June (and more in April) than in 2019.

5/ reminder that spring lockdown was justified using chart shown below, which projected huge increase in hospitalizations and ICU overwhelming hospital system. Exact opposite happened. People stayed away from hospitals and unprecedented output decline.

6/ I'm reminded of wise words from a US doctor with epidemic experience in Africa. He said that the VERY FIRST protocol with viral epidemic in Third World was to set up central epidemic field hospital to keep viral infection OUT of line hospitals so they could continue operation

7/ for a variety of reasons, that doesn't seem to have happened in any US or Canadian jurisdiction. Seems too bad.

8/ Lockdowns have no impact on public sector employees but disproportionate impact on small private sector business. (Amazon, Costco flourish.) COVID impact on people under-40 and even under-50 is negligible.

9/ when government initiated lockdown programs, it was a good faith effort to avoid overwhelming hospitals by "flattening the curve". Media has perpetuated narrative by scare stories of hospitals being supposedly overwhelmed by COVID. But data shows otherwise.