Nombre total de décès hebdomadaires au Québec de janvier 2010 à mai 2021.
Here we have the total number of deaths in Canada and its regions over the past ten years.
Here we have the same chart you saw above now expressed as a rate per 100,000 people. Generally, a flatter trend in death rates would suggest that population growth may be a key factor driving growth in total deaths.
Looking at the past decade nationally, we see that it's natural for deaths in one year to exceed deaths in the previous year (blue line > 0%). Note that a year of low or negative growth is often followed by a year of much higher growth.
Again, we see that when we adjust for population growth, the growth trend is weaker but still there - the aging of the population is a primary factor. Deaths are rising in absolute and relative terms, suggesting a combo of population growth and aging.
Here are deaths and death rates since 1900. Note how the death rate bottomed out in the early 1980s and has been rising steadily since, accelerating when the Baby Boomers started to reach their 70s in 2016.
Here are leading causes of death in Canada over the past 5 years.
Many recent deaths remain unclassified in the "information unavailable" column and will presumably will properly attributed over time.
Here is the same, presented as rates per 100,000 population to account for population growth.
A key question to address as this data evolves is the degree to which deaths attributed to covid-19 have substituted for deaths attributed to other causes.
Part of the increase in death in 2020 can be explained by the response to the pandemic (i.e., lockdown), rather than covid-19 itself.
Note also that Covid-19 is often not a wholly distinct and separate cause of death as there are other medical conditions involved in many cases.
There are also cases in which it is not even a cause of death, but the individual had tested positive sometime prior to their death.
Statistics Canada: "Increased COVID-19 deaths may be attributable to the disease taking a heavy toll on people who may have been at a high risk of dying over this period, regardless of the pandemic."
With headlines like this, it's no wonder that a large share of the population isn't interested in the vaccines. I wonder how many people in favour of vaccine passports now would still be in favour if maintaining that passport meant a booster shot every 4-6 months until death.
It's amazing just how much damage public health has done to its own reputation - not to mention the tremendous damage they've inflicted on the health and social well-being of entire communities.
We were told only weeks ago that vaccines were our way out, and now at the same time as we're being told to vaccinate or be ostracized, we're also being told the vaccines have stopped working.
"Worship power, you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to numb you to your own fear. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out."
David Foster Wallace's 2005 commencement speech "This is Water" is more relevant now than ever. Here it is, abbreviated, in a short film.
"That is real freedom. That is being educated, and understanding how to think. The alternative is unconsciousness, the default setting, the rat race, the constant gnawing sense of having had, and lost, some infinite thing."
The push for vaccine passports and talk of a fourth wave caused by the unvaccinated does not reflect confidence in the vaccines, but rather the complete opposite. This is driven by the realization that the vaccines are not a covid-eliminating silver bullet.
Cases, hospitalizations, and deaths will inevitably increase again in the fall and decline next spring. We see this every single year with influenza and other respiratory viruses.
The unvaccinated narrative simply deflects blame to individuals. This is tribalism at its worst.
The vaccines may very well be effective at reducing the severity of symptoms, particularly in the elderly and frail, and that is great news. However, we'll still need to live with covid the way we've always lived with influenza. Coercion and segregation isn't helping anyone.
ON cases, hospitalizations, and deaths, indexed to values 1 year earlier. The black line (index = 100) is where we were 365 days ago (all values indexed to values on that date).
(Below black bar = lower than one year ago today; Above black bar = higher than one year ago today)
The number of hospitalizations linked to covid-19 in Ontario, 2020-21, relative to historical benchmark levels for influenza and pneumonia.
The number of deaths from/with covid-19 in Ontario, 2020-21.
"He warned some cloth masks have gaps which are invisible to the naked eye, but are 500,000 times the size of viral Covid particles."
"A Covid viral particle is around 100 nanometres, material gaps in blue surgical masks are up to 1,000 times that size, cloth mask gaps can be 500,000 times the size."