Thread by @jaycurrie

Hibernation Day #292 | Victoria was jammed today. It was "Deuce Day" down at the Inner Harbour and the chrome could be seen from space. Two full cruise ships, lots of other tourists. Place was hopping. 1/

Tourism is seasonal and for the last two years there was not "a season" because of the measures introduced to contain COVID. The US border was pretty much closed, cruise ships were idle. Which meant the tourist buses were not running, restaurants empty. 2/

Did these measures "save lives"? Maybe, but probably not. The fact is that 80% of the deaths in BC were over 80 and a significant fraction of those were in LTC settings - not where tourists were likely to go. 3/ #bcpoli

At the outset of COVID BC kept pretty good statistics as to who was getting infected, hospitalized and, sadly, dying. There was no jab so vax stats were not in play. What BC did not do is much intelligent analysis of the stats it had. (Now we don't report much.) 4/ #bcpoli

For some reason, PHO were unwilling to disaggregate, at least in public, the stats they had save to indicate the age of the afflicted. Apparently their location would be a breach of privacy. 5/ #bcpoli

Nor was their much information forthcoming on the contact tracing which was supposed to be happening. No bulletins were issued indicating "hot spots" or the type of businesses or activities where COVID was being spread. 6/ #COVID19

Even the information as to which communities had the most COVID was a state secret for months with any more granularity than the five public health districts. PHO had to have that information, but they were not sharing. 7/ #bcpoli

Eventually, and I honestly forget when, they broke it down to much smaller areas and I could discover that we were moving from the 0.1 positivity rates of North Saanich to the COVID caldron of Oak Bay where the rate was 0.2. 8/ #bcpoli

With the arrival of Omicron, the PHO information fell off a cliff. First, the reports were scaled back from daily to once a week. Second, the area break downs have vanished (or at least are not easily found). 9/ #bcpoli

If you hunt around a bit you will find 10/ #bcpoli bccdc.ca/health-profess…

Here is the most recent "donut chart" of the unvaxxed, jabbed and boosted: 11/ #bcpoli

It is worth scrolling down the page because they give the outcomes by vax status and age. To my not great surprise, the elderly boosted take a commanding lead on the death front. 12/ #bcpoli

Having these numbers is pretty critical in making choices in the face of the next variant and next wave. If the boosts prevented, well, death in the elderly with COVID, I might be lining up. They don't. 13/ #bcpoli

But the numbers do suggest that light hibernation for the moment and full hibernation when the next wave is upon us would be prudent. Frankly, PHO should be pushing these numbers out rather than keeping them obscured. 14/ #bcpoli

Will the numbers encourage vax hesitancy? Perhaps, but it is pretty clear the jabs and boosters are a disappointment and will do nothing to prevent spread. Giving people all the information in an easy to understand format might lead them to change their behaviour. 15/ #bcpoli

The reality is that the NPIs don't work, the jabs are disappointing and #COVIDisAirborne. If people understand that and face the fact that the jabs, at best, failed, at worst made people more susceptible to the variants, they will change their habits. 16/ #bcpoli

Fear porn died with Omicron. Now, as the Chief Health Officer of Ontario pointed out, we need to do our own risk assessments. To do that we need hard, clean, consistent data. I doubt we'll get it because it will reveal the increasing risks faced by the jabbed. 17/ #bcpoli

Good data is not a PHO call, it is a political issue. Minister Dix needs to tell Dr. Henry and the Center for Disease Control in BC to release all the data in a useable, comprehensible, form. Immediately. 18/ #bcpoli

My relative level of hibernation is conditioned by what my read of the data, for my location, age and health is. Hibernation light means I see very little risk. That could change in a day. But I need, and we all need, clean, consistent and unspun data. 19/ #bcpoli

While it has not been much of a summer, so far, the fact is that Fall is coming. Gas is down a bit, food is pricey but on the shelves, COVID is in a bit of a lull; but all that could change in a couple of weeks or a month. We need the data to plan and react. 20/20 #bcpoli