Canada finally has its vaccination act together

[Reepicheep]

I think we can finally say that the worst is behind us. It appears we pretty well lead the world in the number of citizens who have received at least one vaccination.

Ignoring a bunch of small countries and territories (e.g., Bermuda, Gibraltar, etc.), the % of citizens who have received at least one jab are:

63.0% - Israel
58.3% - Canada
58.1% - United Kingdom
(skipping Chile, Hungary, and Uruguay)
50.4% - United States

Yesterday in Alberta, the govt. announced that, by the end of June, all Albertans who have received a first vaccination will be able to schedule their 2nd shot. I myself received a dose of AstraZeneca in March, and have an appointment to receive a second shot of either Pfizer or Moderna on June 13th.

At this point, I think a 5 day trip to Disneyland for my family for Christmas, 2021 is a possibility, but I suspect we won't be returning to either Disneyland or Disney World until summer 2022. I hope...

 

[ilovetotravel1977]

I'm going December 2021. The carrot would been dangling for a long time by then and the elusive 2-dose fall would have happened.

 

[Aladora]

At this point, I think a 5 day trip to Disneyland for my family for Christmas, 2021 is a possibility, but I suspect we won't be returning to either Disneyland or Disney World until summer 2022. I hope...

We are in the VERY beginning stages of considering to think about maybe planning something to DL in November when DS has a week off mid-term break. We have not told him about it yet since we keep planning and then cancelling trips on him. I was talking to him yesterday about how we decided to cancel our RV trip around BC in a few weeks and book hotels that we can cancel 1-2 days before in case BC does not allow travel to different health regions. He was pretty tepid on the whole thing and when I asked him why, he said that he didn't want to get his hopes up yet again only to have them crushed. Poor kid.

So, until we can guarantee a trip, we are not telling him anything.

 

[friedela]

It is an interesting point of discussion and I wondered if there was any way to get into it without getting into politics, but I had someone tell me in a Costco line up yesterday when I was venting my frustration about still being locked down that she thinks that although the US is largely open and most restrictions have been lifted that they will be "in it" for much longer because their vaccines have plateaued while ours are gaining traction finally. I wonder if there is any truth in that.

What do you all think?

We have a trip planned for Feb 2022, everything can be cancelled and we realize we may not be able to go but I would rather make plans for the best, then adjust those plans if things don't pan out than miss out completely because we didn't plan anything. We also haven't told our kids yet, though and probably won't until 2 weeks before we leave.

 

[efrant]

I think we can finally say that the worst is behind us. It appears we pretty well lead the world in the number of citizens who have received at least one vaccination.

Ignoring a bunch of small countries and territories (e.g., Bermuda, Gibraltar, etc.), the % of citizens who have received at least one jab are:

63.0% - Israel
58.3% - Canada
58.1% - United Kingdom
(skipping Chile, Hungary, and Uruguay)
50.4% - United States

I agree, I think the worst is behind us.

That said, the picture doesn't look quite as good when you look at % of population who is fully vaccinated (i.e., has received two doses):

59.3% - Israel
40.6% - U.S.
37.9% - U.K.
...
(skipping a bunch of countries)
...
5.7% - Canada

 

[TammyLynn33]

It is an interesting point of discussion and I wondered if there was any way to get into it without getting into politics, but I had someone tell me in a Costco line up yesterday when I was venting my frustration about still being locked down that she thinks that although the US is largely open and most restrictions have been lifted that they will be "in it" for much longer because their vaccines have plateaued while ours are gaining traction finally. I wonder if there is any truth in that.

What do you all think?

We have a trip planned for Feb 2022, everything can be cancelled and we realize we may not be able to go but I would rather make plans for the best, then adjust those plans if things don't pan out than miss out completely because we didn't plan anything. We also haven't told our kids yet, though and probably won't until 2 weeks before we leave.

even tho their vaccineshave plateaued their numbers continue to drop even tho more and more areas are fully opening up and dropping restrictions.

 

[friedela]

even tho their vaccineshave plateaued their numbers continue to drop even tho more and more areas are fully opening up and dropping restrictions.

Yes, I have noticed that too. Interesting, isn't it? I was listening to a podcast the other day that stated that months ago when Texas and Florida reopened with no mask mandates (and Canadians were losing their minds in response) their states were only 13-15% vaccinated with a first dose. I would have to dig around to see if that is accurate though. We have been told that the reason Texas and Florida could fully open and drop mandatory masking was because they were getting vaccinated and we simply didn't have vaccines yet. And yet our province now has 63% vaccinated with 1 dose and 10% with 2 doses but I can still be fined up to $2,000 for having a struggling friend over for a cup of coffee and a hug??

 

[Heather07438]

What do you all think?

Things are looking good here in NJ and the biggest effect made was vaccination. Of total population 60% with at least 1 jab and around 50% fully inoculated.

I’m going to use Hudson county as an example to show what is possible. It’s our most densely populated county directly across the river from NYC, mixed demographics and vaccination likely bolstered by a decent amount of natural exposure.
NJ (pop 9mil):

Hudson County (pop almost 700k):

I truly believe the worst is behind us and the numbers will never come close again. Many kids taking their turn to vaccinate this summer and looks like school will be normal again next fall. And that is so important for the rest of society to function properly.

ps- just wanted to add the second dip happening going into this summer did not have the strict mitigation that was in place last year.

 

[gskywalker]

Remember though that the US may not end up with as high of a vaccine percentage because a much larger percentage of people had Covid in the states than in Canada. A lot of people won't get the vaccine figuring they are protected from having it already.

 

[hdrolfe]

The part of it all that speaks to me is that so many people here are lining up to get their first dose, we aren't done yet. I think if we had plateaued with first shots, if people weren't still waiting on appointments for that, the second doses would have, perhaps, been given sooner. I hope that those who got a first dose will follow through and get the second.

I also agree that our deliveries have been crap and it is nice to finally see some movement there. It's also frustrating to see across the country (and even across Ontario) such discrepancies in those deliveries and roll outs. Patience is wearing thing, summer is arriving, and people are fed up. Hopefully, we are on our way.

And I have cruises booked for December that I hope to be able to go on, without testing and quarantines.

 

[friedela]

Remember though that the US may not end up with as high of a vaccine percentage because a much larger percentage of people had Covid in the states than in Canada. A lot of people won't get the vaccine figuring they are protected from having it already.

That may have been true in the past, but now the data is showing that Canada is actually worse off than the USA in terms of "cases":

"Friday, April 9 marked the first day since the early days of the pandemic in March 2020 that Canada averaged more confirmed cases per million people than the U.S."

(Taken from here: https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/canada-us-covid19-cases-per-million-1.5983507)

But yeah, I mean I have no opinion on why US citizens aren't getting vaccinated anymore. Maybe you are right in that people who have had Covid are no getting the shot because they don't think they need it (I have not done any research into that belief, so I can't comment on it). I just found it to be an interesting prediction (this lady in the Costco line).

 

[gskywalker]

That may have been true in the past, but now the data is showing that Canada is actually worse off than the USA in terms of "cases":

"Friday, April 9 marked the first day since the early days of the pandemic in March 2020 that Canada averaged more confirmed cases per million people than the U.S."

(Taken from here: https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/canada-us-covid19-cases-per-million-1.5983507)

When I saw that article it had said that we now had worse percentages per day, not throughout the entirety of the pandemic. IE the percentage of the population that have had covid during the entire pandemic is much higher in the states but on April 9th we had a higher percentage on that day.

 

[friedela]

When I saw that article it had said that we now had worse percentages per day, not throughout the entirety of the pandemic. IE the percentage of the population that have had covid during the entire pandemic is much higher in the states but on April 9th we had a higher percentage on that day.

Ah gotcha, thanks for sharing that. Yeah, maybe you are right and that is why vaccination rates are plateauing? Who knows. I am curious in this lady's prediction of the US being "in this" longer than us, I never asked her why she felt that way because any discussion on the topic of Covid can get pretty volatile nowadays.

 

[TammyLynn33]

I have friends in the US who have gotten Covid and have gotten vaccinated and friends who have gotten Covid and not gotten vaccinated. The ones who are not getting vaxxed had much lighter cases and don’t see what the big deal was ..( not saying that’s right just trying to explain what the difference there might be )

 

[nightwing12]

It would be interesting to determine how much the scarcity of vaccines at the beginning attributed to our countries higher uptake. As any disney fan would know, slapping 'limited' on something makes people have to have it!

 

[Pumpkin1172]

I have friends in the US who have gotten Covid and have gotten vaccinated and friends who have gotten Covid and not gotten vaccinated. The ones who are not getting vaxxed had much lighter cases and don’t see what the big deal was ..( not saying that’s right just trying to explain what the difference there might be )

I contracted covid a week after I received my first shot. I didn't get terribly sick with it, but I still plan on getting my second shot. I am just unsure right now which shot I will get for a second shot, as I received the AZ vaccine.

But your not incorrect with your information. People who had mild cases of covid still don't think it's a big deal. And partly...they are correct...for THEM, covid is not a big deal, but for others around them...getting sick with covid is very life threatening.

We have older parents, and my Dad works in a long term care facility. So I need to take care so that I don't get it and spread it to him on the off chance I'm actually sick when I would get to see him...and give it to someone living in the LTC facility who won't or can't have the vaccine. We felt we had that responsibility to do that. We also want to travel, and I have a very strong gut feeling we will need the proof of vaccination on some portion of our travels.

 

[ilovetotravel1977]

Dr Strang said today that NS should get the MRNA as their second jab to the AZ. People can opt for AZ, but he recommends the former for better protection. This is why I just decided to wait for Pfizer in the first place. Too many decisions to make...