CDN/US Covid-related political discussion

[Altair]

Even more notable, we’re closing the gap in the G7 in the race to worse performance for new cases at 227/million. #2 Germany at 234/million will soon downgrade to #3, as Canada trends past Germany, and has twice a worsening rate than#1 France at 472/million. Perhaps Canada will also be heading to claim “Greatest Number of Variants” moniker.

Ontario is already trending down, 3500 cases down from last weeks 4500

 

[Brad Sallows]

The USA dumped billions on their already active pharmaceutical companies, Pfizer, Moderna, J&J. We have no such equivalent.

I would have dumped the billions on their already active pharmaceutical companies. Made a gift. Maybe withheld some as prizes. With all the hundreds of billions being handed out, a few more would have mattered little. And the payoff for each day by which N Day (normalization) is brought forward is huge by comparison.

 

[Altair]

I would have dumped the billions on their already active pharmaceutical companies. Made a gift. Maybe withheld some as prizes. With all the hundreds of billions being handed out, a few more would have mattered little. And the payoff for each day by which N Day (normalization) is brought forward is huge by comparison.

Well, that would be dumb.

Us investing in US pharmaceutical companies does not grant Canada export permits. We would get the exact same amount of vaccines and have even less money.

 

[Brad Sallows]

Yes, of course we could only have done that and nothing else - no business negotiations, no political negotiations. No other planning; no novel disruptions of mandarins and bureaucrats set in their ways. There is nothing we could have done to have moved things along faster.

 

[Altair]

Yes, of course we could only have done that and nothing else - no business negotiations, no political negotiations. No other planning; no novel disruptions of mandarins and bureaucrats set in their ways. There is nothing we could have done to have moved things along faster.

I give people here every opportunity to name things we could do.

From what I hear, the PM tried to negotiate more vaccines from the USA, and it wasn't happening. Business negotiations mean nothing without export permits to go along with them.

So unless people can name some concrete methods that Canada could have used to secure more vaccines faster, I am of the opinion that there probably were not any, or at least many.

At some point, you may need to accept that what we are doing might be the best we could have ever expected to do.

 

[Good2Golf]

Ontario is already trending down, 3500 cases down from last weeks 4500

Great job, Trudeau and Team!
/sarc

Yes, and people need to figure this out before they say we should have gone faster. How?

Others have already said, but since you seem deaf to them, it bears repeating, GoC could have avoided screwing around with China and immediately invested in Montréal’s NOVOVAX labs way back in March/April of 2020 as well as greater and more responsive support to Edmonton’s ENDOS Labs and Toronto’s Providence Therapeutics.

Domestic vaccine-makers want more help from Ottawa: ‘There’s been a real lack of leadership’​

Article link

In Entos Pharmaceuticals’ Edmonton lab, there’s excitement over how close the company is getting to developing a made-in-Canada COVID-19 vaccine. There’s also dismay.


With more federal help, Entos’ CEO John Lewis says they could be much closer to a vaccine than they are.

“We were hoping that the federal government would have stepped up early like other governments have done for their manufacturers and innovators.

“We just haven’t seen that. It’s very frustrating.”

READ MORE: Alberta slams federal rollout of COVID-19 vaccine as positivity rate sits at 3.9%
In March of last year, Lewis says Entos decided to change direction. The company had been working on cancer treatments and vaccines but when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Entos focused on developing a vaccine.

They had the people and the know-how. What they didn’t have was a way to actually make the vaccine.

Lewis estimated Entos would need about $50 million to develop the company’s manufacturing capacity.


The company has put profits and its own money towards that sum.

Officials also asked the federal government for grants and received some money. Lewis says little has been smooth about the process.

“We also applied for manufacturing support in June, learned in October we were successful.

“We negotiated the contract back and forth. We found out just a week ago that they’d cancelled that contract.”

READ MORE: Edmonton company receives federal funds to develop COVID-19 vaccine
That cancellation means the company has gone from expecting to produce between 1 and 4 million doses per day when ready to 25,000 doses per day.

...
(Remainder of article at link above)

 

[Altair]

Great job, Ford and Team!
/sarc

Fixed your post.

Others have already said, but nears repeating, GoC could have avoided screwing around with China and immediately invested in Montréal’s NOVOVAX labs way back in March/April of 2020 as well as greater and more responsive support to Edmonton’s ENDOS Labs and Toronto’s Providence Therapeutics.

Domestic vaccine-makers want more help from Ottawa: ‘There’s been a real lack of leadership’​

Article link

What's gone wrong with Australia's vaccine rollout?

The country has been far slower than others including the UK and the US to immunise its population.

www.bbc.com

"The country's initial efforts in securing vaccines appeared promising. It was among the first to announce an order with AstraZeneca, and also trumpeted its local manufacturing capacity with medical firm CSL.
Early in the rollout, though, confusion over just how much stock Australia had began to circle. A tussle with the European Union led to part of the AstraZeneca order being held back. And a lack of clear, public information has made it difficult to assess supply levels.
At the same time, domestic production hasn't lived up to expectations. Manufacturing began in March, with the government saying it would soon pump out about one million doses a week. It has so far failed to hit those targets."

"More local production is also possible. The state of Victoria will inject A$50m toward a production facility to make mRNA vaccines - like the Pfizer jab - locally.
Still, any facility would require much more funding and it would take at least a year before any doses could realistically be manufactured."



Hahaha, sure there.

 

[Remius]

This is it. Remember, at one time the science was settled that the earth was flat.

Actually no. Science had already determined that the world was round for quite some time. The problem is that the majority of people were illiterate and under the influence of religious leaders and rulers who had no concept of science. Luckily now those on the religious right, mostly social conservatives are in the minority but are still illiterate to how science works.

 

[Jarnhamar]

I’m completely fine with paramedics being trained to administer vaccines. In the system wide crisis we face right now that’s a no brainer.

Just use infantry living out of a crumby mod tent city to set up and administer the vaccine. We're experts at doing other people's jobs for them

 

[Good2Golf]

Great job, Fordand Team!
/sarc

Fixed your post.

Wow...that one went right over your head, didn’t it?

Maybe I should have put the following ‘/sarc’ tag on blinking fluorescent orange font?

Not sure you meant to inadvertently credit Premier Ford with anything. Normal it’s the domain of Trudeau to be awesome.

Anyway, plenty of help over a year ago that could have been given to many of the Canadian companies that would have placed us in a better position for domestic production now.

 

[Altair]

Wow...that one went right over your head, didn’t it?

No. Provincial rates are on the provinces. The atlantic provinces did it right, I don't credit Trudeau for that.

Anyway, plenty of help over a year ago that could have been given to many of the Canadian companies that would have placed us in a better position for domestic production now.

Right, like Australia did.

How is that working for them?

What's gone wrong with Australia's vaccine rollout?

The country has been far slower than others including the UK and the US to immunise its population.

www.bbc.com

"The country's initial efforts in securing vaccines appeared promising. It was among the first to announce an order with AstraZeneca, and also trumpeted its local manufacturing capacity with medical firm CSL.
Early in the rollout, though, confusion over just how much stock Australia had began to circle. A tussle with the European Union led to part of the AstraZeneca order being held back. And a lack of clear, public information has made it difficult to assess supply levels.
At the same time, domestic production hasn't lived up to expectations. Manufacturing began in March, with the government saying it would soon pump out about one million doses a week. It has so far failed to hit those targets."

"More local production is also possible. The state of Victoria will inject A$50m toward a production facility to make mRNA vaccines - like the Pfizer jab - locally.
Still, any facility would require much more funding and it would take at least a year before any doses could realistically be manufactured."

But sure, we would be the global powerhouse like the USA and UK instead of throwing good money after bad like Australia.

Sure.

Sure.

 

[Brad Sallows]

At some point, you may need to accept that what we are doing might be the best we could have ever expected to do.

The expectation would be the mean. Most human endeavours, when measured, produce bell-shaped curves. That still leaves a lot of room to do better. If the best Canada's leaders can do is never much more than average, I remain unimpressed.

 

[Good2Golf]

No. Provincial rates are on the provinces. The atlantic provinces did it right, I don't credit Trudeau for that.

Still not getting it. I deliberately threw in Trudeau in place of Ford as a sarcastic counter to your ‘T & Team is awesome’ proselytizing, but that’s okay. I get your Trudeau and the Maritime Premiers fandom.

 

[Altair]

Still not getting it. I deliberately threw in Trudeau in place of Ford as a sarcastic counter to your ‘T & Team is awesome’ proselytizing, but that’s okay. I get your Trudeau and the Maritime Premiers fandom.

If rates are going down, good job ford.

Stop being partisan.

At least you dropped the domestic manufacturing thing...

 

[Altair]

The expectation would be the mean. Most human endeavours, when measured, produce bell-shaped curves. That still leaves a lot of room to do better. If the best Canada's leaders can do is never much more than average, I remain unimpressed.

Welcome to a middle power. Go move to a superpower in the USA or Regional power in the UK if you want different results.

 

[Brad Sallows]

Heh. "We're mediocre; suck it up." Canadian cheerleading at it's best.

 

[Jarnhamar]

Are you kidding? Dr. Conly is exactly who the tinfoil hat wearing nuts would be using to back their "no more lockdowns, masks are child abuse" fights.

Why wouldn't they? He's an infectious diseases physician and professor of medicine at the University of Calgary who also advises the World Health Organization.

One of their top advisors no less who has published 300 papers and has all his shit

MD, CM, CCFP, FRCPC, FCAHS, FAMMI, FACP, FSHEA, FIDSA

As far as experts go he seems top tier.

Experts and science is the new mantra.

 

[Altair]

Heh. "We're mediocre; suck it up." Canadian cheerleading at it's best.

We are the best of the rest. It worked for WW2, it works now.

 

[Brad Sallows]

It worked for WW2, it works now.

Doesn't square well with actual military history.

 

[Altair]

Doesn't square well with actual military history.

We didn't have the biggest army, air force or navy. we didn't go island hoping in the pacific, or fight in Egypt. We had one beach on D-Day, not two like the USA and UK. We didn't produce the most sherman tanks, we didn't produce the most spitfires.

we did what we could, helped where we made a difference, and let the heavyweights duke it out for the most part.

So we aren't leading the vaccination race, but we are doing respectable compared to the rest of Europe, and places like Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Russia.

So I'm pretty satisfied with that.