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COVID-19

2017 Influenza VS 2020 COVID19 – A comparison

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5 minute read

We’ve all heard the claim “COVID19 is no worse than the flu”.

Is this true?  Now that COVID19 has been around for about a year we can look at the numbers and make some definitive observations.

The first case of COVID19 in Canada was reported by Health Canada on Jan. 25, in a Toronto man who had recently travelled from Wuhan.  Nine months later, COVID19 has swept the country, devastated economies, and is responsible for the death of over 12,000 Canadians.  In some areas measures to control the spread seem to be working, in other areas despite a range of measures, it’s spreading rapidly.  There’s still so many unknowns and COVID19 remains nearly as mysterious as when it first appeared. As usual in a situation where knowledge is lacking, fear is not.  The Canada Suicide Prevention Service reported to the Canadian Press that in September, 18% of their calls came from people worried about their finances while 26% of their calls were from people very worried that they or someone close to them would contract COVID-19. It’s very likely the claim COVID is no worse than the flu is an understandable response and an attempt to calm this “fear of the unknown”.  It is true that so far the survival rate is closer to 100% than it is to 99% for those of us under the age of 60, but can we truly compare COVID and influenza?

The first thing we have to do is dismiss any comparisons with the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic

The only other time millions of Canadians tried to protect themselves with masks was during the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic. Actually there is no comparison between the severity of these 2 viruses.  The 1918 Spanish Flu was FAR more devastating.  We can put this comparison to rest immediately. According to government figures the 1918  ” international pandemic killed approximately 55,000 people in Canada, most of whom were young adults between the ages of 20 and 40.”  As of early December, COVID19 is responsible for under 12,500 deaths in Canada.  There are fewer deaths (so far) and the age group most severely attacked is much, much older. The majority of COVID19 fatalities are at, or above the life expectancy of Canadians (82.37 years of age in 2019).

So what about the regular flu?  Is it true that COVID19 is no worse that the (regular) flu?

Well if you’re going to make a claim that the flu is as bad as COVID19 you’d better pick a pretty bad flu season to compare.  2017 was a bad year for the flu in Alberta.  About the worst in the past 10 years.  According to the 2017 Seasonal Influenza Summary Reports on the Alberta Health Website:

2017 Influenza –  9,069 laboratory-confirmed influenza cases (the largest number of cases in the previous five seasons)

2017 Influenza – 3,053 hospitalizations, 242 ICU admissions and 92 deaths

Compare these numbers to the stats from the Province of Alberta’s COVID19 website.

2020 COVID19 (to Dec 4) – 64,261 positive tests

2020 COVID19 (to Dec 4) – 2,096 hospitalizations, 379 ICU admissions and 590 deaths.

Up to December 4 there were actually more people hospitalized due to the flu in the 2017 / 2018 season, but that number looks like it will tip toward COVID19 in the next week or less.  The other numbers swing heavily toward COVID19 being worse than the flu. Furthermore, it’s important to note COVID19 is NOT behind us yet.  So while the numbers here are current to the beginning of December, it could be nearly another year (when vaccines have been widely distributed everywhere) before we’re more-less finished with COVID19 in this first series of waves.

Our final answer

Within the next week or so (after 58 more people are hospitalized) COVID19 will conclusively be worse and in the end far worse than the flu in every category our health system measures.

Interesting Final Note

Having said all this, a remarkable thing is happening with the 2020 flu season.  So far there isn’t one.  According to Health Canada’s weekly FluWatch Report as of the end of November there is no evidence of community circulation of the flu virus in Canada.  Officials are not sure why but they suggest the lack of positive flu tests may be related to the existence of COVID19.

After 15 years as a TV reporter with Global and CBC and as news director of RDTV in Red Deer, Duane set out on his own 2008 as a visual storyteller. During this period, he became fascinated with a burgeoning online world and how it could better serve local communities. This fascination led to Todayville, launched in 2016.

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Alberta

Red Deer Doctor critical of Alberta’s COVID response to submit report to Danielle Smith this May

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From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

Leading the task force is Dr. Gary Davidson, who was skeptical of mandates at the time.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith will soon be receiving a little-known report she commissioned which tasked an Alberta doctor who was critical of the previous administration’s handling of COVID to look into how accurate the province’s COVID data collection was, as well as the previous administration’s decision-making process and effectiveness. 

As noted in a recent Globe and Mail report, records it obtained show that just less than one month after becoming Premier of Alberta in November of 2022, Smith tasked then-health minister Jason Copping to create the COVID data task force. 

Documents show that the Alberta government under Smith gave the new task force, led by Dr. Gary Davidson – who used to work as an emergency doctor in Red Deer, Alberta – a sweeping mandate to look at whether the “right data” was obtained during COVID as well as to assess the “integrity, validity, reliability and quality of the data/information used to inform pandemic decisions” by members of Alberta Health Services (AHS).  

As reported by LifeSiteNews in 2021, Davidson said during the height of COVID that the hospital capacity crisis in his province was “created,” was not a new phenomenon, and had nothing to do with COVID.

“We have a crisis, and we have a crisis because we have no staff, because our staff quit, because they’re burned out, they’re not burnt out from COVID,” Davidson said at the time. 

Davidson also claimed that the previous United Conservative Party government under former Premier Jason Kenney had been manipulating COVID statistics.  

In comments sent to the media, Smith said that in her view it was a good idea to have a “contrarian perspective” with Davidson looking at “everything that happened with some fresh eyes.” 

“I needed somebody who was going to look at everything that happened with some fresh eyes and maybe with a little bit of a contrarian perspective because we’ve only ever been given one perspective,” she told reporters Tuesday. 

“I left it to [Davidson] to assemble the panel with the guidance that I would like to have a broad range of perspectives.” 

After assuming her role as premier, Smith promptly fired the province’s top doctor, Deena Hinshaw, and the entire AHS board of directors, all of whom oversaw the implementation of COVID mandates. 

Under Kenney, thousands of nurses, doctors, and other healthcare and government workers lost their jobs for choosing to not get the jabs, leading Smith to say – only minutes after being sworn in – that over the past year the “unvaccinated” were the “most discriminated against” group of people in her lifetime. 

As for AHS, it still is promoting the COVID shots, for babies as young as six months old, as recently reported by LifeSiteNews.  

Task force made up of doctors both for and against COVID mandates  

In addition to COVID skeptic Dr. Gary Davidson, the rather secretive COVID task force includes other health professionals who were critical of COVID mandates and health restrictions, including vaccine mandates.  

The task force was given about $2 million to conduct its review, according to The Globe and Mail, and is completely separate from another task force headed by former Canadian MP Preston Manning, who led the Reform Party for years before it merged with another party to form the modern-day Conservative Party of Canada. 

Manning’s task force, known as the Public Health Emergencies Governance Review Panel (PHEGRP), released its findings last year. It recommend that many pro-freedom policies be implemented, such as strengthening personal medical freedoms via legislation so that one does not lose their job for refusing a vaccine, as well as concluding that Albertans’ rights were indeed infringed upon. 

The Smith government task force is run through the Health Quality Council of Alberta (HQCA) which is a provincial agency involved in healthcare research.  

Last March, Davidson was given a project description and terms of reference and was told to have a final report delivered to Alberta’s Health Minister by December of 2023. 

As of now, the task force’s final report won’t be available until May, as per Andrea Smith, press secretary to Health Minister Adriana LaGrange, who noted that the goal of the task force is to look at Alberta’s COVID response compared to other provinces.  

According to the Globe and Mail report, another person working on the task force is anesthetist Blaine Achen, who was part of a group of doctors that legally challenged AHS’s now-rescinded mandatory COVID jab policy for workers. 

Some doctors on the task force, whom the Globe and Mail noted held “more conventional views regarding the pandemic,” left it only after a few meetings. 

In a seeming attempt to prevent another draconian crackdown on civil liberties, the UCP government under Smith has already taken concrete action.

The Smith government late last year passed a new law, Bill 6, or the Public Health Amendment Act, that holds politicians accountable in times of a health crisis by putting sole decision-making on them for health matters instead of unelected medical officers. 

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COVID-19

Inquiry shows Canadian gov’t agencies have spent $10 million on social media ads for COVID jabs

Published on

From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

One campaign cost $1.5 million alone to encourage children to receive the COVID-19 shots.

A recent Inquiry of Ministry request revealed that Canada’s Public Health Agency (PHAC) along with Health Canada have combined to spend approximately $9.9 million on social media advertising to promote the experimental COVID injections since 2020.

The Inquiry of Ministry information showing the large advertising spending on the COVID shots became known as the result of a request from Conservative Party of Canada MP Ted Falk, who demanded answers about what was being spent by officials to promote the shots.

The information published on April 8 shows that PHAC and Health Canada spent approximately $4.6 million on production costs of ads, with $5.3 million on actual advertising of the COVID shots on social media platforms Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, LinkedIn, Snapchat, and Pinterest from 2020 to 2024.

One mass COVID vaccination advertising campaign titled the “Ripple Effect” cost about $1.8 million alone. PHAC claimed the campaign served to “remind Canadians about the collective vaccination effort required to see a reduction in restrictions and public health measures.”

Other campaigns ranged in spending from $75,000 to $564,000 to promote the shots to young adults.

PHAC also spent $1.5 million on a campaign to promote the COVID shots to parents with kids to try and encourage them to get their kids injected.

It should be noted that PHAC, as per a 2021-22 Departmental Results Report, had tried “diligently to counter false statements and misinformation” to prop up the COVID shots. In 2023, PHAC was looking to hire social media influencers to promote the jab to Canadians who were opposed to taking the shots.

Health Canada previously was found to have spent some $132,000 on social media influencers to promote the COVID shots.

As reported by LifeSiteNews recently, the Trudeau government is still under contract to purchase multiple shipments of COVID shots while at the same time throwing away $1.5 billion worth of expired shots.

Canadians’ decision to refuse the shots also comes as a Statistic Canada report revealed that deaths from COVID-19 and “unspecified causes” rose after the release of the so-called “safe and effective” jabs.

LifeSiteNews has published an extensive amount of research on the dangers of receiving the experimental COVID mRNA jabs, which include heart damage and blood clots.

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