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https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/up-to-225-000-canadian-firms-could-close-because-of-covid-cfib-ceo-1.1520974 Up to 225,000 Canadian firms could close because of COVID: CFIB CEO Volume 0% Businesses are just not prepared for a second wave lockdown: Dan Kelly More businesses are at risk of permanently closing their doors as some parts of the country mandate stricter COVID-19-related shutdowns, the head of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) warns. “We are already seeing half of businesses in Canada – even those who are not affected by further rounds of shutdowns – saying that their sales dropped as a result of the second wave,” CFIB president and chief executive officer Dan Kelly said in a television interview with BNN Bloomberg Wednesday. “These businesses are already weakened.” Prior to the second wave of infections, the CFIB estimated 160,000 businesses in Canada would fail before the pandemic ends. Kelly raised that number to 225,000, or more than one-in-seven. “Governments are still fumbling around to put these programs in place – eight months in, ” Kelly said, referencing federal supports such as the promised Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) expansion and additional funding through a wage subsidy. Kelly is urging governments to make shutdowns short and targeted to minimize the impact of a second round of business closures. “Our advice to provincial governments is: ‘Please don’t put in place blanket shutdowns of the entire economy. If there are cases where you need to do that, make it surgical for those sectors or business activities where the problems are coming from – and lift them soon as is possible,’” he said.

https://theconversation.com/huge-government-debts-mean-canada-is-robbing-its-kids-147977#:~:text=Before the pandemic%2C the combined,children and their children's children. Before the pandemic, the combined federal and provincial Canadian debt totaled $1.4 trillion. And since then, this debt has rapidly grown, with governments borrowing another $300 billion in the current year alone. This debt will be mostly repaid by our children, their children and their children’s children. This raises a moral matter of how we are treating our young and future Canadians. Is it ethical for governments to increase spending by placing greater debts on future generations? Isn’t contractually placing our children into a monetary form of debt bondage morally indefensible? And how might we objectively judge government borrowing policies to ensure justice for future generations?

http://www.bccdc.ca/Health-Info-Site/Documents/Public_health_COVID-19_reports/Impact_School_Closures_COVID-19.pdf?fbclid=IwAR3NCv0msfjaeKkJ-zvBlARBby_IxWd_XquE5b2M_4LVoxWHYqwo0flybag As the pandemic surged globally, schools were closed in most countries based on evidence from influenza outbreaks and the assumption that limiting student contact helps flatten the outbreak curve, reduce the burden on the health care system and protect vulnerable populations. However, accumulating evidence, including local epidemiology and international data, suggests that younger children are at lower risk of infection and serious disease compared with adults, and do not tend to spread the infection widely, reducing the effect of school closures. Schools support the learning, health, and development of children and youth and are key to reducing societal inequities. Prolonged school absences have detrimental effects on both children and families. Access to school resources for nutrition, health, and social supports are critical for many families. BC families reported impaired learning, increased child stress, and decreased connection during COVID-19 school closures, while global data show increased loneliness and declining mental health, including anxiety and depression. With the loss of supportive routines and structures, healthy behaviours have declined dramatically. Provincial child protection reports have also declined significantly despite reported increased domestic violence globally. This suggests decreased detection of child neglect and abuse without reporting from schools.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/covid-surgery-delay-unintended-consequences-1.5629360 The sacrifice Canadians have collectively made to flatten the coronavirus curve also includes immeasurable suffering from postponed surgeries, says a B.C. man who lost his mother not to the virus but to cancer. Jasmine Yang, 60, started having abdominal pain, fever and then breathing difficulties in January. She went to an emergency department in Surrey, B.C., and was diagnosed with a rare form of ovarian cancer in March. Her son, Jonathan Hu, 31, said oncologists recommended surgery in early April as the best treatment for Yang's three, late-stage tumours. But the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown included postponing or cancelling non-emergency surgeries like Yang's — and an estimated 394,575 others across Canada.

The WHO recommends a targeted response for covid19 control. The population of Canada, is 37,590,000 , there are 76,859 active covid19 cases. A targeted response to covid19, would mean isolating the one in 489 people in Canada with active covid19 infections, contact tracing and isolating their contacts, instead of locking down everyone. Also spending $5 to $10 billion bringing long term care homes, where 75% of the deaths have occurred up to the best possible standards would be wiser than spending $300 billion paying people to be idle.

Covid enforced isolation is killing our seniors. https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/mental-mishaps/202009/death-covid-isolation (Quoted from article.) My mom died this month. Alone. She died alone. Like thousands of other seniors, Covid isolation contributed to my mom's decline and death. It was a personal tragedy for my family, reflecting our national catastrophe. My mom was a victim of both Alzheimer’s disease and the Covid pandemic. Alzheimer’s was the direct cause of her death. But the months of isolation led to her rapid decline. She didn’t have to die so soon. She should not have died alone. And I will forever regret her loneliness in her final months. I’ll always be angry that I couldn’t be with her as she was dying. Isolation and loneliness are seriously damaging for older people, particularly those with Alzheimer’s disease. First, people who are less socially engaged and more lonely are likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia (Lara et al., 2019). Second, for older people, loneliness increases the likelihood of death (Perissinotto, et al., 2012). Loneliness is particularly likely to contribute to early death in people with Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia (Olaya et al., 2017). The combination of loneliness and dementia is particularly deadly.

Who advises against using lock downs as a primary means of response to covid19.

Truly a Humanitarian crisis.

Sounds too simple. How is an engineer going to work with that?

I think that I am just about done with this road trip. It seems you were right all along. Happy trails.

This may be a dumb question, I know almost nothing about medicine, but I keep wondering why doctors couldn't inject scalding hot water into a cancerous tumor and burn the bad cells?

For the world economy, especially poorer nations, we are the virus

Speaking to The Spectator, the British doctor stated: ‘We in the World Health Organisation do not advocate lockdowns as the primary means of control of this virus. ‘The only time we believe a lockdown is justified is to buy you time to reorganise, regroup, rebalance your resources, protect your health workers who are exhausted, but by and large, we’d rather not do it.’ Dr Nabarro went on to say that developing economies had been indirectly affected by lockdown measures, adding: ‘Just look at what’s happened to the tourism industry in the Caribbean, for example, or in the Pacific because people aren’t taking their holidays. ‘Look what’s happened to smallholder farmers all over the world — look what’s happening to poverty levels. ‘It seems that we may well have a doubling of world poverty by next year. We may well have at least a doubling of child malnutrition.’ Dr Nabarro continued: ‘Lockdowns just have one consequence that you must never ever belittle, and that is making poor people an awful lot poorer.’ He concluded: ‘And so, we really do appeal to all world leaders: stop using lockdown as your primary control method. ‘Develop better systems for doing it. Work together and learn from each other.’

You are totally correct in saying that I am not a virus expert. If I ever stated otherwise, please point it out to me. I just heard a story that I believed to be a partial truth which no one was questioning and was doing a lot of damage to our nation and it's people. I presented what I thought was worthy of consideration. The name of a real expert was brought to my attention however. Dr. David Nabarro one of six Special Envoys from the WHO who were tasked to respond to thecovid19 pandemic. He recommended against system wide lock downs, recommending instead a targeted approach of isolating people infected with the virus, and contact tracing so those who might have been infected might be isolated as well, and the general public left to go about their business. Some Quotes https://www.travelpulse.com/news/features/who-special-envoy-criticizes-travel-restrictions.html "Just look at what’s happened to the tourism industry in the Caribbean, for example, or in the Pacific because people aren’t taking their holidays,” Nabarro said. “Look what’s happened to smallholder farmers all over the world. ... Look what’s happening to poverty levels. It seems that we may well have a doubling of world poverty by next year. We may well have at least a doubling of child malnutrition.” "As infectious disease epidemiologists and public health scientists, we have grave concerns about the damaging physical and mental health impacts of the prevailing COVID-19 policies, and recommend an approach we call Focused Protection,” read the petition, known as the Great Barrington Declaration. "Current lockdown policies are producing devastating effects on short and long-term public health." In case any of this sounds familiar try to remember where you have heard it before. I recommend that you look at the you tube posted earlier, and hear what an accredited expert has to say. As for the Maritimes low infection rate, the number of infections usually reflects population density, and the mobility of the population. I am no expert, but if you need help verifying that information, let me know.

Flattening the curve means keeping the number of infections higher for longer. Who would want the fun to stop.

Jusrin trudeau borrowed $300 billion, and is running a $381 billion deficit, while lockdowns are driving businesses into bankrupcy, and gdp shrinking by 38%. Lets try that for a few more months, and see if it turns out well. You may find that having a joint account with Justin is not the best way to manage you money wisely, and provide for your financial freedom in our golden years. When I was young, my parents put me in hockey and soccer, so I could learn about being part of a team, and make friendships that might last a lifetime. We celebrated birthdays, weddings and holidays like Christmas and Easter together. We learned that families are people that loved and supported each other and were stronger together. Glad that we aren't making that same mistake with our children. Maskers and anti maskers confronting each other in the streets, people shunning their neighbours, and crossing the street to avoid with those viral spreading threats to their survival. Our elected officials telling us to report our family, friends and neighbours if we see them congregating together so that we can arrest those heartless criminals, and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law. Give me a few more months of that.

little common sense from WHO.

If you think that elves spread the virus, then you probably believe the fairy tales that the government is telling you. Sweet dreams little princess. Viruses have been around for hundreds of millions of years long before man walked the globe. The ones that have survived are the ones that are able to find hosts, reproduce and find other hosts. You may think that you are better at hiding from the virus than the virus is at finding you, that may be true, but hundreds of millions of years of evolution tell me otherwise. When I ride on transit I wear a mask, and take a seat on the bus.. When I get off the bus someone else sits on the same seat. If the bus is full people hold onto a pole. Other people hold onto the same pole. On air planes they were keeping the middle seat open to encourage social distancing. People were sitting on an airplane for 4-6 hours 18" away from the passenger next to them, passing things back and forth to the stewardess, and all the time thinking tat they were avoiding contact. I see people lawn bowling keeping every second lane open mingling with the other players, passing the balls back and forth and they think that they are avoiding viral contact. I see people go to the dog park, everyone pets everyone elses dog. I go to the grocery store, there are arrows on the floor to help people from crossing each others paths. Half the people go the wrong way. I see people pick up items and then put them back on the shelf, and then other people pick up the same items and bring them home to their families. In my building there is a rule of two people on the elevator at a time. There is no possible way to remain 2 meters apart on an elevator, and everyone pushes the same buttons, and passes through the same door, sometimes holding it for others. When crossing the street people congregate on the corners waiting for their turn to cross, for some reason every one of them needs to push the button for the walk signal. People ride two or sometimes more in a car for several minutes, breathing the same air, possibly coughing or sneezing, but almost certainly breathing. If you think that after 8 months you have avoided all possible contact, then don't let me wake you. You might want to reelect the same leaders who have been looking out for our best interest all this time.

Why don't you use specific numbers instead of dealing in generalities. You are at a computer, why not educate yourself. There are 742 hospitalizations in Alberta 137 of these are in ICU. Of course this is not good, but there would have been less if lock downs had not flattened the curve. If the hospitals are at capacity it is because of mismanagement not because there are on average 4.6 patients per hospital, 0.85 in ICU. Of course it is better not to have a virus, only immunity will help with that. Flattening the curve only means people get sick tomorrow instead of today, wake up people it is now tomorrow. Why not open your eyes before your mouth. Your best hope of seeing a simpleton is to find a mirror. There are 5,890 Albertans locked down for every one in ICU , that may make sense in your world, but is not good for the future of the province. Lock downs mean more people with covid today, not less. https://www.statista.com/statistics/440923/total-number-of-hospital-establishments-in-canada-by-province/ https://www.alberta.ca/covid-19-alberta-data.aspx

Good find. That is very useful information for me. Many thanks.

I can agree with almost everything you have said. Nice to hear a voice of reason amongst all the chaos and crazies. I would like our governments to to invest more in ventilators, I am sure that you could buy many for $300 Billion. If there are none available (which seems unlikely), then we should have had our finest engineers (say from Magna International, Bombardier or even our university engineering departments) working on the problem when we first recognized it, and building a capacity to produce them here. If we need more space for intensive care units, why not make space available in empty hotel floors (there seems to be a lot of that), or community centers, or churches, or set up field hospitals for those with simpler needs, and reallocate the more well equipped space in our hospitals for ICU. I am so tired of people telling me all the problems involved in caring for our sick, instead of trying to do something about it. Don't tell me what we don't have, work with what we do have.

The WHO has based their response to covid19 on the measures taken to overcome the H1N1 pandemic of 1918. Covid19 is not the H1N1 virus of 1918. In the 1918 pandemic one third of the worlds population was infected, and 10% of the infected died. With covid19 one in 107 people have been infected, and less than 4% of resolved cases have resulted in death. In 1918 the deaths occurred in people with strong immune systems ass well as ones with weak immune systems, necessitating a general lock down. Covid19 results in death mostly in elderly people weakened by other ailments. A specific approach of investing in improving our long term care homes would be more helpful. The reason that the 1918 virus caused so many deaths in young healthy people is that it caused a cytokine storm. Covid19 does not. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/02/140227142250.htm Scientists have mapped key elements of a severe immune overreaction -— a “cytokine storm” -— that can both sicken and kill patients who are infected with certain strains of flu virus. A cytokine storm is an overproduction of immune cells and their activating compounds (cytokines), which, in a flu infection, is often associated with a surge of activated immune cells into the lungs. The resulting lung inflammation and fluid buildup can lead to respiratory distress and can be contaminated by a secondary bacterial pneumonia -- often enhancing the mortality in patients. Covid 19 is a virus that causes mild to moderate symptoms in most people, and in Canada 99% of people living outside of long term care homes recover from it. The WHO has invested so much time and effort convincing world governments to lock down their citizens and businesses, and so little in actually finding out if that is an appropriate response. So many intelligent people, with so little common sense, that is the real crisis.

People are getting their information from the government and the media. They believe what these two pillars of honesty tell us without questioning it. Question it. You say that the say that ICU wards are filling up with covid cases, I say they are not. Why don't you google the number of covid cases in our hospitals and the number of hospitals and then tell me I am wrong. You talk about the large number of seniors dying. This is true and unacceptable. I believe that the lockdowns forcing our seniors to be isolated and sedentary is causing huge numbers to die. Show me where that is not true. I believe that if the government had spent $5B to $10B on bringing long term care homes up to world class standards, instead of $300B on paying people not to work we could have saved many more lives. Prove me wrong.