The vaccine works

Jeff Green | Apr 14, 2021

Until only a few weeks ago, political dis-function in the United Stated and the United Kingston has been part of the reason why the overall COVID case and death rates have much higher than ours have been in Canada. But since they are two of the nations with the highest vaccination rates in the world, at this point in time they both in a better place than we are in Canada.

Our case rate over the last week is about the same as the United States and well higher than the United Kingdom, on a per capita basis, and while our death rate over the past week remains at less than half the rate in the US over that time, it is more than double the rate in the UK.

Over the entire pandemic, both of those countries have had triple the death and case rates, as compared to ours. And one of the reason they have low case rates now, apart from vaccination, is the large percentage of their populations who have contracted COVID over the last year and have developed antibodies.

But they have been able to deliver at least one dose of vaccine to a lot more people. As of Sunday, April 11, the website ourworldindata.org was reporting that 18.6% of Canadians had received one dose of vaccine, while 35.65% of US residents and 47.32% of UK residents had received a dose.

That single factor, vaccination, can lead to such an improvement in the risk of contracting COVID, that even in country’s where masks are considered a communist plot by many, the infection rate has dropped as compared to place where vaccination rates are lower.

The bad news is that the time lag between our vaccination program and the programs in the US and the UK has coincided with the advent of more dangerous COVID variants. The good news is that vaccination works.

And while the vaccine rollout through mass clinics, primary care and pharmacies has been uneven and confusing over the last 6 weeks or so, in our own communities in Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington, we have demonstrated that it is possible to vaccinate a lot of people in a short amount of time.

The logistics of vaccinating people are not a problem. When the supply is here, we will line up and get our vaccines, which will make a huge difference.

Last year at this time, we were beginning to realize that the summer and fall of 2020 were not going to be good for us, and that we were all at risk of high infection and death rates.

Even as we face our worst patch during this entire pandemic in Ontario, with hospitals and intensive care units reaching capacity, other health-care services on hold, a stayat home order and now the suspension of in-school learning, the summer of 2021 will be here soon.

We just need to get in line when it is our turn.