3. will this scheme work well enough to prevent our intensive care units from being overrun?
highly unlikely. even kenney’s not sure enough people will be moved to get vaccinated quickly enough. as he said at friday’s announcement, “we don’t know if it will work or not.”
this fourth wave has just now picked up speed. on aug. 24, alberta had 59 covid patients in intensive care. by friday, we had 118 (and of that number 91 per cent were unvaccinated).
alberta’s intensive care capacity is now at 95 per cent. there’s also almost no wiggle room.
of course, one other factor might now press the unvaccinated to get jabbed. the highly-contagious delta variant is hitting the unvaccinated as hard as the virus ever has. dr. deena hinshaw now tells us the risk of covid causing hospitalization for the unvaxxed is about the same as heart disease and copd (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) and approximating the risk of cancer admission.
if any unvaccinated person planned to let herd immunity build in everyone else through vaccination, and to ride out the pandemic unscathed themselves, they’d best re-evaluate their plan.
4. why didn’t the government bring in stricter measures?
politics. and i don’t say “politics” in a bad way. albertans are profoundly divided on how to best approach the pandemic. some favour strict australian-style lockdown measures. others would prefer a more open sweden-style approach, with lockdown measures greatly limited. that is my own preference, especially with so many of us vaccinated, but there’s no denying the stress on our hospitals.