by: david staples
the vaccine is starting to beat the hell out of the pandemic in many regions, including alberta.
the province has more covid cases than ever, but we’re getting just one-sixth the rate of covid deaths.
“that’s absolutely due to the vaccine,” deena hinshaw, alberta’s chief medical officer of health, told me in an interview.
“by vaccinating those who are at the highest risk of severe outcomes, we have been able to dramatically lower our death rate, which is great news.”
vaccines have long been billed as the endgame for the pandemic and lockdown. in alberta we are still a few moves from checkmate.
in the united kingdom, the vaccines already captured covid’s king.
the u.k. had a peak of 1,820 deaths on jan. 20. it had not one recorded death this past monday.
zero deaths for 67.5 million people.
of course, the british are well ahead of us on vaccinations. on jan. 20, just seven per cent of people in the u.k. had had a single jab. today, that number is 52 per cent, our world in data
reports, with 26 per cent fully vaccinated.
but canada is at last making immense progress. on jan. 9, when canada’s second wave was most deadly, just one per cent of us had had a single jab. today that number is 40 per cent.