Alberta's devastating 4th wave
A look at the numbers behind the scary headlines
All stats in this story are from the Government of Alberta.
The headlines around the current surge in Alberta Covid-19 cases are truly frightening. The hospital system teeters on the brink of collapse. Alberta’s lagging vaccination rate is to blame, and the vaccination rate lags because of selfish covid-denying anti-science rednecks. Here are a few facts.
71.3% of Albertans over 12 are fully vaccinated. That’s higher than virtually anywhere in Europe and higher than the Canadian average.
In the week ending Sept.13, 37 Albertans succumbed to covid. The week before, the number was 45. Those numbers are comparable to the peak of the third wave.
During the 2nd wave, before widespread vaccine roll out, weekly death counts were routinely two to three times higher. Did the Alberta health care system collapse?
Alberta has had 272,211 covid cases and a total of 2,471 deaths for a survival rate of over 99%. That too is better than the Canada-wide average of 98%.
While we’re on the topic of deadly pandemics, lets look at that other pandemic snuffing out lives in Alberta, drug overdoses. In 2020 Alberta had a total of 1084 covid deaths and 920 overdose deaths. Average age of covid victims is 80. Average age of overdose victims is less than half that.
And look at what happened to overdose deaths after Alberta began lockdowns. On March 18 2020, the day before Alberta’s first covid death, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, Alberta’s top health boss, made the following statement;
“In order to save lives, I have had to make recommendations that will take away livelihoods for many Albertans over the next several weeks to months.”
That was a year and a half ago. In 2019 overdose deaths in Alberta averaged 66.5 per month. In the 12 months following the first lockdown, the monthly average was 126.
I’m fully aware that correlation is not causation, but there’s obviously a connection.
Do the numbers justify the headlines we’re bombarded with every day?