A Mount Dennis doctor vaccinated “hundreds” of children under 5, according to the Toronto Star.
Sun practices out of the Crosstown Family Health Team clinic.
In a conversation with the Star, Sun said he gave the COVID vaccine to about 500 kids between the ages of six months and five years during a three-month span, a decision he said he made “to protect children.”
Sun, who believes he was “one of the only people in Ontario” vaccinating children under five, said he felt compelled to give the COVID vaccine “off label” to this age group after some parents started to ask for the shot in late December. They told him they wanted to protect their families during the Omicron wave.
The Star says Sun was asked to cease by Toronto Public Health and the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and that he has done so.
There once was a time when roughly speaking, the NDP stood for working people and the Conservatives represented the business classes. The Liberals would carve out the middle, blowing left and right as it suited them.
The Truckers’ Convoy has illustrated a profound shift in those positions. No longer is the NDP the party of the working class. They, along with the Liberals have for some reason decided to vilify the truckers, repeating the lie that they’re a bunch of yahoos, racists and ____phobes (fill in the blank with your choice of prefixes).
The Liberals are currently on the left as well and using the Covid emergency have managed to exercise control over nearly all of Canada’s media outlets. The legacy press has been supported financially through the pandemic with the expectation that the government’s messages would be reflected uncritically. It’s not a good idea to bite the hand that feeds you and with strings attached to the funding, the Liberals have turned almost every media outlet into a state mouthpiece since the money started flowing. If you’re wondering why the Sun and National Post are so pro-government, it might have something to do with the $1.3 million government donation to parent company Postmedia.
Most recently the Liberals have co-opted the press to declare that the truckers have (amongst other atrocities) disrespected the Ottawa War Memorial and the statue of Terry Fox. They have waved swastika and Confederate flags, have openly defecated and urinated in the streets, have stolen from food banks and generally terrorized the people of Ottawa.
Can any of this be true? Yes but in rare and isolated instances and by focusing on isolated unrepresentative occurrences, the government has been able to lie about the true nature of the demonstration in an attempt to sway public opinion. When the same distorted view is reported and repeated by so many outlets the big lie is created.
Is there another side to the story? Going outside the legacy press, there are several bloggers who have reported and even broadcast live from the protests and they tell a different tale. Here’s a sampling of YouTube channels (and a blog) that are presenting a completely different version of the protest. Naturally these people aren’t government funded and that’s why they may be more honest and credible.
It’s essential that news is reported accurately and contrary opinions can be aired. Freedom of speech is a fundamental right – it’s only with the exchange of views that a dialog can exist and opposing sides can come to an understanding.
I know this isn’t local news but COVID affects us all. If you pay attention to the (I hate to say mainstream) conventional media, it appears that a crisis is imminent with regard to hospital beds in Ontario and in particular, intensive care beds. Unlike conventional media, we at Weston Web are not government funded.
There has been a startling increase in infection recently compared to previous waves ofCOVID.
Looking at the data from Ontario’s own excellent website the black line shows the number of hospitalizations since April 2020 while the shaded area shows the daily numbers of active cases. The number of people in hospital has not risen in proportion compared to previous waves.
Despite the huge numbers of infections the latest wave, adult ICU beds don’t appear to be at a crisis point at the moment. In fact, despite rising numbers ofCOVID patients in ICU, availability has increased by 43 beds since January 6th.
While the number ofCOVID patients in ICU is rising, so is bed availability. Over the past 30 days, available ICU beds have been as high as 802 on December 26 to a low of 540 on January 6. Indeed, if we look back a few months, we can see that there is flexibility in the system.
Hospitals have been able to re-assign beds to ICUs in order to meet demand. Between May and July last year there were 2554 ICU beds. The number currently stands at 2343.
The next chart is from the Ontario Science Table – an advisory group to the Government of Ontario. While being fully vaccinated doesn’t fully protect you from gettingCOVID, it vastly lowers your chances of getting severe symptoms. Look at these numbers of hospitalized and ICU patients by vaccine status.
Considering that almost 90% of Ontario adults have been double vaccinated, the rate of severe disease in the unvaccinated is startling.
Interestingly, while being doubly vaccinated lowers the chances of serious infection, recently, it is less protective against COVID as is shown in this next chart.
As of December 23, it appears that fully vaccinated people are more at risk of getting COVID. One can speculate on the reason for this but it’s quite surprising.
Lastly, if there was any doubt remaining; according to the Ontario Science Table, in the last month, Omicron has taken over from Delta as the dominant strain in Ontario.
It won’t be a surprise to hear that COVID cases in Weston are spiking. There were 54 cases in the past 21 days—up from around 10 before omicron. This recent number, of course, may not be accurate given that the testing system is extremely strained.
From the city
If there is good news here, it’s that Weston is no longer among the worst-hit neighbourhoods. In fact, we are among the least affected, with a per-capita infection rate lower than the Toronto average.
In related COVID news, only 6 people contracted COVID in Weston in the past 21 days, down very significantly from an average usually in the mid-20s over the past several months. Great news!
West Park announced some good news this week: they are winding down their COVID vaccination campaign at the Community Place Hub. They vaccinated more than 20,000 people at the Weston Road location. Another 12,000 were vaccinated at West Park.
Thank you to each and every partner organization and the key individuals at each who made the clinics a reality, dealing with supply interruptions and other logistical obstacles with grace and determination.
Thank you to the many clinic staff members, who managed difficult circumstances and evolving information in remarkable fashion.
And, thank you to the people who got the shot and received over 32,500 vaccinations at the clinics. Thank you for helping in the battle against COVID-19.
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