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We had our first lock down in Saskatchewan back in March. The idea was to “flatten the curve”. At the time the virus was advertised as extremely dangerous and we needed to protect ourselves and our loved ones at any cost. Pictures from China of a man literally dropping dead on the street, city workers dressed in hazmat suits spraying down deserted streets with disinfectant and mobile hospitals being built from scratch to keep up with the deadly disease were flashed across our television screens.
Our provincial governments did what any responsible government would do and that is protect their citizens with the message that “we are all in this together”. Our elderly were locked up, small businesses closed down, social distancing became a thing –“better 6 feet apart than 6 feet under”, schools and sports were cancelled and you know the rest of the story.
So now it is the second wave, and we see case numbers spike. Further measures are being implemented such as mask wearing and restrictions on gatherings.
But let us look at some statistics.
I am using Alberta stats as Alberta has about four times our population, (Alberta 4.4 million people and Saskatchewan 1.1 million) our demographics are very similar and their website has a lot more information.
First off, what do the number of cases tell us? I suspect there are many thousands or hundreds of thousands people that have never been tested and many would be asymptomatic which would make the case level much higher than being reported. So, here are the numbers in Alberta.
Cases: 40,189
Deaths 427 or 0.106% of cases recorded but 0.0106% of the total population
Deaths with 1 pre-exiting condition 5.4%
Deaths with 2 or more pre-existing conditions 92.3%
Total Percentages of deaths with pre-existing conditions 97.7%
And remember, these are people that died “with COVID” not necessarily “from COVID.” Never mind that the average age of death is 82 years old, that need not enter the equation. It is the state of health of the individual that evidently is the biggest cause.
Additionally, neither Province has reported a single case of the flu and there have only been 4 in all of Canada! Possibly the flu will strike later, or they included in the COVID numbers, no one knows but the extremely low numbers are startling. Last year in the fall and winter months Alberta reported 8,470 cases of the flu and 39 deaths. Saskatchewan reported 2,547 cases, 36 ICU admissions and 15 deaths.
We all get that we need to take the virus seriously and protect those that are most vulnerable. If you are immune compromised, then you need to take the precautions that you feel is best for you. I am sure most of you have heard of several ways to protect yourself, many of which are questionable. The most common one that keeps coming up from medical professionals including Alberta based Dr. Roger Hodkinson, https://medmaldoctors.ca/dr-roger-hodkinson/ is to take large doses of Vitamin D. He suggests 3,000 to 5,000 iu daily and he currently works in the COVID industry. Hankinson maintains this is not Ebola or SARs but just another bad flu, and the statistics seem to back him up.
The one thing we cannot afford is another lock-down. Small businesses are the backbone of western society and no where is that more prevalent than in the entrepreneurial province of Saskatchewan. These good people are already reeling, and our society must continue to function. If we really are “in this together”, then wouldn’t it be right to say that all businesses share their income. That would include the Costco and Walmart’s that seem to avoid being shut down sharing with those that have suffered.
I haven’t even touched on social aspect of how horrible it is on our elderly being locked away from loved ones or the increase in domestic violence, suicides and drug overdoses that have increased exponentially.
Let’s keep things in perspective and don’t allow ourselves to get whipped into a frenzy. The stats tell the story and Saskatchewan people are resilient and tough, always have been and always will be. Don’t let this miserly bug get the best of us.
In love of this great Province we call Saskatchewan,
Daryl Cooper
