Trudeau threatens restrictions unless citizens get new injections, despite mortality data
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Thursday again threatened his citizens with more COVID-19 mandates if nearly the entire country does not get injected with Moderna’s bivalent new Omicron shot.
“One of the things to remember is, COVID’s not done with us,” said Trudeau in Manitoba last week. “We may be want to be done with it,” he chuckled, “but it’s still around. And yes, we have a lot more tools, a lot more understanding, a lot more knowledge that have allowed us to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe, that have allowed us to get back to regular life for a whole bunch of people. But we also know that as winter comes and as people get pushed back indoors, there is a real risk of another serious wave of COVID.”
Then the prime minister made his first threat that mandates would return.
“One of the best things we can do to prevent that wave, prevent the pressure on our healthcare system, prevent provinces from having to make decisions around restrictions and mandates is to make sure that everyone is up to date in their vaccinations.
“The recommendation is, you know, you should be up to date in your vaccinations if you have a – have had a dose within six months. Everyone who has been a while since their vaccination...should look at the fact that we have new vaccines coming out this month that are tailored against Omicron that will provide better protection and everyone should get out and get vaccinated.”
Trudeau then threatened restrictions again.
"If we are able to hit that 80-90% of Canadians up to date on their vaccinations, we'll have a much better winter with much less need for the kinds of restrictions and rules that were so problematic for everyone over the past years," he said.
In July, journalist Alex Berenson reported on official data from the Manitoban government showing that in May, the last month for which data broken down by vaccination status is available, “vaccinated but unboosted people were about 50 percent more likely to be hospitalized or die of Covid than unvaccinated people. People who had received boosters had roughly the same risk of hospitalization or death as the unvaccinated.”
Those were the data for Week 30, the reporting period ending July 30th.
Following the release of these data, the Manitoban government announced that beginning Week 31 (August), it would no longer be including vaccination status in its COVID-19 reports.
“Monthly updates about severe outcomes after vaccination have been discontinued starting Week 31,” says the government in its latest report. “Manitoba Health will continue to monitor COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness and report periodically when data allow. COVID-19 vaccines continue to provide important protection against serious illness following infection due to all variants of concern (VOC) of COVID-19.”
