Western Champions of Hamas Death-Cult

"We, the undersigned, residing in so-called Canada, urge Canadian leaders..."

"[The expulsion of Ontario's NDP MPP Sarah Jama] exposes the bankrupt situational morality of Canadian politics in a settler colonial country that can only but support white settler politics elsewhere as the condition of its own existence."

Partial contents of letter 

 

"What kind of organization would carry out such hideous violence against such obviously innocent people, and do it in the most cruel and odious manner and then willingly publicize it for all the world to see?"

"This is evil in its purest form, and that evil must be defeated."

Canadian Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre

Hamas shared a photo of a terrorist kidnapping a bloodied victim near the Gaza Strip.

Dozens of Canadian academics and organizations signed a letter that denies Israeli women were 'sexually violated' by Hamas terrorists on that fateful day of October 7. Samantha Person, director of the University of Alberta's sexual-assault centre signed that letter among others, and was duly fired. The denial of video evidence of sexual violence committed by Hamas is a message so twisted it cannot be countenanced. Decency forbids it, even as committed antisemites celebrate it as just desserts.

"I unequivocally agree with the University of Alberta's decision to dismiss the director. All spaces, including university campuses, need to be safe for all."

"Antisemitism of any kind must not be tolerated."

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith

Yet that letter was endorsed by 41 organizations and 18 individuals from the "research community", and 30 from "civil society". Four from University of Alberta; a full professor in education; two assistant lecturers, one of whom is in women's and gender studies; and a post-doctoral researcher. According to the body of the letter, all Canadian political parties "dehumanize Palestinians, facilitating Israeli-led genocide against them".

 

Politicians who fail to demand an immediate ceasefire, must resign, according to the document. Israel released a one-minute, 28-second video of two  young women desperately attempting to escape from an armed man in black, wearing the green Hamas headband. Edited together from security camera footage at Kibbutz Alumim, a collective farm of some 120 families located about a kilometre from the border with Gaza. 

 

Attendees scatter as violence breaks out at the festival.

 

The kibbutz is almost adjacent to the site of the Re'im music festival where Hamas operatives, some arriving by paraglider, slaughtered at least 364 young people from dawn onward. It was at this kibbutz that a gathering point had been conceived to receive festival survivors -- before it, too, was stormed shortly after 7:00 a.m. by Hamas terrorists. In the video shocked escapees gather at the compound's front gate. One woman sits on a curb, another comforts her.

Eight minutes later they all scramble at the sight of Hamas terrorists running to the gate with raised weapons. One of the terrorists breaks into a run toward two women, slower than the others as the group scatters in panic. Ten seconds on, the terrorist grabs a woman dressed in a flowing black skirt, grabbing her by her hair; a puff is seen, and she drops, dead. The second woman a few metres from the terrorist drops to the ground begging for her life. 

The terrorist turns his attention briefly to aim several shots at others running away, then shoots the pleading women crouching before him in the head. Dozens who escaped the first massacres at the music festival were murdered along the roads or in neighbouring communities where they fled to find shelter. Dashcam videos from Oz Davidian, a farmer living nearby, circulated last week, informing the world that he rescued over a hundred survivors from the festival grounds, speeding through Hamas-held areas, picking up people in over a dozen trips back and forth at risk of his own life.

 

At one point, Davidian drove by a group of people he thought were Israeli paramedics and soldiers but were actually terrorists.

That day of October 7, the Hamas terrorists had virtually unchallenged control of Route 232, large sections of Israel's southwestern highway. A lengthy stretch of roadway strewn with abandoned and burnt vehicles and dead bodies are seen from the footage from Davidian's truck. "You see piles of corpses on top of each other, as if they were together and had just been slaughtered" explained Davidian in translated narration. 

 

One of the people he rescued thought he was a member of the Israeli security agency Shin Bet because of his remarkable actions amid the carnage.

Kibbutz Alumim's fate was not as dreadful as Kibbutz Be'eri, almost destroyed. Its small security force co-ordinated an impromptu defence of the compound until the Israeli Defense Forces arrived just after midnight. Hamas massacred nine Thai workers and ten Nepali student labourers at Kibbutz Alumim. It is now evacuated, with a skeleton crew left to maintain the dairy herd. 

A week following the invasion, barns were still smouldering from Hamas-set fires. Yet despite the carnage, and the evidence of sadistic violence in the rape and murder of 1,200 innocent civilians, the hostage-taking of 240 children, elderly, infirm, and soldiers, the world of academia and unions in Canada turns its back and revels in their version of events; the victory of 'resistance'.

The massacres were praised as "Palestinian anticolonial resistance" by University of Toronto professor and 'decolonization' expert Uahikea Maile. As for Kibbutz Alumim, its ownership of the land on which it sits predates the 1948 State of Israel. The land was bought from Arab landowners by the Jewish National Fund during the British era of control. It sits geographically in land designated Jewish in the UN original Partition plan.

Israeli farmer Oz Davidian (right) rescued about 120 survivors of the Hamas massacre at a music festival by driving back and forth to pick up as many people as he could while being shot at by the terrorists.

 

Deadly Marine Fire At Newark Port

 "Access is tough. The heat is extreme. It's a steel box. So it's a very complex situation."

"You can do all the training int he world and you're going to find something you've nevr seen before."

Gordon Lorenson, Donjon Marine, salvage

Associated Press

 

For three days a cargo ship docked at the biggest port on the U.S. East Coast smouldered and was expected to continue burning for several more days while firefighters desperately tried to control the blaze. Two New Jersey firefighters died trying to battle the blaze, leading to authorities contemplating just how well first responders are being trained. The Italian-flagged vessel carrying cars and other goods was at port in Newark,and what caused the fire will not be known until an investigation takes place once the fire has been extinguished. 

Jets of water were blasted onto the ship to contain the intense heat by a crew of twenty firefighters, salvage workers and a New York fire boat. The fire burned on t he 10th through the 12th levels at the rear of the ship, with flames occasionally flaring up from the top level. This is a huge vessel, the situation couldn't be more dangerous unless there were also explosives on board.

Fire crews were tasked with pouring enough water on the vessel to douse the flames; too much water, on the other hand, could cause the ship to tilt, so the next step is to pump the water off the ship. It did list slightly to its right, but then was stabilized, according to the president of Gallagher Marine Systems, representing the ship's owner, the Grimaldi Group.

Marine Insight

There was a grim silence with authorities declinin to respond to questions whether firefighters should have entered harm's way to put the blaze out given that no lives appeared at risk on te ship from among its 28 crew members. The city has an agreement with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey covering response to fires. They share conversations "today and going forward in terms of training".

Lorenson of Donjon Marine explained that shipboard fires are distinctly unique from one event to the next and even with something of this nature in progress, things can change. According to Newark Fire Chief Rufus Jackon, the department had trained on passenger-carrying ships oreviously, however not the specific type of cargo vessl now being confronted.

Marine traffic trackers indicate the ship, built in 2011, had arrived from the Port of Baltimore several days earlier, carrying ovr 1,200 new and used cars, vans and trucks. The fire occurred on Wenesday at 9:30 p.m.; a maday call went out an hour later when two firefighters became tripped inside the vessel. Firefighter Augusto Acabou was rescued before midnight, and died in hospital the next morning. Wayne Brooks Jr. died early Thursday moring, following having been recovered from the ship.

Left: Wayne Brooks, Jr. and right: Augusto Acabou

 

Another five firefighters were injured, with "steam burns from water accumulated on the cargo ship's floor", the other four suffering heat exhaustion, smoke inhalation and respiratory distress. All three Newark fire captains were released from the hospital. The burn victim was in stable condition, completing his recovery at home.

"[Marine firefighting specialists made considerable progress after] actively conducting fire suppression both pier-side and on the water."

"As of Saturday afternoon, the fire is contained on the 11th deck and is being suppressed and no longer spreading to other areas of the vessel."

Coast Guard message

 

Benighted Vaccine Ignorance: Thinning of the Eastern European Population

"It's not a tall tale. I see that this disease kills, and strong immunity wouldn't be enough -- only a vaccine can offer protection."

"I'm really scared and I'm pleading with doctors to help me correct my mistake [buying a fake vaccination certificate for his travel documents hauling cargo to European points]."

"You can't heat this illness. You can buy a counterfeit certificate, but you can't buy antibodies."

"Ukrainians are slowly starting to realize there is no alternative to vaccination."

Andriy Melnik, truck driver, Kyiv, Ukraine

"We're seeing low vaccine uptake in a whole swath of countries across that part of the region [Eastern Europe]."

"Historical issues around vaccines come to play. In some countries, the whole vaccine issue is politicized."

Catherine Smallwood, Europe COVID-19 incident manager, World Health Organization

"We are on the verge of catastrophe, pushed by aggressive opponents of vaccination and the lack of funds."

"Regrettably, five workers in my ward have quit over the past week."

Dr.Serhiy Shvets, head, surgical ward, Biliaivka Hospital, Ukraine

"I'm weeping in despair when I see that 99 percent of patients in serious condition with COVID-19 are unvaccinated, and those people could have protected themselves."

"We are left struggling to save them without sufficient drugs and resources."

"Fake stories have spread widely, making people believe in microchips and genetic mutations."

:Some Orthodox priests have openly and aggressively urged people not to get vaccinated, and social networks have been filled with the most absurd rumours."

"Ukrainians have learned to distrust any authorities' initiatives, and vaccination isn't an exclusion."

Dr.Olha Kobevko infectious disease specialist, Chernivtsi Hospital, Ukraine 

A medic tends to coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients at the intensive care unit (ICU) of Pirogov hospital in Sofia, Bulgaria, October 15, 2021. Photo: October 15, 2021. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov

 

On the African continent, populations vulnerable to the SARS-CoV-2 virus causing COVID in every country have little option over whether or not to be inoculated against the novel coronavirus. They haven't the opportunity, since vaccines of any type and origin are scarce, and where vaccines are available they're short-dated and there is a serious lack of syringes. The WHO  calls this lack of equity. It is the wealthy countries of the world that are swimming in vaccines.

And there anti-vaxxers and vaccine-hesitant people in significant numbers represent the only deterrence to having the majority of any population inoculated against COVID. The promises made by advanced countries in the West with ample access to medical equipment and vaccine doses to provide the WHO vaccine-sharing program Covax with doses for the less advanced countries of the world are not meeting their obligations. In Europe there is no shortage of vaccines. The EU is acknowledged as having a high rate of vaccine coverage altogether.

And then, there is Eastern Europe, a dismal failure in vaccine uptake by its populations. Unsurprisingly, as a result of resistance to vaccines, the countries of Eastern Europe are facing a catastrophic rise of     COVID cases, hospitalizations and deaths. Exceptions to the widespread trend of vaccine rejection are the Baltic nations, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Hungary. Public distrust is driving a low uptake of vaccines in other Eastern European countries, however.

 

Medical workers carry a patient suspected of having coronavirus on a stretcher at a hospital in Kommunarka, outside Moscow, Russia, Monday, Oct. 11, 2021    AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko

 

There were 1,159 recorded COVID-related deaths in Russia in 24 hours, last week, the largest daily death count since the beginning of the pandemic. Roughly a third of the country's 146 million population has been fully vaccinated. In response, the Kremlin ordered a nonworking period to last to November 7. In Hungary private companies can require their employees to be vaccinated if they want to retain their employment, and government employees are required to be be vaccinated. 

Poland reported its highest number of daily infections at over 8,000 last Thursday. A mere 15 percent of the adult population in Ukraine is fully vaccinated, representing the second-lowest rate in Europe, following Armenia's 7 percent. Teachers, government employees and other workers are required to be fully vaccinated by November 8 in Ukraine to avoid suspension in pay. People may not board planes, trains or long-distance buses without proof of vaccination or a negative test.

A black market in counterfeit documents has emerged with fake vaccination certificates selling for $100 to $300. Police have opened 800 criminal cases into workers at 15 hospitals in Ukraine being involved in counterfeit certificates, with 100 mobile units deployed to track down users, according to the Interior Minister. Last week, a former lawmaker was among those arrested. In the western city of Chernivtsi, ten to 23 patients die daily of COVID, with those aged in their 30s and 40s impacted.

Believing the rumours that Western vaccines contain microchips to control people, Lidia Buiko, 72, chose the Chinese Sinovac vaccine: "Priests have urged us to think twice about getting immunized -- it would be impossible to get rid of the chip", she explained, waiting for her injection in a Kyiv clinic. It is estimated that roughly half of Ukrainian medical workers express vaccine reluctance. "The risks of misinformation to vaccination have never been  higher; nor have the stakes", commented     UNICEF representative in Ukraine Murat Sahin.

About 35 percent of vaccine-eligible adults in Romania are fully immunized where tighter restrictions are in effect requiring vaccination certificates for attending a gym, the movies or shopping malls. With a 10 p.m. curfew, shops close at 9 p.m., bars and nightclubs shuttered for 30 days, and masks are mandatory in public. 

 

Bulgaria has a quarter of its adult population fully vaccinated and reports record numbers of infections and deaths. Official data identify Bulgaria with the highest COVID-19 mortality rate in the 27-nation European Union, with 94 percent of deaths representing the unvaccinated.Authorities in Georgia launched a lottery of cash prizes to entice the population to be vaccinated, where 33 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated.

"[So many are] afraid of the vaccines because of the immense [amount of] fake information that has flooded social media and TV."

"Every day we see people arriving with shortness of breath and most of them are feeling sorry for not being vaccinated."

Dr.Dragos Zaharia, Marius Nasta Institute of Pneumology, Bucharest

"[The government's information campaign] was not designed according to the peculiarities of our country."

"The emphasis should have been done, for instance, on the Georgian Orthodox church, because we have many instances when priests are saying that vaccination is a sin."

Dr.Bidzina Kulumbegov, Georgia

A healthcare worker is waiting for patients at a Covid-19 vaccination centre at The Military Medical Academy in Sofia.

Delta Transmission Among U.S. Unvaccinated

Crowds on Bourbon Street in New Orleans in late July. The Delta coronavirus variant is driving record-breaking case counts in Louisiana and other states.  Kathleen Flynn/Reuters

"The bottom line is this: We have the scientific tools we need to turn the corner on this pandemic."

"Vaccination works and will protect us from the severe complications of COVID-19."

Centers for Disease Control Director Rochelle Walensky 

"This moderate decline [diminishing effectiveness against hospitalizations among adults 75 and older] should be interpreted with caution and might be related to changes in the virus that causes COVID-19, weakening vaccine-induced immunity as more time passes since vaccination, or a combination of factors."

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report

"We've been patient."

"But our patience is wearing thin and your refusal [to be vaccinated] has cost all of us."

U.S. President Joe Biden

"The vaccines remain very protective against severe disease."

"I think we set our expectations too high for vaccines, thinking they were going to prevent people from getting infected and transmitting the virus."

William Moss, executive director, International Vaccine Access Center, John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Medical staff treat a COVID-19 coronavirus patient at a hospital   AFP via Getty Images

 

The CDC estimates that the highly transmissible Delta variant is accountable for over 99 percent of new coronavirus infections. But this is a reality not only in the United States, but globally, where new waves of mass infections are bedevilling government agencies and medical communities who had speculated that with the mass inoculation of populations vulnerable to contracting the novel coronavirus, spread of the virus would decelerate and come to a halt, the viral spread coming under control.

Even countries like Australia and New Zealand which had formerly served as an aspirational success story in stopping the spread of the virus by stern lockdown measures that not all countries were prepared to emulate, are now in the throes of spreading waves of COVID-19, straining their abilities to cope. Neither country however, was in the forefront of mass vaccinations. The toll of the virus in the United States has been spectacularly awful.

Over 650 thousand Americans have died from having contracted COVID-19, racking up an average 1,500 daily deaths in the past several weeks. Over 99 percent of new coronavirus infections are now attributed to the Delta variant. Those Americans who shunned full vaccinations were seen to be over ten times likelier to be  hospitalized, eleven times more likely to die of COVID-19 than those fully vaccinated. This from a newly-released study published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The largest study to date of the effectiveness of the three vaccines cleared for use in the U.S. involving 32,000 patients from hospitals, emergency departments and urgent care clinics across nine states assessed the Moderna coronavirus vaccine to be moderately more efficacious in preventing hospitalization than Pfizer-BioNTech's and Johnson & Johnson's. Collectively, the study indicated, all three were 86 percent effective but a significantly higher rate was seen among Moderna vaccine recipients (95 percent) than Pfizer's (80 percent) or Johnson & Johnson (60 percent).

 

Sweeping vaccine mandates were announced by the Biden administration mandate to curb the surging infection rate of the Delta variant. A rate of infection expected to increase and with it the pressure exerted on the tens of millions of Americans resisting vaccination. Most federal government employees are required by mandate to be vaccinated. Large employers are mandated as well to have their workers inoculated or to be tested weekly. A regulation that would impact close to two-thirds of all U.S. workers.

 

Concerns of waning immunity and the efficacy of protection through the vaccines against a more contagious variant are uppermost in mind within the U.S. medical community, reflected by the recently released CDC studies, reflecting broadly consistent data whose findings from other studies are that the vaccines continue to provide strong protection for most people against hospitalization and death, Delta surge included. With the exception of adults in the highest age brackets, those in particular with underlying medical conditions.

 

These concerns have led the CDC to advise the administration now preparing to roll out boosters, awaiting the word of the health authorities advising government. The first brand approved as a booster by the Food and Drug Administration is Pfizer, given its timely submission of data on the safety and effectiveness of boosting its two-shot regimen with a third shot, with other vaccines' approval expected to follow.  

 

Amir Hamja ... Bloomberg ... Getty

"After a steady decline in cases earlier this year, Delta caused a troubling rise in cases of COVID-19 and an increase in hospitalizations around the country. The variant has turned out to be more than twice as contagious as previous ones, and studies have shown that it is more likely than the original virus to put infected people in the hospital, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). People who are not vaccinated are most at risk, and the highest spread of cases and severe outcomes is happening in places with low vaccination rates."
"In the U.S., there is a disproportionate number of unvaccinated people in Southern and Appalachian states including Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, Missouri, and West Virginia, where vaccination rates are low. (In some of these states, the number of cases is on the rise even as some other states are lifting restrictions because their cases are going down)."

Yale Medicine

The Grim COVID Tallies

"All the Thanksgiving travel ensures no one will catch us, either [in terms of outdistancing the U.S. numbers of COVID cases]."

"The U.S. 'each person for himself' mindset is killing hundreds of thousands of us."

"Devastating to watch."

Dr.Tatiana Prowell, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

"I know we can and we will beat this virus."

"Life is going to return to normal. I promise you. This will happen. This [global pandemic] will not last forever."

U.S.President-Elect Joe Biden

 

"We will very likely, and pending authorization by health authorities, start vaccination of the most vulnerable populations, hence the elderly, as soon as the end of December, early January."

French President Emmanuel Macron

 

"We must learn from the summer and not repeat the same mistakes."

"Relaxing too fast and too much is a risk for a third wave after Christmas."

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen

The global coronavirus tally has surpassed 60 million. Source: Angela Weiss/AFP

Around the globe countries are agonizing or stalling over the demonstrated necessity to once again curb peoples' freedoms. And this ahead of the most convivial, traditionally cheerful celebratory holiday in the Christian calendar, Christmas, followed by New Year's, at a time when people are fed up with limitations to their daily, weekly, monthly activities normal times have accustomed them to, not as privileges but as entitlements of a civilizational society.

But necessity is the mother of these curtailments of normalcy, as global infections continue to rise, surpassing 60 million just a day earlier. In this climate of burgeoning cases abroad and even more so in the United States, American officials plead with their public to remain home over Thanksgiving and looking ahead to Christmas, there is no sign that these cautionary health measures will be lifted.

Governments across the U.S. are bracing themselves for the inevitable, as millions of Americans ignore the pleas and get on with their Thanksgiving travel plans as they always have, as they feel they always will, as they are compelled to do both instinctively as free agents and reactively, as Americans free to comport themselves as they will. Little wonder the U.S. leads the world in COVID numbers.

In a single day's count, deaths from COVID have now surpassed 2,000 for the first time since the original May invasionary wave. A record 88,000 hospitalizations have been tallied with the country recording 2.3 million new infections in the space of two weeks. Health authorities continue to urge the public to set aside large family gatherings this year, to wear protective face masks and to maintain social distancing, despite knowing their audience.

The good news that Pfizer and Moderna are seeking emergency use permission for their vaccines which have yielded hopeful results in their Third Phase trials have buoyed hopes for an early release from the COVID threat on the world stage. Realistically, an approved vaccine will not be widely available for months to come for the general public. Science continues to impose its rigorous standards for safety alongside effectiveness.

 

The WHO singled out Switzerland’s move to allow skiing. Source: KEYSTONE

 

 

One million new cases have been recorded in just over five days in Europe, totalling over 15 million European cases of COVID, and 365,000 deaths, staggering numbers. Across Europe governments struggle with the need to impose public life restrictions, cavilling over permitting families to celebrate Christmas safely. A national lockdown in Britain is due to complete by next week while Germany, Spain and Italy have announced restrictions over the holiday period.

On Wednesday Germany reported 410 COVID-19 deaths in 24 hours, initial to Chancellor Angela Merkel and her 16 federal state leaders discussing an extension of restrictions through December into Christmas and New Year celebrations. The highest daily toll since March 28 was reported by Italy at 853 deaths, soaring past the 630 it registered the previous day.

An additional 16,282 new cases were announced in France, an increase from the 9,155 new cases recorded the previous day and 4,452 the day before that. Hope-piercing number from every direction, with no end in sight other than fervent wishes for a release from this misery once the first of the vaccines is released for a massive inoculation of the world population. 

 

France's death toll rose to 50,618, with a total of 29,972 patients in hospital, and 4,148 in intensive care units. Including Russia, the European region registered 17.1 million infections with 388,000 deaths. In 52 European countries 1.7 million new cases were documented last week, ten percent fewer than the week before lending hope that the pandemic is stalling. Lithuania and Norway extended their restrictions to mid-December.

 

After Europe, the U.S. and Canada combined logged 13 million cases with 272,183 deaths; Latin America and the Caribbean follow with 12.6 million cases, 438,098 deaths, and finally Asia with 12.1 million cases and 190,108 deaths.

 

Following is the Middle East with 3.2 million cases and 75,700 deaths; Africa with 2.1 million cases and 50,422 deaths, and Oceania totalling over 30,000 cases and 941 deaths. India has logged 9,308,871 cases resulting in 135,752 deaths to date.

More than 135,752 people have died of Covid-19 in India   AFP

Crowded Long-Term Care Homes : Patients at High Risk for COVID 

"Too often, the building and the physical infrastructure gets forgotten in this conversation."
"[But] public health experts ... would know on face value that that's sort of infection-prevention 101: crowded rooms are bad."
Dr.Nathan Stall, geriatrician, Mt.Sinai Hospital, Toronto

"We saw the numbers -- then shared that information with government and said, 'We have a very large problem here'."
"We need to prepare today to look at alternate accommodations and solutions ... We have to move very quickly."
Donna Duncan, CEO, Ontario Long Term Care Association

Verla Pacey, 102, waves through a window at Stoneridge Manor Long Term Care Home in Carleton Place, Ont., where six residents died of COVID-19. Pacey survived the virus. (Supplied)

Some of the havoc caused by COVID-19 in nursing homes where the highest mortality rates in Canada were seen among the elderly, boosting Canada's death rate attributable to the effects of the novel coronavirus, had a quite simple explanation, according to a new study. Elderly and health-impaired residents kept in shared accommodation turned out to be a particularly lethal arrangement.

Close to 300 long-term care resident deaths in one province alone could have been prevented, had the residents been housed in two-bed, rather than the ward-like four-bed rooms, according to the research results. Ontario scientists from University of Toronto, McMaster University and Public Health Ontario highlighted a clear association in the degree of crowding in the homes -- the number of people sharing a room and lavatory -- and the spread of the hugely contagious COVID virus.

The elderly living in the most tightly packed of the facilities turned out to be twice as susceptible to being infected and to perish, in comparison to those living in the least-crowded homes, according to the paper. When the pandemic struck, one in every four long-term care residents was housed in four-bed rooms.

Ontario standards introduced in 1999 held that new facilities would plan for no more than two people for each room, while older homes, mostly for-profit enterprises, were encouraged to retrofit to the same standards. According to Dr.Stall however, few have committed to making those changes to meet the new standards of two people per room.

A new report by the Canadian Institute for Health Information underscores that nursing homes have seen about 80 percent of Canda's 8,500 deaths. The per-capita number of long-term-care deaths averages among like industrialized countries, according to the Institute report. Yet Canada's deaths exceed those of other Organization of Economic Co-opration and Development members.

OECD countries saw deaths in their long-term care homes averaging 42 percent, ranging from under ten percent in Slovenia and Hungary up to 55 percent in Spain. As a percentage of the nation's total COVID-19 death rate, deaths in Canada attributable to COVID, exceed the record of other OECD members.

The Ontario Long Term Care Association says that about ten percent of residents live in four-bed rooms and that converting them to two-bed accommodation at the present time would effectively remove 4,300 places from the system, at a time when waiting lists for nursing home places currently stands at 36,000.

In anticipating the arrival of a second pandmic, Ms.Duncan feels the province should consider the conversion of existing unused building space such as vacant hospitals, hotels or arenas, into long-term care housing. Facilities were ranked in the study on the density of housing ranging  from those with mostly single rooms to homes with only four-person rooms.

The infection spread was seen to be higher in crowded houses with 9.7 percent infected as opposed to 4.5 percent in the least crowded of the homes; deaths 2.7 percent and 1.3 percent respectively. Placing all residents who were in four-bed rooms into two-bed accommodations would have prevented 988 COVID-19 cases and 271 deaths.

Past surveys reveal that 80 percent of residents would select a private room over a shared one, according to the paper. Most four-bed rooms are located in older facilities, with high occupancy rooms having curtains to separate residents, but "curtains are no match for this" virus pointed out Ms.Duncan. Unsurprisingly, an earlier study found that outbreaks were significantly higher in for-profit homes.

People show support for staff and residents at Ottawa's Carlingview Manor long-term care home, a for-profit facility owned by Revera that has experienced 61 deaths due to COVID-19. (Francis Ferland/CBC)

Sweden's Best-Laid Plans

"The curves look to be slowly but surely pointing downwards, but there is still a lot of strain on all parts of the healthcare sector."
"This is something [misleading to focus on the death toll over a single week] we should look at when it's all over."
"We never really calculated with a high death toll initially, I must say. We calculated on more people being sick, but the death toll really came as a surprise to us."
"I am not saying we are successful in all different ways. I mean our death toll is really something we worry a lot about."
"It's very difficult to keep the disease away from there [nursing homes]. Even if we are doing our best, it's obviously not enough."
"We are not putting anybody's lives above everybody else's lives — that's not the way we're working."
"We really thought our elderly homes would be much better at keeping this disease outside of them then they have actually been."
Anders Tegnell, state epidemiologist, spokesman, Swedish coronavirus strategy

"You want to support your own government and strategy."
"But Sweden is going against the whole world [in its coronavirus open-society strategy]."
Frode Forland, Norway's state epidemiologist 

"Norway, Denmark and Iceland have managed to stabilize their situation, but in Sweden the situation is more alarming."
Maria Ohisalo, Finnish interior minister

Sweden kept pubs and restaurants open while neighboring opted for more stringent measures (ALI LORESTANI/TT News Agency/AFP via Getty Images)

Alone among Nordic nations, Sweden had decided to keep their schools open, as well as bars and restaurants, while gatherings of up to 50 people were allowed. Swedes went about their normal daily routines with few disruptions. The determination to behave as though nothing out-of-the-ordinary was occurring despite the presence of COVID-19 infecting people, causing deaths, was one the government gambled would pay off in the end, by establishing herd immunity, and the Swedish population appeared more than willing to be part of this experiment.

The reasoning went that while Sweden would initially experience more cases of COVID than its locked-down neighbours, and there would be more deaths as a result of its open-for-business decision meant to save its economy from total ruin, as was being experienced globally, the other nations would eventually relax their closed policies, and their cases and deaths would increase as a result. The disparity between Sweden's cases and death toll and that of its neighbours would then disappear, but Sweden's herd immunity would ensure its toll stopped rising, and its economy would be intact.

Swedish PM Stefan Lofven,  Picture: EPASource:NewsComAu

The best-laid plans of mice and men do often go astray, as the famous saying goes, and in this instance, it appears to have gone quite awry, with Sweden now overtaking the U.S., Italy, U.K. and Belgium with the distinction of having the highest coronavirus per capita death rate in the world. The avoidance of lockdown doesn't look too sterling a decision, after all. The Our World in Data website has Sweden with 6.08 deaths per million people daily on a seven-day average between May 13 and 20.

The world's steepest, beating that of the United Kingdom, Belgium and the U.S. with their own specifics of 5.57, 4.28 and 4.11 respectively, even though over the course of the pandemic Belgium, Spain, Italy, the U.K. and France are still ahead of Sweden in their total case numbers and deaths. Sweden's state epidemiologist is none too impressed however, arguing the figures attached to a single week are simply misleading.

 Picture: AFP/GettySource:NewsComAu

Swedes appear to be satisfied, their government's decision had high approval from among the population at large. And globally, populations anxious to see an end to restrictions over fears of COVID have been cheering Sweden's choice, pointing out the country would now be in better shape to ward off the worst of a second wave, given their acquired herd immunity status. Norway, Denmark and Finland have chosen to criticize their neighbour, all of whom had placed their populations under much tighter restrictions, and consequently saw much fewer deaths.

Swedish virologist, Lens Einhorn, one of a group of 22 Swedish scientists and researchers who right from the beginning challenged the country's strategy, commented how frustrated they feel that despite the outcome of Sweden's 'experiment' in chance leading to a high infection and death rate, Mr.Tegnell and his group adamantly refused to change the strategy, irrespective of the growing evidence of failure in the government's trust that its decision to keep society open and the economy running failed to meet expectations so spectacularly.

On the other hand, polls leave the impression that the Swedish population at large was more overtly concerned over the impact on employment had the country closed down as its neighbours did. Swedes appear to have placed the economy and national welfare on a firmer footing of agreement over the government decision, than the fall-out of deaths that occurred, in majority form among the institutionalized elderly and health-impaired.

The strategy that the Swedish government chose, based in large part on voluntary measures with respect to social distancing and basic hygiene has seen criticism by many outsiders as a potentially dangerous experiment, gambling with peoples' lives. It did, however, appear to have gained approval in one significant area of authority, with the World Health Organization seemingly prepared to view Sweden as a future model approved by the WHO.

People outside in Stockholm on April 22.

ANDERS WIKLUND/TT NEWS AGENCY/AFP via Getty Images

COVID-19 Measures : Lockdown or Common Sense?

"It seems like the lockdowns don't add a whole lot after you've done other social distancing measures."
"[On the other hand], the research on isolation and centralized quarantine is extensive and compelling. We know this works."
"As long as your life doesn't require you to be gathered in large groups, life here is pretty normal [where he lives and works, in Hong Kong]."
"Ideas go viral. When something works people imitate it and it appeared that the lockdown in Wuhan worked. If you follow the official guidance you never lose the lawsuit."
"Information is the most powerful tool we have. Getting good information out there is important."

Lyman Stone, researcher, American Enterprise Institute, Hong Kong

"By quickly implementing public health measures, Hong Kong has demonstrated that COVID-19 transmission can be effectively contained without resorting to the highly disruptive complete lockdown adopted by China, the United States, and Western European countries."
Benjamin Cowling, professor, School of Public Health, University of Hong Kong

"Simulations show that the overall burden is expected to be similar across countries, resulting in about 528 to 544 deaths per million."
"Unlike its peers, Sweden is likely to take the hit sooner and over a shorter period, with the majority of deaths occurring within weeks, rather than months."
Paul W.Franks, professor of genetic epidemiology, Lund University, Sweden

A study published on April 17 in The Lancet medical journal surveyed people on how they were adapting to the COVID-19 outbreak and found that 85 per cent were avoiding public places voluntarily and almost 99 per cent were wearing face masks outside.

The world looks toward Sweden for its approach to handling the country's response to the presence of a high contagious, vicious virus represented by COVID-19, ravaging populations in Europe, with Italy and Spain particularly hard hit with the number of cases and subsequent deaths among their populations, despite going into lockdown. Sweden, unlike its close neighbours, Denmark and Norway, decided to opt for a more open approach, closing most schools but otherwise ensuring that life would go on as normal, depending on the good sense and choices of Swedes to observe social distancing.

Sweden's high-risk experiment was a gamble the government decided on to see whether it could succeed in avoiding having its intensive care units overwhelmed. That outcome would serve as vindication of the government's decision-making. If matters turned out otherwise, "health care professionals in Sweden will face the fight of their lives", since it was at their scientific promptings the government was led to make the choice for a continued open society..

Sweden permitted bars and restaurants to remain open as well as schools for younger children. In Hong Kong, all schools were closed and everyone diligently wore face masks, taking personal responsibility for their health outcomes with the virus, but not shutting the city down as China did, and most Western societies as well. Lyman Stone, the American Enterprise researcher who lives in Hong Kong, is convinced that the world's response to the novel coronavirus by shutting down everything is unwarranted, that people should be trusted to observe physical distancing on their own.

"As long as  your life doesn't require you to be gathered in large groups, life here is pretty normal", he explained. Workers have been encouraged to work from home, and schools have closed, but restaurants remain open and shopping malls are full of shoppers. Hong Kong, with its population of 7.5 million, in close proximity to China has seen four people die from COVID-19. By the end of April there were almost 3,000 deaths in firmly locked-down, business-and-school-closed-down Canada.

A protester is interviewed as he demands the removal of the provincial coronavirus disease (COVID-19) restrictions outside the Ontario legislature in Toronto, Ontario, Canada April 25, 2020. Chris Helgren / Reuters

People in Hong Kong remember the 2003 SARS outbreak that hit really hard in Hong Kong. Masks are worn when colds or the flu appear imminent, and physical distancing becomes second nature every time a new outbreak is reported. The medical journal The Lancet published a study which surveyed how people were adapting to the COVID-19 outbreak, with the result that 85 percent avoided public places voluntarily, with close to 99 percent wearing face masks when out in public.

Before school closures and physical distancing in Hong Kong every person with the flu infected 1.28 people while after the automatic return to social distancing the infection number was reduced to 0.73. A similar effect is likely for COVID-19, according to researchers. The Hong Kong government believes the infection rate for COVID is somewhere below 0.5.

What defines a lockdown is people ordered to remain in their homes other than for essential trips. Disallowing people to mingle with others socially, with the exception of their own household and many businesses in a lockdown are ordered to close, with most social activities of any kind banned temporarily. The adoption of stay-at-home measures in most Western countries was based on world Health Organization guidelines, which in turn based its advice on China's reaction to the coronavirus.

Lyman Stone analyzed the imposition of protective measures in Spain, France and Italy, finding that deaths attributable to COVID-19 in Spain plateaued some ten to fifteen days following lockdown. Deaths were declining in Spain before the lockdowns even started, he found, since it takes about 20 days for death from the disease to occur, from the day of infection. People had adjusted their behaviour based on information about the virus even before government forced them to.

Trusted sources giving information appeared to have a large impact on people's behaviour in the United States, when for example celebrity figures confirmed they tested positive for COVID. Such revelations in tandem with a state of public alarm impacted on people's consciousness. One of the best methods to fight an epidemic, according to Mr. Stone, is the closure of schools and keeping children distant from one another, just as school closures are vital for influenza epidemics since children become the biggest spreaders.

Travel restrictions between states represent yet another important tactic in non-lockdown situations, a move readily taken in Asian countries in close proximity to the early coronavirus outbreak in China where Vietnam immediately imposed travel restrictions, giving them time to invest in other measures, the result being that no deaths were experienced in the country. A ban on large gatherings is another important measure, affecting 50 to 100 people. And still leaving restaurants open, where people maintain social distancing.

Centralized quarantine and generalized mask use have been commonplace in many Asian countries since the outbreak, whereas in Western countries a gradual approach was common. A sophisticated system to track, isolate and feed people in a centralized quarantine area in Taiwan, South Korea and Hong Kong could also have contributed hugely to their successful battle against the pandemic. People who tested positive or were in contact with positive-testers would ideally be isolated in a hotel or a custom-arranged space between seven to 21 days in quarantine. This requires widespread testing.

On the other hand, with Sweden's non-lockdown 'experiment' in trusting its population to self-monitor where the borders remain open, people can still gather in groups of up to 50 people and no one wears masks. One Swedish doctor has accused the government of playing "Russian roulette" with its population, with other experts  urging on stricter measures, in response to Sweden's death figures outdistancing those of its Scandinavian neighbours.

Sweden had about 256 deaths per million people in comparison to 38 per million in Norway and 75 per million in Denmark by the end of April. Sweden feels the number of deaths will even out eventually, accomplished with less strain on their economy and on people's mental health. Swedish professor Johan Giesecke's position is that few of the measures used to control COVID-19 in western countries "have a shred of evidence" in support of their choices, in high approval of his own government;'s decision to avoid full lockdown.

"How long in a democracy do you think you can keep a lockdown? After three or four weeks, people will say I want to go out. I want to go to the pub."

A person rides a bike with their dog past closed stores on April 29, 2020 in New York City. New York City has been on a lockdown of all non-essential businesses since March 23, 2020. Getty Images

World Health Organization Unresponsive to Queries on COVID Recommendations and Timelines

"We haven't any alternative pitched to us [from the World Health Organization] at all. There could be perhaps an alternative pitch, which we would consider."
We asked for him [Canadian Dr.Bruce Aylward, WHO senior advisor] just to show up for an hour knowing that his time is valuable, but just one hour knowing that we would work around his time zone."
Canadian Member of Parliament Matt Jeneroux

"WHO has stated its strong commitment to a timely review of the global response in a transparent, independent and comprehensive manner."
"We are in the initial phase of the most complex and time-sensitive public health response in the history of the organization and our single-minded focus is thus on working with countries in the fight against the [global SARS-CoV-2] pandemic."
Canadian House of Commons Committee letter to WHO 

"To me this is not about politics. I am not there [on the committee] to delve into the politics of the WHO. I am purely interested in their information and the way they responded to the COVID-19 crisis."
"I don't understand the difference. If he is prepared to come forward and on the record answer questions, why wouldn't he want to do that with our committee."
Member of Parliament Don Davies

Bruce Aylward of the World Health Organisation (WHO) attends a news conference of the WHO-China Joint Mission about its investigation of the coronavirus outbreak in Beijing, China, Feb. 24, 2020. Thomas Peter/Reuters

The World Health Organization has been criticized for giving the impression by its actions and statements clearly in favour of the Chinese response to the novel coronavirus, that its behaviour toward the Chinese Communist Party leadership is simply too deferential when its mandate is meant to be strictly objectively scientific in orientation, ensuring its guidance and advice to the world's nations is without bias, based strictly on medical science and factual evidence.

Not only has its chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, come under suspicion for the perceived unctuousness he displays toward China's Xi Jinping but that suspicion has now extended toward the former assistant director general of the World Health Organization who led an expert group examining the coronavirus' emergence in China. Dr.Aylward, in an interview with a television station out of Hong Kong where the issue of Taiwan was raised, terminated the interview rather than respond.

And because the WHO through Dr.Tedros initially praised the Chinese response and parroted its findings on human-to-human transmission, and played down the impending seriousness of the growing infection and death rate just as China did, leading to the international community being lulled into a state of complacency when a state of immediate alert should have been mandated, many countries' authorities have questions they would like answers to from the WHO.

Resident doctor Kelvin Lou puts a CVC line into a patient in a COVID suspect room in the COVID-19 intensive care unit at St. Paul's hospital in downtown Vancouver, Tuesday, April 21, 2020. (THE CANADIAN PRESS / Jonathan Hayward)

To that end, the Canadian House of Commons committee looking into the issue had twice invited Dr. Aylward to come before them to respond to a number of queries relating to the novel coronavirus. To each of those invitations, Dr.Aylward responded in the negative. Had he recommended the presence of a senor aid to represent him, who would answer those questions, the committee would have accepted that as a reasonable alternative, but no such offer was forthcoming.

The UN agency's legal counsel responded to the committee by letter following the first invitation when counsel Derek Walton advised the agency is prepared for its decisions to undergo a full review, but not at the present. To which the head of the parliamentary committee, MP Jeneroux pointed out that Dr.Aylward has given time for media interviews, and as such it appears reasonable for him to spare time for an appearance before the committee representing his own government as a citizen of Canada.

That, since the Canadian response to the crisis of this global pandemic that has impacted so heavily around the world as an infectious disease afflicting over a million people worldwide with steadily growing numbers, while 244,000 people have died so far from its complications, the issues are of monumental importance. All the more so that the crisis and its response, driven by recommendations from the WHO, makes it incumbent on that body to be responsible for itself to the very audience so dependent on its guidance.

Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer,  Blair Gable / Reuters

The World Health Organization had been unequivocal, recommending against travel restrictions and border closings initially, with a side note that it would be 'racist' to close borders to China. They also advised against the use of protective masks by the public. Recommendations which Canada's chief public health officer, Dr.Theresa Tam, was guided by as she agreed with the WHO's recommendations before eventually changing her opinion over those issues.

Provided by: Public Health Agency of Canada

Social Distancing in Closed Environments

"Very early on, we wrote two letters that we posted on social media that got tonnes of attention."
"Our method of protecting ourselves and the public from being infected is social distancing. And if  you can't social distance ... you're just inviting disaster to strike."
"If you've got two people who are in a stadium and you tell them, close your eyes and just start walking around, the odds that they're going to walk into each other are pretty small. But if you have those same two people doing that in a room that's six-by-six metres, there's a pretty good chance that they're going to knock into each other. It's a simple function of the ability or the inability to distance." 
"One of the advantages we have with long-term care facilities is at least we've been able to understand some degree of the problem. Someone's peeled back the scab, so to speak, to look under the bandage and we can see how absolutely horrific what was going on has been."
"The residents in these populations, we're just going to lose them. And that's a scar upon us if we can't protect our vulnerable."
"These are not closed systems. There are people who go and work there. And if we can't protect the healthcare workers, then almost certainly we're not protecting the health-care workers' families and therefore we're not protecting the public that is in contact with the health-care worker and their families and therefore we're not going to be able to get a hold of this whole problem."
Dr.Andrew Morris, professor of medicine, University of Toronto

"I think we're starting to see very quickly that hospitals are not really the front line of this pandemic in Canada."
"I think now people are almost playing a game of catch-up when you start looking at these settings [care homes for the elderly or disabled]."
Dr.Samir Sinha, director of geriatrics, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto

The Quebec coronor's office has launched an investigation into a long-term care home in a suburb of Montreal where 31 people have died in a conditions the premier has called "deplorable"

It has now been six weeks and ongoing, where Canadians across the country have been counselled that it is up to everyone to 'flatten the curve'. To remain sequestered in their homes, to go out only on rare occasions when it's absolutely necessary, to remain distant physically from others. Schools closed, non-essential businesses shuttered, public spaces and events off limits, borders closed, travel plans nixed. All well and good, but none of this affected long-term care homes, yet fully 78 percent of all COVID-linked deaths have occurred in long-term care homes.

All of these measures to try to control a hugely infectious and sometimes morbidly-threatening new cornavirus were predicted before the virus entered North America. Dr. Morris, for one, was alert early on that COVID-19 would present an enormous problem to Canada when it arrived, as it surely would. But even he and colleagues of his whose thoughts took a similar track, were unable to visualize just how dramatically the Canadian reality of life-normalcy would ultimately be affected.

The Eatonville Care Centre, where multiple deaths from COVID-19 have occurred, is shown in Toronto on Tuesday, April 14, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

He and his colleagues got together to draft several letters outlining the situation that would unfold and their recommendations for an early response to the situation before it became a reality. At the time it seemed so difficult to believe that the country would swiftly be engulfed in a seemingly unstoppable epidemic they scarcely thought their communications would be given the serious consideration it required. Later, it would occur to them that though that attention was forthcoming, they had themselves failed to communicate the extent of the dire conditions that would ensue.

Now that Canadians have embarked on a voyage of countradicting the basic human impulse of sociability in an effort to halt the spread of the virus causing COVID-19, the very enormity of the threat takes on new proportions to our understanding of just how vulnerable we are as a population. But it is a readily identifiable demographic of the population that has borne the brunt of the infections.

Precautions were taken to close schools and daycares to shield children from the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the most readily identifiable group within any population that is given first thought. Fears of overwhelmed hospital emergencies failed to materialize, with hospital admissions and ICU capacity at not only manageable levels, but anxiously awaiting the arrivals of other emergency situations more commonly making use of those facilities that have suddenly disappeared.

People are withholding their presence at Hospital Emergencies, hoping that their worrying symptoms of heart problems, stroke, appendicitis, accidental injuries will somehow abate, rather than subject themselves to the possibility of appearing at a hospital teeming with infectious agents and find themselves infected with the dread virus. And then there is another casualty that few had given prior thought to, but several of Dr. Morris's colleagues had.

The virus that thrives in the company of groups of people in close communion, and sees its opportunities dwindling when people exercise caution to keep physical distances, found its metier when it entered the confines of closed gatherings, where people are placed in situations with tight physical spaces and an abundance of potential targets. Places like nursing homes and long-term care homes, prisons and shelters for the homeless. "Congregate settings", perfect for a virus to thrive.

If more isn’t done to protect shelters, prisons and in other so-called “congregate settings,” advocates warn more mass outbreaks are inevitable. Francis Georgian/Postmedia/File

And in long-term and nursing homes the virus has done precisely that. Shelters and prisons next on the list. "I think we're going to see numbers jump dramatically", Cathy Crowe, a nurse with decades of working with the homeless in Toronto, stated. While many shelters are attempting to implement some elements of social distancing, in their limited spaces it is beyond difficult to adequately achieve.

"It's pretty much impossible to maintain social distancing in pretty much every congregate setting of a shelter or a drop-in, to be perfectly honest", Diana McNally, with her years working in Toronto shelters, offered. "The diagnostic differentiation of COVID among people experiencing homelessness is very challenging", Dr. Naheed Dossani, palliative care physician who often works with the homeless, pointed out.

In prisons and jails outbreaks are beginning to occur. "I'm speaking to senior citizens who are serving prison sentences and telling me, I didn't know this was going to be a death sentence", Paul Champ, a lawyer in Ottawa stated. As for long-term care homes where well over fifty percent of the COVID deaths not only in Canada but globally, have been taking place, the sheer vulnerability of the aged, infirm and health-compromised has shocked the world.

As the coronavirus outbreak continues, Los Angeles has been providing unhoused people with motorhomes and RVs, which allow them to maintain social distance.  Photograph: APU GOMES/Getty Images