Comments by "Xyz Same" (@xyzsame4081) on "Things Are Getting Worse In Canada" video.

@rorycallaghan5719 the left movements were a MINORITY in the 1960s and 1970s. Enough to create a stir, but ultimately the complacent majority won out and gladly voted for Reagan and before that for war mongering Nixon (continiuing the war of LBJ). - The U.S. has lead the way in many negative developements. The ruling class and big biz in Europe, Canada was glad to follow with some delay. Neoliberalism. If you produce a lot IN the country and wages are high the appliances and machines tend to be more durable.
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@nneely613 Existing immunity (vaccination and some weeks time for the immune system to build it up. OR immunity after the infection) do prevent spread: An immune person (that is not the same as vaccinated !) is very unlikely to be a spreader - that much is now clear. at least with MOST of the EXISTING mutations. And the first shot already helps a lot, even if the person gets infected they are much better protected from severe health consequences. But those case numbers should also be kept down. With the old fashioned measures (like masks or social distancing). Or they will trigger an adapation of the virus to vaccination (it helps somewhat but not enough to stop spread by the partially vaccinated person. That can be problematic because then the virus will evolve to counter the existing vaccinations). BUT: there are more contagious mutations now, and at least one against which the existing immunity does not (fully) help.The South African variante That is bad: if it gets MORE contagious you need higher herd immunity. Instead our best weapon (immunity either from vaccination or survived the infection) does not help. So wearing masks while you are immune to almost all mutations - also disrupts the potential chains of infections for these variants. Itis a race against time. I guess the vaccines are not completely useless (so far) against the ZA variant, just inadequate. Thankfully the British variant (that is also worse in many respects - like the ZA variant) still responds well to existing immunity.
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@nneely613 Also: not all vaccinations lead to immunity, and naturally acquired immunity can wear off. Since we now deal with MORE CONTAGIOUS mutations the reduced immunity (it is unlikely to be a hard drop off) is countered by other ways of disrupting the chains of infecton. = social distancing, and mask wearing. I guess if we manage to roll out the vaccines AND manage to vaccinate the developing countries (or it will come back to bite us) AND there are no nasty mutations in the meantime (knock on wood) we can finally get rid of the masks. Can't wait - but it would be foolish to drop the ball now when we are about to win the race.
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@Click Bait I think they bet on it that most working age population will recover, and have a few sick days and quarantine (and then immunity). While the cases of old people will fill up the hospitals and ICU's. if the virus is not widespread, and case numbers are low, it is a strategy. But of course now we have the new variants that are more infectious. We had a case in the family in early November (own goal). Visitors from Italy in Nov. small birthday party. They flew so the young couple likely picked it up at the airport or during flight (Italy wasn't doing badly in late October) and 3 middle aged relatives. (father, mother of the young man, and one aunt). All recoverd well, a little fever and quarantining. Plus working from home anyway and luckily all have large enough homes so the quarantine was not a problem. The young couple was found out because they had to test on return and luckily at least the test showed positive. One relative with fever tested negative the first time, but positive a few days later.
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@Click Bait The idiots (EU politicians) only started the approval procedures for Sputnik vaccine recently. That should be underway for 2 months, but for political reasons (sucking up to U.S. / NATO) that was delayed. Only because the on-off with Astra Zeneca nor reason prevails. Else they could already build the plants that produce it. Low cost, traditional adenovirus as vector (I think). Would be good to have it as the Astra zeneca can cause blood clots, at least it is not ideal for women in the reproductive age.
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@BathtubBass @Joseph Ostyn which outcomes are better in the U.S. compared to other first world nations - like Canada ? Not life expectancy or infant mortality. If you CAN PAY you can get excellent care in the U.S. but that is also true for Canada, if you are NOT fully content with your existing services. Paying ONCE out of pocket to be fasttracked for a specialist or to get an elective procedure is small change compared what you would pay all your life for a plan that gives you good coverage under all circumstances in the U.S. - with NO deductibles to make the comparsion fair. you often pay thousands of dollars and THEN you have a deductible of 10,000 or 5,000 - which hits you every year again. I saw a video of an American couple with a child with a genetic disease. The child gets infusions every few months and they can control the disease well with that. But the infusions are expensive. They would like to return to the U.S. and live nearby the parents, but they can't afford that. They are lucky that they were living and working in Canada when their sick child was born.
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@BathtubBass The spending per person in Canada is on the lower end of the average, it is likely not funded enough. Under 5,000 USD per person, versus 5,400 for the middle of the road first world nation, versus 10,260 USD in the U.S. Data 2017 Because of the remote areas Canada may have higher costs than for instance Germany or Netherlands. To be sure the population is younger on average so that helps with spending.
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Canada: Hold my mask !
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Sparsely populated DOES help ! And maybe you have more vitamin D with fat fish.
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@Banana_Split_Cream_Buns No NOT "MUCH of Europe has done worse". U.K. has done worse, that's up for debate if they are a typical "European" country. Their economic system is like the U.S. they are the only country that has the First Past the Post system that only allows for 2 major parties. it is a little better than in the U.S. but they are far from having the 3 - 4 major parties that are out and about in other countries. Plus a few fringe parties that can become relevant as the coalition partner of a government.
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@Banana_Split_Cream_Buns Belgium has the unique situation of being a small ! country with a very high frequency of international travellers (seat of many EU institutions). U.K. is a neoliberal country - like the U.S. - and it shows. San Marino and Liechtenstein / Luxembourg (one has bad numbers, I forgot which one) are TINY and have a high influx of international travellers. They are wealthy, so they should cope well, but they imported a lot of cases and have an older population (the affluent that pretend to have main residency in the tax havens). Italy, France and Spain have bad numbers (although not as bad as the U.S.) because they got hit hard with the first wave in Feb. / March 2020.
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@Banana_Split_Cream_Buns On the other hand most of central, Nothern and Southern Europe is doing much better than the U.S.: And the South (Italy, France, Spain) is also doing better NOW. - Most nations dragged their feet and did not learn from China, but at least Italy scared them into action in March 2020. Not the U.K. and U.S. though - and it shows. The same neoliberal mindset on stereoides that let them put their head in the sand, had also had undermined care homes, the NHS, forced people to live in multigenerational homes .... See U.K. and also the U.S. that does not even have universal healthcare. The most insane response was in the U.S. (among the rich nations), but the size of the country and not being densely populated everywhere helped, in the U.K. you get the worst of both worlds even though the U.K. response with some delay was not quite as insane. After Boris Johnson had been infected, he could be bothered to take it a little more seriously. In the White House no one but Dr. Birx and her aide wore masks.
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@LeSyd1984 The Spanish flu vanished. SARS-CoV-1 of 2003 has vanished (but it never mutated into the more contagious forms, the epidemic was stopped before it became a pandemic. In Jan. Feb. 2020 the virus mutated to become MORE contagious. That is when it became a pandemic.
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