Quebec's Colossal Covid-19 Disaster

The Quebec government has been steadfast in its promise to provide open, accurate and timely statistics and information in regards to the coronavirus epidemic in Quebec.
In fact, so much information and statistics are being provided that it's becoming a bit of overkill, with few media or press organizations able to sift through the vast amounts of data provided.

It makes me think of those legal dramas on TV or the movies where EVIL CORP provides hundreds and hundreds of boxes of discovery material, hoping to overwhelm the modest team of opposing lawyers, in an effort, to stop them from discovering the 'smoking gun' buried within.

And so, because of my confinement and with nothing but time on my hands, I decided to sift through the data and see what perhaps the government does not want us to see.

Now I'm not condemning the Quebec government for the circumstances of the unfolding disaster.

The early March school break in Quebec is a traditional family getaway where many week-long vacations overseas take place. Many schools organize educational trips to Europe during this break.  The returning virus-laden travellers coupled with the onslaught of returning retiree snowbirds (quick to visit mom and dad in the nursing homes upon their return), Quebec faced a perfect storm of circumstances.

The real fault lies in the utter failure of Health Canada to understand, predict and advise Canadians to avoid travel and to quarantine upon return.
In fact, Quebec's Premier Legault was so alarmed that Prime Minister Trudeau refused to follow America's closure of the border to Europe, that he raised holy hell, prompting the PM to reluctantly follow suit, but too late to stave off the coming disaster.

At any rate, for the first two or three weeks, it seemed that Quebec had the virus matter well in hand, but that all when to shit recently when cases in senior residences and nursing homes blew up.
While the Quebec government concentrated on building up capacity in the hospitals, it totally ignored the danger in senior residences and nursing homes, a decision that led us to the present disaster.

So much for good planning and as the great poet Robert Burns told us...

"The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry."

And so the explosion of cases in these senior residences has caught everyone by surprise,  the reaction of the government has been anemic, but understandable because pivoting and reacting quickly to a changing situation is not what governments do well.

While we are told a lot about the situation, we are not told how bad we are really doing in comparison to the rest of the world. In fact, Quebec is right up there with the worst.

I've taken the liberty of presenting Quebec virus statistics separately as if Quebec was its own country, divorced from Canada.
Suddenly Canada looks to have a minor epidemic while Quebec looks like a disaster,

The table on the left below of selected major countries (plus Quebec alone and Canada minus Quebec) describes the number of cases per million population and as you can see, Quebec is right up there with the USA in the number of cases, while Canada is way down the list.
In fact, Quebec alone has relatively four times the cases reported in the rest of Canada (ROC.)

The same goes for deaths (the below right chart) where Quebec has reported relatively four times the numbers than the ROC.

What is worse is that the situation is pretty much out of control in Quebec's nursing homes and residences.
Staff is either out sick themselves or have abandoned their posts, understandable because facing a deadly virus for $15 an hour without appropriate personal safety equipment isn't the dream job and nobility only goes so far.

The bewildered Quebec government's desperate reaction is to demand that these senior residence health workers stay on the job even if they are symptomatic, a travesty considering everyone else in society is told to isolate themselves on the slightest chance they are positive, even without symptoms.
One Verdun home was so short of staff that it locked the doors at shift-change, imprisoning workers, something that in normal times would be considered criminal.

A desperate Premier Legault is begging anyone he can for help, calling for the army to jump into homes that are bereft of employees. He chastised idle Quebec specialist doctors for not helping as well, demanding that they go into the homes to change diapers and serve meals.
Panic is certainly the keyword and certainly justified.
Read a chilling account of the situation;

"50% increase in all CHSLD Covid victims in three days manifests an institutional failure of the system."   Link The Suburban

How bad the situation is and how badly the Quebec government is reacting is underplayed by the continuous Quebec media exposure of what President Trump is doing and how bad the situation is in the USA, a brilliant effort of sleight-of-hand.

Yesterday 1,900 people died of the virus in the USA and 117 deaths were reported in Quebec.
Because Quebec's population is 40 times smaller than the USA (335 million versus 8.5 million) the effective overnight death rate in Quebec is double that of the US.
I bet nobody in the media is pointing that out!

While Quebecers are told to shelter in place, a measure that is no longer necessary because of the few cases outside the senior residences and hospitals, the virus is ripping through these homes with reckless abandon.

As we move forward we can expect that deaths will continue to skyrocket in Quebec as our seniors are decimated and be prepared, because the worst is yet to come.

Coronavirus Disaster Exposes Quebec's Dirty Little Secret

In the years preceding World War II, France, fearful of the rising and aggressive German military power built a massive line of fortifications along the German/French border, with a secondary and weaker defensive line along the Belgium border. The formidable concrete bunkers with its large protected cannons were seen as the ultimate deterrent to the German invasion. The Maginot Line was seen in France as a model of good planning and strategy, its massive cost justified if the wall could keep France safe.

Unfortunately, it did not.

The Germans simply went around the line, exploiting a weakness through the Ardennes forest in Belgium, completely outflanking the French, leading to a lightning-quick German victory.

And so it seems that the Quebec government's thorough and seemingly well-thought preparations in the face of the coming Wuhan coronavirus suffered from the same faulty logic employed by the French which is and was essentially barring the front door effectively, but leaving the back door open.

Perhaps it's understandable that with the lessons of the disastrous Italian response to the virus, where hospitals were suddenly overloaded, leading to massive numbers of deaths, Quebec decided to empty its hospitals by postponing elective surgeries and sending any long term senior patients to government-run nursing homes.
When the virus struck the government ordered everybody to shelter in place but failed utterly to seal off the nursing homes, with personnel transferring between institutions and snowbirds, fresh from Florida and family just off school break, where many travelled to Europe bringing the virus into the nursing homes with deadly effect.
And so our hospitals were ready and indeed are performing well, but the virus, like the German army, struck through the back door in these nursing facilities with deadly consequence, an attack the Quebec government never contemplated or even fathomed.

So much for the experts. 
And so it seems that all the king's horses and all the king's men cannot put our nursing homes together again!
Such is the result of a massive catastrophic planning failure.

I hate to say I told you so, but this lowly and lonely blogger warned of just this catastrophe in a post entitled The Government is Handling Covid-19 All Wrong...

How big is the disaster?
70% of all virus-related deaths in Quebec have occurred in the nursing homes, where the virus ripped through the vulnerable at an astonishing rate.
In fact, those healthy citizens under 60 years old who do catch the virus have a 99.%+ chance of recovering, while those over 60 years with health problems who get infected have an alarming fatality rate of between 20% and who knows what.
The government's policy of locking down the young and healthy seems overkill and is not necessary.
All the government had to do was tell seniors to lock down and to force senior residences to lock-down completely

But the virus has already spread to many of these homes and where it has, the consequences are and will be deadly.
Underpaid staff have also been struck by the illness, with other employees abandoning ship in the face of the onslaught. The remaining $15 an hour employees are expected to work 90 hours a week with no protective equipment. The current policy that those possibly exposed to the virus be self-isolated has to be thrown out the windows for these unfortunate workers. They are forced to work despite being exposed because their services are deemed crucial considering that there's nobody to replace them.
I am reminded of those emergency workers sent into the fray after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, deliberately exposed to deadly radiation because there was no other option. Those who fought the disaster without protection had their lives consciously sacrificed by the government.
Sound familiar?
One nursing home in Verdun actually locked the doors (twice) so that staff could not escape after their shift.

Premier Legault, channelling Donald Trump, complained that the nursing home situation is so bad because the previous government was to blame for the chronic under-funding.

At any rate, Quebec's disastrous nursing home situation is exacerbated by the high numbers of seniors populating these homes.

The dirty little secret is that Quebecers institutionalize the elderly at a rate three times that of Ontario. It seems that in Quebec bothersome mothers and fathers are shuffled off to be warehoused in these homes at an alarming rate.
It is a shameful dereliction of filial responsibility, a practice incited because of Quebec's cradle to grave government welfare state, where responsibility is shifted away from the individual.

I'll end with a story I watched on a French TV news channel, where a lady (somewhere in her fifties) was raging against the government about her mother.
It seems that her mother who lives alone in an apartment has cancer and is being treated on an outpatient basis. Because of the pandemic, those treatments have been postponed and worse, a government social worker who visits her and provides in-home care, several times a week has not been coming recently for reasons you can imagine.
The woman was distraught that her mother wasn't receiving the care she was due and that she and her five sisters are deathly afraid that mom will die alone in her lonely apartment.

REALLY????
Does anyone out there see a problem where six sisters cannot provide a modicum of care and support?
Not one in six or all six combined are prepared to financially support a private care worker to provide extra care.
Not one in six or all six combined are prepared to take her in or visit daily?
All this dereliction of family responsibility while haranguing the government for failing their mom. It's nothing short of disgusting.

Is this the Quebec reality that seniors are consigned to the trash heap by a society that abdicates all personal responsibility in favour of a government that is too incompetent to do the job anyway?

After the virus lays waste and empties our senior homes, perhaps we should consider what is right before filling them up again.

Montreal Island Coronavirus Report - Sun. Apr.12

I am tracking the coronavirus as pertains to the 14 cities and boroughs with significant Anglo and Allophone elements.
Each day I'll chart the number of cases where you can compare the progression in your town/borough.
I'll also track the weekly progression. Please note that the week resets each Sunday.


I'll also comment on the numbers, under the chart.
Today is the start of a new week .

You might be shocked, yet pleasantly surprised that the virus is spreading ever so slowly amidst thees towns and boroughs.

The 31 new cases is a remarkably low number considering that the combined number of inhabitants in the 14 jurisdictions above is 634,000.

Half of the above had a total increase of less than 2% with many registering no new cases.

Cote Saint-Luc and Hampstead, which started so poorly, now seem to have gained the upper hand with very, very few new cases appearing.

It's Soon Time to Re-Open Schools and Phase Out Social-Distancing

Dealing with the Wuhan virus long-term seems to be where we are going as health officials tell us that it isn't going away and that it probably will become a seasonal thing.

I wrote a piece a while back, describing the danger that the virus poses to the elderly and that prediction seems to have been borne out.
Read:

The Government is Handling Covid-19 All Wrong...

Premier Legault mentioned that 89% of the Wuhan virus deaths so far in Quebec are in the demographic age group of 70 and over. Most of the other deaths occur in victims with underlying ailments.
That means that just 17 deaths so far are in those younger than 70 years old and almost none in the under 40 years old demographic.

Quebecers have largely hunkered down and stayed home and it's reported in that regard we have done better than any other jurisdiction in North America.

And so today the propagation of the virus is largely restricted to senior residences where people are packed in like sardines and where tragically the virus propagated before the lockdown occurred.
The virus was brought into the homes by the children of these residents who visited after travelling abroad, mostly to Europe.

The cross-contamination occurred when employees worked in different residences and brought the virus from one infected residence to another. A perfect storm of contamination.

This sad state of affairs is what I warned about when I said that seniors and those vulnerable should be isolated completely. Alas, it was too late and the damage is now done.
Sadly many seniors will die and paradoxically while we've managed to insulate and protect the large part of society and the least vulnerable, seniors will bear the brunt of the deaths and there's not much we can do about it.
The die is cast.

But these deaths are misleading because they taint the numbers and lead us to believe that we are all in mortal danger which we are not.

The famous curve has been flattened, assuring that hospitals aren't overwhelmed because those seniors who die from the virus do so generally quickly and without burning up precious ER resources.

And so it's time to reopen society, bit by bit, all the time making sure our hospitals can cope.

In this respect, it's time to re-open up daycare and primary schools in order that children become harmlessly exposed thus creating a new generation of the immune. Unlike the famous measles parties of my generation, children suffer almost no symptoms and most don't even know they have the virus.
In just two or three weeks, 15% of our population will become immune.
The parents and teachers of these younger children are in a demographic age-group that should do well when they become infected from their children and will survive, although some will need hospitalization.

The next phase is to open high schools and universities where a slight less positive outcome will occur, but an outcome that our hospitals can deal with and with some inevitable deaths, but still very, very few.
A caveat to all this is that those in this demographic who have underlying health issues must still be isolated.

This phased re-opening of society is the necessary step to insure that the virus burns through society at a controllable rate, like a preventative fire lit to control a forest fire.

I don't think it is reasonable to close down society for the time it takes to find a cure or treatment, we cannot afford it both mentally and economically.

Within a month stores and restaurants should reopen with distancing rules still in place.
Factories and businesses should start up cautiously and life needs to return to a semblance of normalcy.

The only criterion that counts is whether our hospitals can keep up and so a staged re-opening of society should start, probably within two weeks.

We are going to have to face the reality that the virus is here to stay and getting those under 40 (which represents half the population and the most productive) exposed over a controllable period is preferable to hiding at home and delaying the inevitable.

Under this plan, half the population would be free of the virus within two or three months.

By the way, many of the health workers and front line workers are already coming back to work after having defeated the virus. Hospitals are now at a point where patients are being discharged to the point where the influx of new patients is manageable.

The virus spreading through the general population, excluding the elderly and those with underlying health conditions must continue in order for society to get back on its feet.

Only when the rest of society acquires herd immunity can the seniors be protected, so it's important to get on with it.

Once the elderly and the compromised are safely isolated as best we can, it's time for the rest of us to go out and mix and yes, get the virus.
Some will die, but some will die even if we delay.
It's counter-intuitive to re-open society, but necessary so that we can get over the hump.

Bold decisions need to be made and they need to be made soon.
Like a general sending his troops into battle full well understanding that some will die, our leaders must forge ahead bravely and face down the virus for the greater good.
Now is the time for fearless leadership.

How Justin Trudeau Lost the Virus War

Dr.Theresa Tam.. Responsible for Wuhan Virus Debacle

It isn't Justin Trudeau's fault that Canada was unprepared for the Wuhan virus, that dubious distinction falls on Canada's Health Agency and its remarkably unfit Chief Public Health Officer of Canada, Dr. Theresa Tam.

With a pandemic raging in China, our national health agency (along with other western nations) were lulled into a false sense of security by the World Health Organization which worked overtime to downplay the epidemic at China's behest.

It was a fatal mistake that is responsible for the utter unpreparedness of Canada.
That general unpreparedness and the refusal to close borders sooner than later directly led to the increase in Wuhan virus-infected individuals coming into Canada, unchecked, unverified and un-quarantined.

The proof that Trudeau was clueless about the potential danger is highlighted by the fact that his wife Sophie and his daughter travelled to London, England where she promptly caught the virus.
I cannot imagine that had Trudeau an inkling of the danger in Europe, he'd agree to such a trip.
It underlines what type of advice he must have been given by his experts over at Health Canada who failed to sound an alarm.

The fact that Trudeau is a globalist didn't help matters at all, surrounding himself with like-minded officials who parrotted the United Nations view of one-world

Trudeau lectured us like school children that unlike President Trump who ordered the border closed to Europe, Canada was confident that the drastic measure was unnecessary.
Here is a video I put together to forever remind us of the idiots who actually run Canada.

As we all know now, China obfuscated and outright lied about the pandemic in order to cover up the severity, silencing critics and controlling the message through it's mouthpiece the World Health Organization.
In relying on poisoned advice from the WHO, our federal officials made one wrong decision after another, leading us to where we are now.
The WHO is a politically-controlled United Nations agency that as the deputy Prime-Minister of Japan said should be renamed as the China Health Organization because of its total domination and control exercised by the Chinese Communist Party.

How tightly does China control the WHO?
Watch the deputy Prime Minister of Japan lay into the corrupted WHO.

To all you globalists still unconvinced at the idea that China really controls the World Health organization, watch this video by its deputy director Bruce Alyward, a Canadian who in an interview sang the praises of China. When faced with a pointed question about China he was so dumbfounded that he sat in stunned silence before hanging up on the interviewer. When the interviewer called back for clarification, he outright refused to give an answer.

 

And so let us get back to Dr. Theresa Tam, Chief Public Health Officer of Canada.
How she qualified for the job is a mystery other than the fact that she checked all Justin Trudeau's boxes.
Female--- Minority--- Globalist.

Dr. Tam doesn't speak French at all and speaks English in a highly irritating accent. She speaks like a robotic automaton and is the antithesis of an official who should inspire confidence.
And no, her Chinese heritage is not an issue, it is her qualifications as a leader.
In news conferences, she defers questions asked in French to her deputy Dr. Howard Njoo, who speaks so poorly that it is nothing short of an embarrassment.
Although it is common practice to put a doctor in charge of health agencies, I'm not sure it's a good idea.
Doctors are generally one-dimensional with a narrow educational background and little patience for the hoi-polloi. The job of Chief Public Health Officer of Canada.is a political, not a medical position and should be filled by a good communicator and inspiring character, something that Doctor Tam is not.

Parroting the WHO globalist line of open borders and Chinese misinformation about the severity, Tam misled Canadians as to the danger of the Wuhan virus. She totally misjudged the situation largely because she trusted those who should never have been trusted and thus directly led to Canada's under-preparedness.
Read the idiotic pronouncements she made leading up and into the disaster.

January 20, 2020
“It is important to take this seriously and be vigilant and be prepared, but I don’t think there’s any reason for us to panic or be overly concerned,” Dr. Theresa Tam said Monday in a call with reporters.

January 26, 2020
 Tam said the risk of human-to-human contamination is minimal, even for those who may have shared a flight or been in the airport alongside the Toronto patient.
“People transmit when they’re in close contact, particularly prolonged contact,” she said. “It’s really family members travelling with the patient who are at the highest risk.”
I won't bore you with the myriad of examples where over and over again, she blindly quotes the Chinese propaganda line, seemingly unable to to accept the false narrative she was fed.

January 31, 2020
Dr. Theresa Tam, chief public health officer, reiterated Thursday that the chances of an outbreak in Canada remain low.

January 26, 2020
Canada's Chief Public Health Officer Theresa Tam said despite the fact the number of cases in China is increasing, the export to other countries remains low and the risk remains low in Canada.
Tam said the reported case Saturday was "not unexpected."
"The health system is on alert to detect potential cases and to respond promptly when they are confirmed," Tam said. "It shows that our systems are working."

January 27, 2020
“Right now the World Health Organization actually advises against any specific travel restrictions,” said Dr. Theresa Tam, the federal chief medical officer.

January 28, 2020
Canada’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Teresa Tam, underlined the message that the general risk to Canadians remains low.
“Canadians should not be concerned they can pick up the virus through casual contact such as walking through the airport,” she said.

February 10, 2020
"Of course we will be evaluating all these measures on an ongoing basis, but right now we believe that is the right balance in protecting the health of Canadians," said Tam, noting that Canada's approach is in line with the World Health Organization's guidelines related to "inappropriate restrictions to travel and trade."

February 10, 2020
The risk to Canadians from coronavirus “continues to be low,” according to Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Theresa Tam.

February 11, 2020
Addressing reporters on Monday, Canada’s chief public health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, reiterated there are no plans to adopt a U.S.-style travel ban from China.

“Of course we will be evaluating all these measures on an ongoing basis, but right now we believe (the existing measures have struck) the right balance in protecting the health of Canadians,” Tam said. 

Feb 21,2020
However, when asked about the border screening process, Canada's chief public health officer, Dr, Theresa Tam, told media Friday afternoon that public health’s “layered response” is working well.
“Right now. What we have in place has been working,” said Tam.

Now defenders are saying that her failure was repeated all over the western world in countries like Italy and Spain, but that's not exactly true with many countries, even those badly affected better-prepared because plans to fight the virus were made in anticipation. Germany is the finest example of a country well-prepared as well as Taiwan, Korea and Hong Kong.

I read with interest an article in the Montreal Gazette about a Chinese Montrealer who went to China to visit family in January. When she saw the state of affairs she cut her visit short, returned to Canada and placed herself in isolation.
She was so alarmed by what she saw and so fearful for the future that she wrote a letter to Health Canada and the Prime Minister warning of the danger.
Read: Quebec unprepared for coronavirus outbreak, says Montrealer back from China
You'd think that if one non-medical person could accurately foresee the grim future, somewhere in Health Canada, professionals would raise the alarm, but alas they did not.

Our Chief Public Health Officer of Canada, Dr. Theresa Tam must take responsibility for the utter and complete failure, a failure that is and will cost countless Canadians their lives.
We'd have been a lot better off with the above-mentioned Chinese Montrealer as head of the agency that is supposed to safeguard our health.

And so as the saying goes 'denial' is not a river in Egypt, it is a dangerous state of mind firmly implanted in Health Canada, much to the detriment of Canadians.

How many Canadians will die because of Dr. Theresa Tam's dangerously incompetent leadership remains to be seen, but there is more to this tragedy in that she hasn't been sacked and continues to offer her useless and dangerous advice.


Today Tam is telling us that wearing masks is useless, despite the fact that countries who have better faced down the virus all insist on masks in public.
She'll probably reverse herself on the subject in a matter of time.

 My best advice and probably that of the Chinese Montrealer who wrote to her warning of the danger is to ignore anything this foolish and dangerous WHO apologist has to say.