I don't think there is a good answer. To start, I'd probably just make it a bigger pain in the ass to be unvaccinated. So require regular testing (at the person's own expense) for basically all job sites and mandate vaccination or extremely strict (and likely expensive) testing protocols for pretty much every public service employee. And if this turns into a continual problem (say protection against severe disease wanes after a few years), then maybe treat it more like smoking by introducing a quasi surcharge for unvaccinated people (something like a $1K tax rebate for being vaccinated while simultaneously increasing the lowest bracket's tax rate to cover the difference).
And also much stricter enforcement/heavier penalties for breaking health regulations.There are already a bunch of businesses in BC who are publicly saying they won't take part in vaccine passports. Is anything going to happen to them? Based on what we saw with restaurants in Vancouver that continued in-person dining when it was shut down, probably not. But if this was treated with the same seriousness as say, regularly serving minors alcohol, it'd probably be a lot different. And the same with individuals. There was that moron in Vancouver who was repeatedly shut down for running a nightclub/strip club out of his penthouse during the strictest shutdowns in January. The only consequences he faced were some fines, 1 day in jail, and 18 months probation. If the federal government can fine people $5.7K for accidentally having the wrong type of COVID test before re-entering the country, surely provinces can enact harsh penalties for people who blatantly and willfully break health regulations.
in the US, starting to hear some health insurers will stop covering covid hospitalization and treatment for unvaccinated
also, some employers charging high health care premiums for unvaccinated, just like they do for smokers
Interesting that a free market healthcare system (such as it is) can accomplish create a carrot and a stick. We're pretty much just stick with the carrot and some relatively benign restrictions on the unvaccinated.
I wish they'd limit this to outcomes since there were a meaningful number of vaccinated people. When did we hit 20% of first dose? Mid-April? This starts at December 14, 2020. Of course the vast majority of people who were hospitalized between December and March weren't vaccinated, because hardly anyone was vaccinated at that point.
Then you need to do a separate chart starting around June 1 to compare unvaccinated people to fully vaccinated people because hardly anyone was fully vaccinated until around that time.
I am sure the results would still be highly supportive of vaccination but these ones are easy to dismiss if you're anti-vaccination or "vaccine hesitant" or whatever we're calling these twats at this point.
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By putting spin on numbers this way, it makes it harder to trust the people putting out the message. I can't see how they can miss that this inst working in their favour, and they should just put out the unadorned numbers.
Hospitalizations and deaths of vaccinated vs unvaccinated from the arrival of the Delta wouldn't be that different, and the small shift would probably make vaccinated people a little more careful in their choices.
Stop playing games and just roll out facts, with commentary on those facts. You know, journalism.
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Alberta is just about at 70% fully vaccinated for those who are eligible. That's honestly better than I though it would be, so I'll take it as a positive. Hopefully they get the kids going soon.
I wish they'd limit this to outcomes since there were a meaningful number of vaccinated people. When did we hit 20% of first dose? Mid-April? This starts at December 14, 2020. Of course the vast majority of people who were hospitalized between December and March weren't vaccinated, because hardly anyone was vaccinated at that point.
Then you need to do a separate chart starting around June 1 to compare unvaccinated people to fully vaccinated people because hardly anyone was fully vaccinated until around that time.
I am sure the results would still be highly supportive of vaccination but these ones are easy to dismiss if you're anti-vaccination or "vaccine hesitant" or whatever we're calling these twats at this point.
The Alberta website does not make it easy at all to try to do your own math, but I went through the entire month of July, and on the average day, 78.96% of everyone in the ICU on any given day were unvaccinated. 4.06% were fully vaccinated over 14 days earlier. They make it too hard for me to do any further analysis, but that probably gets the message across.
The numbers aren't as good as what you see in that tweet, obviously, but I think it still tells the same story. The other issue with it, though, is as more people get fully vaccinated, a larger percentage of people in the ICU will be fully vaccinated. For example, the percentage of fully vaccinated people in the ICU doubled from the start of July to the end of July, since that's when a lot of people were fully vaccinated. It's too bad they've chosen to tell the stats in percentages, because showing the stats as a per 100k population would tell the story a lot more clearly.
The Alberta website does not make it easy at all to try to do your own math, but I went through the entire month of July, and on the average day, 78.96% of everyone in the ICU on any given day were unvaccinated. 4.06% were fully vaccinated over 14 days earlier. They make it too hard for me to do any further analysis, but that probably gets the message across.
The numbers aren't as good as what you see in that tweet, obviously, but I think it still tells the same story. The other issue with it, though, is as more people get fully vaccinated, a larger percentage of people in the ICU will be fully vaccinated. For example, the percentage of fully vaccinated people in the ICU doubled from the start of July to the end of July, since that's when a lot of people were fully vaccinated. It's too bad they've chosen to tell the stats in percentages, because showing the stats as a per 100k population would tell the story a lot more clearly.
The website and the data export are pretty unwieldy. I don't envy the people who put together the maps and stats on Reddit, though they're damn good at it.
