Quote of the Day: “To suggest that ‘society’ can simply ‘arrange’ better outcomes somehow, without specifying the processes, the costs or the risks, is to ignore the tragic history of the twentieth century, written in the blood of millions, killed in peacetime by their own governments that were given extraordinary powers in the name of lofty goals.” Thomas Sowell
This is the third time in 10 days that TheRecord has referenced a report by the Council of Canadian Academies. This body (CCA) published a paper on misinformation and how this effected COVID-19 vaccinations. The report called “Fault Lines” (which TheRecord never links to) can be found here: https://www.cca-reports.ca/reports/the-socioeconomic-impacts-of-health-and-science-misinformation/ One of the main conclusions of this paper is that: “Between March and November 2021, misinformation contributed to vaccine hesitancy for an estimated 2.35 million people in Canada. If those people who believed COVID-19 to be a hoax or exaggerated had not delayed or refused vaccination, then, by the end of November 2021, there could have been ‘…2,800 fewer deaths’”. This stat was mentioned in TheRecord back on 27 January 2023 by Nicole Ireland of the Canadian Press. Graeme MacKay also had some kind of pathetic Editorial Cartoon on that day as well. This “2,800” number is discussed on Page 82 in the paper. The Editorial today discusses this paper and also draws the same conclusion: “The health-care cost is one thing. But more tragic is the personal toll, of needless illness and death, caused by skepticism in the science of COVID-19 and misgivings about the vaccinations that protected against it, all the result of false information.” But – both the paper from the CCA and the Editorial make the obvious mistake when they suggest that vaccine hesitancy is strictly from “misinformation” and this alone caused these deaths. I can think of many reasons that some people would not want to be vaccinated. First of all, some people have a definite distrust in the current Liberal government and hate being told or mandated on what to do. A genuine fear of needles is clearly another reason why many Canadians did not want to be vaccinated. Is a fear of needles “misinformation”? And I think that way the COVID vaccine was created (Trump’s Vaccine) may also have had something to do with a reluctance of getting jabbed. I also don’t think that we can characterize sheer laziness as “misinformation” – but apparently, the authors do… By the way, the CCA is funded by taxpayers – $54 Million since 2009…