Hope is on the horizon!

 

Just hang on.....for just a bit longer. We can do this. Confirmed Cases 956,656 Daily cases up +34% over past 14 days Deaths 22,826 Daily deaths down -5% over past 14 days Even though new daily cases have increased over the last 2 weeks across the country mainly due to the new variants of concern, our vaccination efforts and public health restrictions had decreased the number of daily deaths by 5 % along with a significant reduction in hospitalizations and serious illness caused by COVID-19. Restrictions and vaccines work where it counts: decreasing serious illness, hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19. Too early to talk about the positive effects of mass vaccinations you say? Take at look at the information found on this John's Hopkin's University link: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html To your left, scroll down and click on 'United Kingdom' and then look at the bar graph to your far lower right. On Jan 8th/21, the UK reached it's highest new daily case count at 68,000. That number reduced to 3900 by March 27th. That's a drop of over 64,000 new cases in a day. THAT'S A 95% DROP!! Their Mass vaccination campaign started on December 8th and ramped up from there. Now click on 'Israel'. They hit their peak on Jan 27 with 11,000 new daily cases. And just 11 weeks later, on March 27th, their new daily cases fell to 538. THAT'S ALSO A 95% DROP!! They started their vaccine campaign on December 20th. The UK used the AstraZenca vaccine and Israel used the Pfizer vaccine. Neither country, using two different vaccines has shown a signal for a serious side effect or complication above and beyond what is expected in the normal population that has not received a vaccine. Except a very rare number of people who developed allergic reactions that did not lead to death but required treatment. And, the most common allergic reaction was to polyethylene glycol, an ingredient of the Pfizer vaccine and polysorbate 80, an ingredient in the Astrazeneca vaccine. Polyethylene glycol and polysorbate 80 are similar compounds. If you are allergic to one, you may be allergic to the other. These chemicals are found in a medications, household products and industrial products. Hypersensitivity and allergic reactions are rare. But, the possibility of any allergic reaction to these vaccines is why you are asked to wait 15 minutes after being vaccinated. So, pretty amazing. Countries with far higher daily case counts both succeeded in dramatically reducing the new daily cases of COVID-19 after mass immunizations. Good news? Hell yes! Because we are now in the midst of our own mass vaccination campaign which will ramp up significantly throughout April. New variants of concern have increased the number of new cases in the last 2 weeks by 34 %. Those are people with COVID 19 who now have a sixty percent increase risk of death, hospitalization and serious illness if they have acquired one of the new variants. That is not a time to be complacent. It is actually time to stand up and be part of our final assault against COVID-19 by wearing a good three layer mask ( hidesinhands.com), staying six feet apart, limiting gatherings and getting vaccinated when your turn is here. It's like the invasion of JUNO Beach people (with far fewer casualties). Let's get'er done! Anne-Marie Please share. Our next Finding the Balance During COVID-19 webinar is on April 6th with our special guest, the GWD public health unit's medical office of health, Dr. Nicola Mercer. Here is the link to register: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_J9N1Dr9NSM2a4m8QOACaTQ Please note, people 60 and above in the WDG health unit can now register online. Be patient. It may take four to six weeks before your appointment is confirmed. Here is the link to register online: https://register.wdgpublichealth.ca/ OR Call to register: Pre-registration/Appointment Booking: 1-844-780-0202 (7-10 day response time) Open Monday to Friday 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. For non-Facebook users, you can find this post here: https://braceletofhope.blogspot.com/ And if you'd like to help Bracelet of Hope work towards making sure that Lesotho has access to these vaccines, donate here: https://www.braceletofhope.ca/ways-to-