Saskatchewan Health Minister Paul Merriman says provincial COVID-19 hospitalizations average around 150-160 patients and lengths of stays around three to five days..At the height of the pandemic, Saskatchewan saw COVID-19 hospitalizations of over 350 patients, with some staying upwards of 30 to 60 days..“We’re not seeing the same hospitalization numbers that we were seeing in the fall as far as people coming in with COVID admissions,” said Merriman..“What we are seeing today is the COVID of today is not the COVID of the fall (2021).”.The main reason Merriman gives for the reduced stress on the healthcare system is people’s symptoms are mild..“The symptoms aren’t as severe as they were in the fall, so our healthcare system is better able to treat the individual and, if possible, send them home,” said Merriman..Merriman credits the vaccine for lessening people’s COVID-19 symptoms..However, the vaccination rates of people with first and second doses are stagnating and few people are getting booster shots..Merriman is concerned about the stalled vaccination rates and started the “Boost to Protect” campaign. He suggests people talk to their friends and family to get vaccinated..“We have to get our numbers up on both the third and fourth dose,” said Merriman..Saskatchewan is not the only place where vaccinations have stalled..Former White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx was on Fox News discussing the messaging problem around the vaccine..“In everybody’s head was, ‘this is like measles, mumps, and rubella,’ because that’s what we know. So they thought that they were superhuman and invincible once they were vaccinated,” said Birx..Birx talked about herd immunity and that was also supposed to protect people, but neither the vaccine nor herd immunity provides long-term protection, which confuses people because a vaccine protects us..“The issue with herd immunity, we know natural infection and we know now vaccination doesn’t lead to long-term protection against infection,” said Birx..“So this isn’t like measles, mumps, and rubella, where you get the vaccine and you’re protected for a long time. We know now with this virus that natural infection and the immunity that you develop does not lead to durable long-term protection.”.With the Omicron version of COVID-19 being a mild version and not like earlier versions of COVID-19, people are not getting vaccinated in Saskatchewan and around the world..The World Health Organization (WHO) set a vaccination goal in June 2021 to have 70% of the population in every country vaccinated by June 2022. It will not reach that goal, even America is only at 66%..“The reality is that there is a loss of momentum,” Dr. Isaac Adewole, a former health minister of Nigeria, told the New York Times..“There was a time people were very desperate to get vaccinated, but the vaccines were not there. And then they realized that without the vaccination, they didn’t die.”.Chris Oldcorn is a Western Standard Reporter based in Regina.,coldcorn@westernstandard.news,Twitter: @chrisoldcorn,.Parler: @chrisoldcorn
