BC COVID Restrictions

I got my AZ poke yesterday ... I found that Pharmasave was pretty easy to get into. Go to their website and follow the trail to a pdf file that lists all their pharmacies in BC and how to book an appointment at each site. Most of them have a web link to a booking site. Find a free date/time in their schedule and you're set.

Of course, don't forget that just getting the jab doesn't make you immune - it takes a while (about 2 weeks) to build up antibodies, and you need the second poke for best efficacy - which still isn't 100%.

Good news about the AZ vaccine in particular is that even if you do contract COVID after the vaccination, the effects are significantly reduced as compared to unvaccinated.

Anyone 40+ in BC can book through a pharmacy as of yesterday.

Until they get serious about international travel and enforce a supervised quarantine, they cant expect locals to not drive across a bridge or xyz km this way or that.

Lock the f'n border down properly in November and we don't have P1 / B117. It has worked elsewhere. I'd be open to a few week stay at home order if they actually grew a set and did it properly. 

If the other provinces don't play ball. They get the same 2 week quarantine in a supervised hotel as the internationals. Otherwise we just creep along and hope the vaccines drag us out of the shitehole.

Posted by: Bushpilot

Radius is harder to enforce. With geographical limits set by health authority it is easier to know where to direct the authorities to do the road checks because the boundaries are pretty obvious. The province publishes maps that show you the exact boundaries of the health authorities. Those boundaries apply to every single person the same exact way. It would be near impossible to enforce a radius-based restriction without going full Ontario style, which it turns out is extraordinarily unpopular (to the extent that several police forces in Ontario indicated they would not use their new powers to stop people randomly). I think the restrictions in Australia (or parts of it) were radius based for a while. I believe they pursued a COVID zero strategy though and so people had to accept (temporarily at least) much, much more aggressive restrictions than we’ve had here. I’m not expressing any opinion on which I think is preferable but I think that goes a long way to explaining why we don’t have radius-based restrictions here (at least not yet).

Another thing: I don’t think we should read the today’s announcement as suggesting that it is cool to travel to Whistler if you live in Vancouver. That has been pretty clearly discouraged by the authorities for a long time now. It just isn’t strictly prohibited for the next 5 weeks the way that travelling from Vancouver to the Okanagan, Island, Interior (or even Burnaby or Moody).

I see your point about radius being a bit harder to implement, but they don't apply to everyone the same. People that live right on the edge of a boundary are going to be more affected than people that don't. Either way, we have to wait till  Friday to find out what they come up with. The longer this goes however, the harder it becomes to implement restrictions as people are getting fed up. Govt's tried to placate everyone and the price is the continued spread of covid, including the variants. If we had clamped down on covid last summer when the cases were next to nothing we could be pretty much clear of this now like New Zealand and Australia. I think a big part of the failure of government has not been restricting international travel and not making people go into mandatory quarantine.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-new-travel-restrictions-1.5993919

What if I live on the border of a health authority?

Horgan said he understands there is a lot of movement between certain health authorities, such as in the Lower Mainland between Vancouver in Vancouver Coastal Health and neighbouring municipalities such as Burnaby and Surrey in the Fraser Health authority, or around Quesnel, which borders the Interior and Northern Health authorities.

"We get that. We want to make sure that public safety health representatives are not going to be heavy-handed with this," he said.

"This is for those who are recklessly [flouting] the rules. It's not for regular folks who are going about their business."

All things considered, we have it F(*^%^&ing easy. My bother is in Barcelona where full lock down means you get ID'd by the police when you go for your apartment essential travel for groceries...and they follow you back to make sure you don't head somewhere else. We're pretty soft here.

So they are finally starting to vaccinate teachers. But NOT  TOC (substitute teachers). My wife is a TOC in West Van, and she has been in just about every classroom in the district. TOC's move from school to school, sometimes daily. They are also called in when the regular teacher is called off sick or is at home isolating.  How does this make any sense?

Posted by: KenN

I got my AZ poke yesterday ... I found that Pharmasave was pretty easy to get into. Go to their website and follow the trail to a pdf file that lists all their pharmacies in BC and how to book an appointment at each site. Most of them have a web link to a booking site. Find a free date/time in their schedule and you're set.

Of course, don't forget that just getting the jab doesn't make you immune - it takes a while (about 2 weeks) to build up antibodies, and you need the second poke for best efficacy - which still isn't 100%.

Good news about the AZ vaccine in particular is that even if you do contract COVID after the vaccination, the effects are significantly reduced as compared to unvaccinated.

Anyone 40+ in BC can book through a pharmacy as of yesterday.

I now have one dose of a vaccine.  My understanding is that I can still be a carrier of the virus and pass it along to others.  It's just that I don't get as sick I guess.  Can any vaccine experts confirm?  It's hard to know with so much information to wade though, in addition to figuring out how to get these new microchips out of my bloodstream.

Posted by: Straw

I now have one dose of a vaccine.  My understanding is that I can still be a carrier of the virus and pass it along to others.  It's just that I don't get as sick I guess.  Can any vaccine experts confirm?  It's hard to know with so much information to wade though, in addition to figuring out how to get these new microchips out of my bloodstream.

If you remove the microchips, your 5G reception decreases.  You don't slower download speeds, do you?

You can still pick up the virus off a surface, and transfer it to a number of other surfaces that others could then touch.  Should still wear a mask and not get all grabby grabby at any stores you may enter.

Posted by: idle

Posted by: Straw

I now have one dose of a vaccine.  My understanding is that I can still be a carrier of the virus and pass it along to others.  It's just that I don't get as sick I guess.  Can any vaccine experts confirm?  It's hard to know with so much information to wade though, in addition to figuring out how to get these new microchips out of my bloodstream.

If you remove the microchips, your 5G reception decreases.  You don't slower download speeds, do you?

You can still pick up the virus off a surface, and transfer it to a number of other surfaces that others could then touch.  Should still wear a mask and not get all grabby grabby at any stores you may enter.

And you can still get the virus in your lungs and expel it in droplets as you exhale. Your immune system may be fighting off the virus, but it's still live.

And when an immune person passes on live virus to others, the term is 'shedding'.

Posted by: idle

Posted by: Straw

I now have one dose of a vaccine.  My understanding is that I can still be a carrier of the virus and pass it along to others.  It's just that I don't get as sick I guess.  Can any vaccine experts confirm?  It's hard to know with so much information to wade though, in addition to figuring out how to get these new microchips out of my bloodstream.

If you remove the microchips, your 5G reception decreases.  You don't slower download speeds, do you?

You can still pick up the virus off a surface, and transfer it to a number of other surfaces that others could then touch.  Should still wear a mask and not get all grabby grabby at any stores you may enter.

Fomite transmission of Covid 19  is considered rare. The vast majority of transmission is still considered to be aerosol.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00251-4

Posted by: Straw

Posted by: KenN

I got my AZ poke yesterday ... I found that Pharmasave was pretty easy to get into. Go to their website and follow the trail to a pdf file that lists all their pharmacies in BC and how to book an appointment at each site. Most of them have a web link to a booking site. Find a free date/time in their schedule and you're set.

Of course, don't forget that just getting the jab doesn't make you immune - it takes a while (about 2 weeks) to build up antibodies, and you need the second poke for best efficacy - which still isn't 100%.

Good news about the AZ vaccine in particular is that even if you do contract COVID after the vaccination, the effects are significantly reduced as compared to unvaccinated.

Anyone 40+ in BC can book through a pharmacy as of yesterday.

I now have one dose of a vaccine.  My understanding is that I can still be a carrier of the virus and pass it along to others.  It's just that I don't get as sick I guess.  Can any vaccine experts confirm?  It's hard to know with so much information to wade though, in addition to figuring out how to get these new microchips out of my bloodstream.

The vaccine does not confer 100% immunity, even after a second dose. There is still a measurable chance that you could become a carrier (symptomatic or asymptomatic) and be infectious to others. Additionally, the science isnt there quite yet to determine how much virus may or may not be shed by people who have been vaccinated.

The vaccines don't don't take the variants into account.

Posted by: mudrunner

The vaccines don't don't take the variants into account.

What does 'take into account' mean? Some of the vaccines have been shown to be equally as effective against variants, others less so. Again, the science is still evolving on this subject.

Posted by: skooks

So they are finally starting to vaccinate teachers. But NOT  TOC (substitute teachers). My wife is a TOC in West Van, and she has been in just about every classroom in the district. TOC's move from school to school, sometimes daily. They are also called in when the regular teacher is called off sick or is at home isolating.  How does this make any sense?

I know.  It's dumb.  My wife is a TOC as well.  She has fortunately been in one classroom since November and has a contract to the end of the year - and she got her first shot last Friday.  But from a risk management perspective the TOC's should have been the first teachers vaccinated.  The problem is the various school boards, unions, and other interests get their say and I believe the initial focus has been full-time teachers in schools/school districts where there is a lot of "community transmission", because remember - there is no transmission in schools.