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CALGARY, Alberta (Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms) – The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms has released a new Charter analysis outlining why Canadians need not fear Covid to the extent the federal and provincial governments’ draconian restrictions would imply. The report: “Covid in Canada: Nothing much to fear” explains why the ongoing violations of Charter rights and freedoms are not justified by facts and evidence.
This new report presents 10 reasons why government lockdowns and restrictions are not proportionate or reasonable in light of the facts about Covid:
1. Covid simply isn’t the unusually deadly killer that it’s made it out to be.
In 2020, more than 309,000 Canadians died. Adjusted for population growth, this number is consistent with previous years.1 Of these 309,000 deaths, only about five percent were linked to Covid. There was an alarming surge in non-Covid deaths in western Canada, especially among younger men Covid has only a negligible impact on life expectancy.
2. Covid has little impact on overall life expectancy.
The average age of death for all Canadians in 2018 was 81.95 years.2 Statistics Canada has yet to publish the average age of death of Canadians in 2020 who died with Covid. However, available death-by-age data from Canadian provinces consistently shows the majority of Covid-related deaths occur in ages older than average life expectancy.
3. The Covid survival rate is 99.77 percent.
A meta-analysis3 by Dr. John Ioannidis of seroprevalence studies shows the median infection survival rate from Covid infection is 99.77 percent. For Covid patients under the age of 70, the survival rate is even higher, 99.95 percent.
4. If you are young and healthy, you are more likely to die in a car accident than with Covid.
Of the 22,475 Canadians who died with Covid between March 8, 2020 and March 19, 2021, only 304 – 1.4 percent – were under age 50. In contrast, almost 90 percent of deaths with Covid were over the age of 70 and nearly 70 percent were over 80, (which for men is beyond typical expectancy.) Among Canadian men under 50, traffic accidents cause higher mortality.
5. The ‘cases’ reported by media do not refer to sick people.
Although there were 572,982 “cases” in Canada during 2020, the majority were not actually ill or experiencing any symptoms. Rather, these “cases” refer to people who tested positive on a PCR test, the accuracy of which has been seriously questioned by medical doctors and infectious disease specialists. Of those Canadians who did show symptoms, most experienced it as a mild or severe flu, and very few required hospitalization.
6. The number of severely symptomatic cases is very low.
By March 19, 2021, the total number of positive PCR test results (‘cases’) had grown to 916,844. Statistics Canada offered detailed information on 71 percent of these. Only slightly more than seven percent required hospitalization, and approximately 1.4 percent of the 916,844 were admitted to ICU. As one would expect, nearly two-thirds of ICU admissions were above the age of 60.
7. Asymptomatic spread isn’t significant.
Lockdown restrictions are based for the most part in the belief that the virus can be passed from people showing no symptoms – asymptomatic carriers – to uninfected individuals. However, research suggests that about 20 percent of people diagnosed with Covid are asymptomatic4, and asymptomatic patients passed on Covid to other members of their households in only 0.7 percent of instances.5
Even symptomatic patients are infectious for only the first eight days after symptom onset. Beyond the ninth day there is no evidence of a live virus.6
In short, asymptomatic individuals are not dangerous spreaders.
8. Infection fatality rates confirm there is little danger.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control has determined the Infection Fatality Rate of Covid for various age groups.
In its Current Best Estimate, the CDC proposes for different age-groups:
0-17: 20 deaths per million infections (or 0.002 percent)
18-49: 500 deaths per million (or 0.05 percent)
5-64: 6,500 deaths per million (or 0.65 percent)
65 and over: 90,000 (or 9 percent)
In other words, older people are significantly more vulnerable to Covid than younger people. When younger people do pick it up, their survival prospects are excellent and symptoms generally mild.
9. Casual contact is not enough to transmit Covid.
The New England Journal of Medicine reported that significant exposure to Covid was defined as “face-to-face contact within 6 feet of a person with COVID-19 that is sustained for at least a few minutes (and some say more than 10 minutes or even 30 minutes).”8 There is little risk of catching Covid from a casual encounter in a public place.9
10. The ‘science’ isn’t that settled.
“When you don’t have the data and you don’t have the actual evidence, then you’ve got to make a judgment call.”
This was Dr. Anthony Fauci’s response to a question asked by CNN’s John Berman on March 10, 2021, about the Biden administration’s promise to make its decisions based on science: “What’s the science behind not saying it’s safe for people who have been vaccinated – received two doses – to travel?”
Conclusion
“The numbers don’t justify the governments’ overreach in the restriction of Charter freedoms, or the ruinously expensive governmental response, or continued public fear of the virus,” states lawyer and Justice Centre president John Carpay.
“Of 38 million Canadians, very few are going to get sick. Almost all who get sick will get over it. As a country we need to protect those of our elderly citizens who are genuinely vulnerable. We need our Charter freedoms restored to us, to get back to work, and to get back to living life and enjoying it,” continues Mr. Carpay.
“Notwithstanding the public alarm ignited by health bureaucrats, fanned by elected officials and breathlessly reported as gospel truth by a strangely incurious news media, the numbers simply don’t support the government’s message of fear,” adds Mr. Carpay.
“The Charter requires governments to have a pressing reason for violating our fundamental freedoms to move, travel, assemble, associate and worship. The governments’ own data and statistics make it clear that Covid does not justify the ongoing and continuing violation of Charter rights and freedoms by our federal and provincial governments,” concludes Mr. Carpay.
NOTE: Dates referenced are drawn from the year-end report by Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, and from Statistics Canada. When reviewing data published by Statistics Canada, it should be noted that Statistics Canada receives and then verifies data from provincial gathering agencies. Processing times and reporting practices vary. Early revisions can be the most significant, but data is noted by Statistics Canada as provisional for up to 18 months.
The data in 10 reasons is sourced from a Statistics Canada data release from April 16, 2021.
REFERENCES
1 https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/210310/dq210310c-eng.htm
NB: These are Statistics Canada provisional numbers, issued 10 March 2021. Mortality information is provided to Statistics Canada by provincial health authorities. Statistics Canada offers this figure as complete to mid-December 2020.
2 https://www.google.com/search?q=Statistics+Canada+average+age+of+death+Canada&rlz=1C5CHFA_enCA710CA710&oq=Statistics+Canada+average+age+of+death+Canada&aqs=chrome..69i57.25215j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
3 John P.A. Ioannidis , The Infection Fatality Rate of COVID- 19 Inferred from Seroprevalence Data, Bulletin of the World Health Organization BLT 20.265892.
4 1 Buitrago-Garcia D, Egli-Gany D, Counotte MJ, Hossmann S, Imeri H, Ipekci AM, Salanti G, Low N. Occurrence and transmission potential of asymptomatic and presymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections: A living systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoSMed.2020Sep22;17(9):e1003346.doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1003346. PMID: 32960881; PMCID: PMC7508369
5 3 (Madewell ZJ, Yang Y, Longini IM, Halloran ME, Dean NE. Household Transmission of SARS-CoV-2: A
Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. JAMA Netw Open. 2020;3(12):e2031756.
doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.31756)
6 Cevik M, Tate M, Lloyd O et al. SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV, and MERS-CoV viral load dynamics, duration of
viral shedding, and infectiousness: a systematic review and meta-analysis. The Lancet Microbe. Nov. 19, 2020.
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2666-5247(20)30172-5
7 “This year, in the United States, more children have died from the seasonal flu than from Covid by a factor of two or three.” Dr. Jay Bhattacharya.
8 https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2006372?fbclid=IwAR3e3YY1COf9EsWYArX_XZzZLQglrjQu5D4fDXNxiy68Rb9KODhc-pb1wBE
9 Ibid.