Coronavirus Outbreak

[silentreader]

Also this. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-q ... 1b-eng.htm

In 2019 we had 3,300 death of an unspecified cause. In 2022 we have 16,000 such deaths. I wonder why this could be?

Go figure. I'm guessing 2023 is higher yet.

[Ken]

Also this. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-q ... 1b-eng.htm

In 2019 we had 3,300 death of an unspecified cause. In 2022 we have 16,000 such deaths. I wonder why this could be?

Click through to the underlying data table which which is much larger and there is this footnote under the “other” category

"Other causes of death" is a residual category, which includes all causes of death that are not part of the 50 leading causes of death list.”

I would suspect it is some data artifact due to some change in their data accounting categories, not that there are a growing number of mysterious deaths in Canada which have no attributable cause.

[Ken]

Doctors who wanted to prescribe ivm and hcq had to face pharmacies ordered not to distribute it. Sorry, but your fantasy of "doctors and hospitals rightly chose not to..." is just that, a fantasy. Many doctors wanted to, but faced intense pressure to prevent patients from having access to these life-saving medicines.

Because of Republican-led efforts provide pharmacists with the legal right to refuse to prescribe medications for any reasons of conscience we had a situation where there were some pharmacists who felt that they could not in good conscience prescribe alternative therapies for COVID that they knew to be ineffective. These laws were written with birth control and abortifacients in mind. But they apply to anything including including unapproved COVID therapies.

Are you in favor of repealing such laws and requiring all pharmacists to fill all legal prescriptions?

That wasn’t at all what happened. Why are you confusing the two unrelated concepts?

That is exactly it. Either you provide pharmacists with the legal ability to refuse to fill prescriptions based on their own opinions and prejudices. Or you do not allow that and require them to fill any and all legal prescriptions. Take your pick.

[Josh]

That is exactly it. Either you provide pharmacists with the legal ability to refuse to fill prescriptions based on their own opinions and prejudices. Or you do not allow that and require them to fill any and all legal prescriptions. Take your pick.

The prohibitions on filling prescriptions for HCQ or ivermectin was not coming from individual pharmacists at all, but instead were top-down corporate measures from the larger pharmacy chains.

It is absurd to confuse that with individual pharmacists having convictions about distributing poisons intended to kill unborn babies.

[Ken]

That is exactly it. Either you provide pharmacists with the legal ability to refuse to fill prescriptions based on their own opinions and prejudices. Or you do not allow that and require them to fill any and all legal prescriptions. Take your pick.

The prohibitions on filling prescriptions for HCQ or ivermectin was not coming from individual pharmacists at all, but instead were top-down corporate measures from the larger pharmacy chains.

It is absurd to confuse that with individual pharmacists having convictions about distributing poisons intended to kill unborn babies.

It was both.

But it is the same legal principle either way. Do you want the law to require that pharmacies fulfill legal prescriptions? Or do you want to give them discretion to choose which prescriptions to fill based on their own opinions and prejudices? Pick one or the other.

[Signtist]

would suspect it is some data artifact due to some change in their data accounting categories, not that there are a growing number of mysterious deaths in Canada which have no attributable cause.

I would like for that explanation to be public knowledge, not just an "I suspect."

[silentreader]

Also this. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-q ... 1b-eng.htm

In 2019 we had 3,300 death of an unspecified cause. In 2022 we have 16,000 such deaths. I wonder why this could be?

Click through to the underlying data table which which is much larger and there is this footnote under the “other” category

"Other causes of death" is a residual category, which includes all causes of death that are not part of the 50 leading causes of death list.”

I would suspect it is some data artifact due to some change in their data accounting categories, not that there are a growing number of mysterious deaths in Canada which have no attributable cause.

Interesting take. There is obviously a difference between the category of 16043 showing "ill-defined and unspecified cause" and the 78354 that are "other causes of death". The former is probably included in the latter.
Interesting that malaria, for instance, is ranked 44 in leading causes of death with 1 as compared to the unranked "other causes" with 78354.

[Ken]

would suspect it is some data artifact due to some change in their data accounting categories, not that there are a growing number of mysterious deaths in Canada which have no attributable cause.

I would like for that explanation to be public knowledge, not just an "I suspect."

I mean I have no idea. I don't work with mortality data in Canada.

But in my previous life I did work on a daily basis doing analysis with large databases. And when something looks strange it is usually an artifact of some change they made in how something is coded or reported. Sometimes it is indeed something strange and meaningful. But you want to eliminate all the other more likely explanations before you just to a conclusion such as that there are fast-growing numbers of unexplained deaths in Canada.

But that's unlikely to be something we can do from afar. The data folks producing those tables should have noticed it looked strange and did some digging of their own to see where the numbers are coming from. And at least provided a footnote to explain.

Just like you edit text for typos and grammatical errors before posting it in a public report, you should also carefully proof-read and edit tables and graphs before doing the same. And identify/explain any results that look anomalous.

[Signtist]

Well in that case I'll arbitrarily assume that none of the other data they present is saying what they want it to say either.

[Ken]

Well in that case I'll arbitrarily assume that none of the other data they present is saying what they want it to say either.

Or if you are truly curious you could send a message to the authors of the report and ask what they think the numbers mean and where all those unidentified deaths are coming from. Statistics Canada has a contact link on that very page.