https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/8d7f-Drug-Alert30Jan2021.pdf
Overdose deaths are so high that Toronto Public Health is telling drug users to violate lockdown, for safety:
"Try not to use alone. Use with someone else and take turns spotting for each other.Wear a mask and stay 6 feet away from people you are using with to avoid passing the virus. A buddy system is safer than using alone"
Lockdowns kill.
@pete ... especially now I know that protesting the virus works ...
https://www.rte.ie/news/coronavirus/2021/0130/1194009-coronavirus-global/
@orionwl @timp it's interesting how that article is written in a way that assumes you've 100% bought into the ridiculous zero covid strategy. Specifically, in how it's asking for infections to be brought low enough that "test and trace" will keep up.
The sane strategy is to get it over with. That means getting people infected as fast as the healthcare system can handle, with as many of those infections in people who are least likely to be harmed.
This is the Israeli strategy currently. Hospitals are at 100% for severe cases while simultaneously there's strict lockdown and very rapid vaccination (practically all of the at risk groups already vaccinated w/pfizer). When hospitals regain capacity, lockdowns are loosened. Over and over again.
So far it's not great. Infections don't seem to be coming down despite very high % of vaccinations.
@pox @orionwl @timp No, if Israel is actually practicing a strict lockdown they're not following the strategy I'm proposing. I'm proposing *selective* lockdown, allowing those not at risk to get infected while attempting to protect those who are. That's closer to what Sweden, Florida, etc. have been doing (whether they admit it or not).
@pox @orionwl @timp Though Israel is doing one thing very right: IIUC they've been keeping schools open. Kids don't seem to spread it much in schools. But they *do* get infected. And they probably contribute to spread in other situations, eg at home. So might as well get them infected earlier rather than later. And besides, missed in-person education is an *enormous* problem that disproportionately affects the worst off in society. Both the kids, and their working parents.
