Grim reaper

Wednesday April 1, 2020

 

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday April 1, 2020

Breaking down the COVID-19 numbers

Coronavirus cartoons

In a little more than two months, SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, raced around the world and turned a handful of known cases to more than three quarters of a million, with at least 36,000 lives lost – reported figures that the scientific and health communities widely agree are too low.

The spreading virus has pushed numerous countries to scramble to lock down cities, shutter non-essential businesses, and close their borders to all but their own citizens, adopting some of the extraordinary measures executed in China that might have previously been unthinkable elsewhere.

Researchers and armchair epidemiologists alike are analyzing the trove of data to create models, find patterns and clues on whether curves are being flattened, which country is on a faster or slower trajectory, why death rates and ages vary, what measures seemed to work, and when the pandemic might end.

The flood of numbers and questions they raise can be overwhelming for the average person trying to make sense of the data.

Epidemiologists and an infectious disease expert who spoke with CTVNews.ca said it was too early to make predictions or draw conclusions from the data, but stressed the importance of understanding the context surrounding the numbers. 

While most of the focus has been on the daily tally of new cases, epidemiologists say that other data points are more useful.

Cynthia Carr, a Winnipeg-based epidemiologist with two decades of experience interpreting and developing protocols for gathering and analyzing health data, said the daily focus on new cases can be a distraction and spark unnecessary panic.

“[The public was] not listening to the information. They were in a store with 1,000 people at Costco buying toilet paper” when that was the last place they should be, said Carr.

The total number of tests administered, infections, hospitalizations, intensive care patients, and deaths are all key indicators for different reasons, explained Erin Strumpf, an epidemiologist and associate professor at McGill University.

“It’s more about the rate of change in those numbers than it is about the actual numbers on a given day,” she said.

The mortality and hospitalization rates – and whether they are increasing or decreasing over time – gives more context and balance to the data, Carr noted.

“You should never just look at one piece of information,” Carr said.

“I have said from the beginning, when we increase our testing capacity, you would quickly see an increase in cases… we’re getting more of an accurate denominator, an accurate representation of the number of people with the illness.” (CTV) 

 

Wednesday October 31, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday October 31, 2019

Scheer faces more criticism as Conservative caucus reminded of new rules that could trigger a leadership review

On a day when three prominent conservatives publicly criticized Andrew Scheer’s leadership, a note went out to the Conservative caucus reminding them of new parliamentary rules that could allow a leadership review to be held as early as next week.

Peter MacKay Gallery

Peter MacKay, one of the co-founders of the modern Conservative party, told a Washington audience Wednesday that in the face of Justin Trudeau’s stumbles, the Conservative leader’s failure to win the Oct. 21 election was “like having a breakaway on an open net” and missing the chance to put the puck in.

Appearing on a panel at the Wilson Centre’s Canada Institute, MacKay — who up to now has said he supports Scheer — nevertheless took his own shots at the Conservative leader and the campaign he ran.

“People didn’t want to talk about women’s reproductive rights, or revisiting same-sex marriage,” said MacKay, but it was “thrust onto the agenda” and “hung around Andrew Scheer’s neck like a stinking albatross, quite frankly, and he wasn’t able to deftly deal with those issues when the opportunities arose.”

MacKay said it “created a nervousness” among women who might have considered voting Conservative.

October 16, 2019

But MacKay, who left politics in 2015, may not be as big an immediate threat to Scheer as those sitting inside Scheer’s Conservative caucus.

Le Devoir has reported Quebec Conservative senators Jean-Guy Dagenais, and Josée Verner, a former Conservative cabinet minister who sits in the Senate as an independent, are publicly calling for Scheer to step aside. Dagenais told the paper that Scheer’s social conservative beliefs hurt the party in Quebec, and suggested it might be better for Scheer to bow out. Verner said it was time for the party to “change the recipe.”

As the political pressure continued to build Wednesday, the Conservative caucus was reminded of new parliamentary rules that could conceivably enable a vote on Scheer’s leadership as early as next week.

In an email sent to all MPs and obtained by the Star on Wednesday, Conservative MP Michael Chong reminded his parliamentary colleagues of the “legal obligations” of each caucus to vote at its first meeting on a number of questions of protocol, including what powers it has for ousting its leader. The first Conservative caucus meeting will be held Nov. 6 in Ottawa.

Chong spearheaded parliamentary reforms in 2015 that allow every caucus to, among other things, empower itself to oust the party leader. If Conservatives decide to do so, a leadership review could be triggered if 20 per cent of all Conservative MPs and senators call for it. In other words, should the caucus choose to adopt the new rules and then 30 members vote for a leadership review, a secret ballot vote would be held on whether Scheer can continue as leader. (Toronto Star) 

 

Wednesday September 27, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday September 27, 2017

U.S. VP Pence blasts ‘failings’ of Canadian health system

The vice-president of the United States has some less-than-complimentary words for Canada’s health-care system, which he accuses of certain “failings.”

Mike Pence made the remarks in an interview last week with Alaska radio station KFQD.

He was being asked about the Republican health legislation struggling to get through Congress.

Republicans appear to be wrestling to get a bill that would repeal Obamacare through the legislature before a procedural deadline later this month — and the effort is in deep trouble.

Pence warned that if the legislative effort collapses, the U.S. will be on a course for something similar to Canada.

That’s because the Democratic party is starting to rally to an unprecedented degree around the idea of single-payer health care as a long-term solution to the U.S.’s endless health debates.

“We have a clear choice here,” Pence said.

“You know, somewhere in between where I’m sitting in Washington, D.C., and (you) Alaska, is a place called Canada. I probably don’t need to tell the people Alaska about the failings of national socialized health care because it’s right in our neighbour and you see the results every day.

“Look, we’ve got a choice: It’s between big government, Washington, D.C., solutions that ultimately, I believe, will collapse into single-payer health care — or whether or not we’re going to repeal the (Obamacare) individual mandate.”

Canada’s health system is known to suffer from long wait times, especially for elective procedures. On the other hand, Canadians not only have longer life expectancies, but also spend far less on health care than Americans according to World Bank data.

The Trump administration has just received a fresh round of bad news about its health-reform effort: After John McCain, Susan Collins became the latest senator Monday to say she opposes the Obamacare repeal bill, almost certainly dooming it. (Source: Hamilton Spectator) 

 

Saturday September 2, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday September 2, 2017

Ticats’ Miserable Days, Summed Up

Football can be a dangerous, brutal sport. It’s particularly bad for brains. So far, most of the supporting evidence for that has come from studying the brains of dead players. Today, we’re going to change that.

For more than two years, The Spectator has been involved in a unique collaboration with a team of McMaster University researchers. We’ve been conducting sophisticated brain scanning experiments on nearly two dozen retired CFL football players to measure the long-term impacts of concussions and repeated hits to the head.

We believe this is the first study anywhere to report findings from living former football players using such a wide array of tests.

The results are “shocking,” one of our experts said. (Source: Hamilton Spectator) 

Meanwhile, In a span of less than a day, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats went from controversy to contrition over the hiring of disgraced former coach Art Briles.

Team owner Bob Young and CEO Scott Mitchell both apologized for adding Briles as assistant head coach on Monday, an offer that was rescinded following an outcry from fans and an intervention by the Canadian Football League.

“Clearly, what was being contemplated was totally unacceptable to the general public and the media,” Mitchell said Tuesday. “I think when we took a step back and had a chance to talk to the league and some of our partners and some of our fans, what we thought was an opportunity to give somebody a second chance was clearly not acceptable in relation to what had previously happened and what (Briles) had been involved with.” (Source: Hamilton Spectator)