Is Canada close to the end of the COVID tunnel?

There's a lot of well-deserved hopefulness in the air right now — but we have you covered with a few recent developments to keep in mind.

Hey there, and welcome to the 38th issue of The Supplement, a newsletter that fills in the gaps of your other news intake. This is Alex, one-third of The Supplement team! 

Each week, we pick a question submitted by you, our readers. If you’d like to submit a question for a future week, then email us at thesupplementnewsletter@gmail.com or reach out to us on Twitter or Instagram.

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This week, we’re tackling this question: Is Canada close to the end of the COVID tunnel? 

TL;DR: After over a year of living with the pandemic, it’s nice to think about recent provincial re-openings as the light at the end of the tunnel. But with the first dose vaccination rate plateauing and new variants spreading, worries remain about how secure Canadians actually are in the fight against COVID-19. And it’s also important to think about the pandemic beyond our borders.

In the past few weeks, there’s been a feeling that we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to the COVID-19 pandemic. How accurate is this perception?

It’s true that Canada is now one of the world leaders when it comes to COVID-19 vaccination rates. As of July 6, close to 70 per cent of Canadians have received at least one vaccine dose, while around 38 per cent of Canadians have been fully vaccinated. 

But these figures are not quite there yet — Health Minister Patty Hajdu has set the target for at least 75 per cent of Canadians to be fully vaccinated. Meanwhile, some experts project that Canada should aim for a 90 per cent rate to avoid a fourth wave. 

Yet, since late June, the number of Canadians getting their first dose has also been stagnating — a fact that is concerning given the growth of the Delta variant, which was first identified in India. (This variant is 50 per cent more transmissible than the first strain and quickly becoming the dominant variant globally.)

And I heard that there’s now a new variant?

You might be thinking about the Lambda variant, which was recently termed a “variant of interest” by the World Health Organization and not yet a “variant of concern.” Health Canada has reported 11 cases related to it in the country so far.

The Lambda variant is actually not new, having been spotted last summer in Peru. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of concrete information on it yet. A preliminary study suggests that mRNA vaccines are still responsive to the Lambda strain, though there’s now extra emphasis on getting both doses as quickly as possible.  

Also, here’s a quick explainer on all the variants present in Canada and their traits.

Beyond these specific variants, the big-picture takeaway is that new strains of COVID-19 will keep popping up as long as we allow the virus to spread. And experts say getting vaccinated is a key way to fight back. 

Another way is to continue wearing masks, even as provinces start to drop their mask-wearing mandates. This is especially important when we consider that for some groups like immunocompromised individuals, the vaccine might be less effective in protecting them against COVID-19. 

“The more we allow the virus to spread, the more opportunity the virus has to change,” said the WHO. 

Still, Canada isn’t doing too shabby, right?

This is true, compared to the majority of the world. 

For instance, Vietnam had early success in containing COVID-19 with its aggressive social distancing campaign. But now it is seeing a rapidly rising case count, while also struggling to secure enough COVID-19 vaccine doses. So far, just under 4 per cent of the country has received one dose, while the fully vaccinated rate is around 0.2 per cent. 

Meanwhile, Japan has declared a state of emergency in Tokyo and banned spectators from the Olympics in the area. And as of July 6, only 26.5 per cent of the country’s population has received the first dose.

This isn’t a pat on the back for Canada — this is a reminder to think about the pandemic beyond North America and Europe. Because of vaccine inequity (with rich countries hoarding most of the vaccine doses), the coronavirus still has plenty of opportunities to spread and mutate and devastate. (Globally, the known COVID-19 death toll has now surpassed 4 million.) This, of course, could then come back to hurt Canadians.

Here’s someone to follow: 

Lately, I’ve been devouring pieces about internet culture. Maybe it’s the Y2K revival, maybe it’s the fact that internet culture is pop culture, or maybe it’s because I’m obsessed with whatever the TikTok algorithm has to offer me. But anyway, that’s to say I’ve been reading a lot of Vox senior reporter Rebecca Jennings’s writing – and you should too! 

Here’s a story to check out: 

Last June, a New Brunswick police officer fatally shot Chantel Moore, a woman from the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation, during a wellness check. While the high-profile case helped propel the national reckoning over policing, the officer was ultimately not criminally charged. More than a year later, The Globe’s Atlantic reporter, Greg Mercer, took a look at what has and has not changed about police treatment of Indigenous people in Canada.