Dear Editor:
The Jan. 14 Advertiser included a letter indicating the 2020 national COVID-19 death rate in Canada was 45.7 per 100,000, (16,753 deaths in total according to the letter.)
While this is a serious number, on its own it doesn’t tell us enough to adequately understand the situation and develop a coherent national strategy that will protect those now being harmed and avoid wasting money and taking on risk providing unneeded services to those who are not. As the Advertiser reported then, 40% of Ontario’s LTC facilities were in outbreak.
According to Ryerson University’s Institute for Aging, at the time its report was released, long-term care (LTC) and retirement homes accounted for 73% of total COVID-19 deaths in Canada. Federal numbers show that 71% of the Canadian COVID-19 deaths have been among people 80 years of age and older; 97% of the Canadian COVID-19 deaths have been among those 60 and over.
Here’s where superficial analysis has led us tragically astray. We have about 1,663,600 Canadian citizens aged 80 or over (about 4.5% of Canada’s population). Based on these national numbers provided by the government, this means that the death rate for 2020 due to COVID-19 among Canadians 80 and over was a staggering 715 per 100,000! The corresponding death rate for the remaining Canadian population under 80 was less than 14 per 100,000.
The numbers and facts speak for themselves. We have a death rate for our elders that is 51 times greater than for the remaining 95% of our population.
Why isn’t anyone asking the questions that at least someone must be thinking?
Terence Rothwell,
Wellington North