Ontario reports 43 new COVID-19 deaths; record 3,957 hospitalizations
Ontario reported 43 new COVID-19 deaths as the province hit another record number of hospitalizations due to the Omicron variant.
The Ministry of Health says there are 3,957 patients in hospitals across the province due to the virus, breaking yesterday’s record of 3,814 and up from 2,594 a week ago.
Individuals who are fully vaccinated represent 78.3% of Ontario’s total population.
There are 10,732 new cases of #COVID19.
Today’s numbers will be available at 10:30 a.m. at https://t.co/ypmgZbVRvn.
— Christine Elliott (@celliottability) January 15, 2022
Canadian COVID-19 vaccine study seized on by anti-vaxxers — highlighting dangers of early research in pandemic
A Canadian study that vastly underestimated the protection COVID-19 vaccines provide against the Omicron variant is being revised — but not before it spread widely on social media by anti-vaxxers, academics and even the creators of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine.
The Ontario preprint study, which has not yet been peer reviewed, suggested that any three doses of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines were just 37 per cent effective against Omicron infection, while two doses actually showed negative protection.
The preprint has been shared on Twitter more than 15,000 times in the two weeks since it’s been published, according to Altmetric, a company that tracks where published research is posted online. That’s in the top five per cent of all research it’s ever tracked.
