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Important COVID data; missing or suppressed?

Letter to the Editor
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It is nearly impossible, and for a good reason, that we can’t seem to consume a day of news and not be bombarded with the latest tabulation of Covid data. Then follows the task of deciding what is relevant and significant versus what is just a rehash of data and arguments seen before.

I have been waiting with bated breath for a particular slice of the numbers for two months. However, it has yet to surface to date, and we are left to wonder if this is innocent omittance or by design. One can only hope it is not the latter. 

At the end of December, the Province of Ontario announced a change in methodology in how Covid data would be made publicly available. These changes were primarily driven by a change in guidance over PCR testing, the overwhelming magnitude of trying to keep up with daily record-breaking reported and unreported cases, as well as a promise to reflect hospitalizations and cases by vaccination status. 

It is these latter criteria – cases and hospitalizations by vaccination status – this space would like to touch upon and point out an essential missing ingredient. The analysis we seek is undoubtedly buried in the data, but it has yet to see the light of day, at least not publicly.

The most important data we have yet to hear about would be from, say Nov. 1, 2021, onward; the number of cases per day and hospitalization by variant type and by vaccination status as defined by 3, 2, 1, and none. With an emphasis on 3.

It would be essential to learn what number and percent of cases – by day so we can track the data logarithmically and measure booster effectiveness 7-10 days after injection – are among those with all three doses (not just two doses) that nevertheless became infected and by what strain of the virus, Omicron, Delta, or other. 

If and when we get this data publicly, we will know, once and for all, how effective having all three doses is versus just having two, one, or none. The same data by hospitalization would also help confirm or deny Omicron’s reported lesser severity, especially by vaccine status.

The answers to these questions would go a long way in helping us understand the effectiveness of vaccine status and then measure this against past, current, and future Covid protocols about isolation requirements, business and school closures, other forms of lockdowns, social distancing, and the like.

The cynic in me can’t help but wonder if this data is missing or suppressed. Surely not the latter, right?