COVID-19 'now a preventable disease,' B.C.'s top doctor says
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B.C.'s top doctor is calling COVID-19 "a preventable disease," citing effectiveness of vaccines as the reason.
B.C.'s top doctor is calling COVID-19 "a preventable disease," citing effectiveness of vaccines as the reason.
In a modelling presentation Thursday, Dr. Bonnie Henry outlined what B.C.'s COVID-19 caseload would be without vaccines. Currently, the reproductive number in the province is at or below one in nearly all regions, meaning each new confirmed infection is spreading, on average, to just one other person, or fewer.
Without vaccination, Thursday's modelling presentation suggested the virus' reproductive number would be 3.43, and cases would be growing exponentially, surpassing 8,000 per day in a matter of just a few weeks.
"This is showing us how important and how protective and effective the vaccines that we have are," Henry said. "This is now a preventable disease, particularly in severe illness, hospitalizations."
The modelling data presented Thursday also revealed an updated estimate of how much more likely individuals are to get infected, end up in hospital or die from COVID-19 if they are unvaccinated.
Adjusted for age, unvaccinated individuals are 10 times more likely to test positive for COVID-19, the data suggested, and 46 times more likely to die from the disease.
But the risk of hospitalization is even higher.
