I wanted to question Dr. Kalyan, too.
I wasn't sure on your testimony, where you seem to question the mandates. Admittedly, the vaccines aren't good at preventing the spread of omicron, but you acknowledge that the reason for the mandates was kind of shifted to preventing hospitalization, ICU admission and deaths.
Do you not agree that this is a valid concern and that the government ought to be taking actions to try to prevent hospitalization, ICU admissions and death? As Dr. Jacobs has told us, the fact is that all of that also undermines the ability of the health care system to provide other health services. Am I wrong?
You're giving me the impression that you think we shouldn't have any mandates at all and you don't buy the fact that.... There's tons of evidence about the vaccines decreasing hospitalization and ICU admissions, even with omicron. Kaiser Permanente said that people are 64% to 73% less likely to be hospitalized if they've been vaccinated. From a South African study, it's a 70% reduction in hospitalization for fully vaccinated people. This is omicron. Also, in Quebec, people who hadn't been vaccinated were seven times more likely to be hospitalized and 14 times more likely to end up in ICU.
This seems to me like a pretty good reason to be promoting vaccinations, and social distancing if necessary. Those are pretty significant numbers. Even as of March 14, there were 435 people in ICUs across Canada and 4,200 hospitalized COVID patients.
Maybe I'm misinterpreting you.