Kenney is bragging about how much better Alberta is doing with vaccinations than other provinces. He says we’re on track to vaccinate all LTC residents by next week. #ableg

After assuring his base that no one will *have* to get a vaccine and saying he will change the law to prevent it from being mandatory, Kenney begs everyone to be vaccinated, then blames Trudeau for why it’s not going faster.

Kenney says they will include paramedics in the first phase of vaccinations. Finally!

Kenney says we will be up to 50,000 doses a week by the end of January, and 200,000 per week by the end of March. Blames Trudeau again that we will run out of vaccine a week from now.

Blames Trudeau yet again for lack of supply. That’s at least three so far. Weeks ago Dr. Hinshaw said it would be weeks until they decided who would be in Phase 2.

Shandro calls his hero “Premier” again, twice, then brags again about our FANTASTIC vaccine program.

Shandro repeats yet again who is/was in line to be vaccinated. You would think, by his account of it, that Alberta’s vaccine roll out is the best EVER. Seems to be overcompensating for not having had paramedics and EMS on the priority list from the start.

Shandro “We are here for you. We want every Albertan to get the vaccine as quickly as the federal government provides them to us (4?). We don’t stop.” And *another* one against the federal government.

Does it seem like the game plan today was mainly to blame the federal government? Shandro says we are a ‘model for the rest of Canada’.

Now the update is cutting to someone from the Alberta Paramedics Association lavishing thanks on UCP for putting them in line for vaccines. This whole update so far is little but trying to salvage UCP’s tarnished reputation.

Of COURSE paramedics should always have been on the list. I feel like the person who spoke was instructed to say thanks and praise UCP at least a certain number of times.

Where is Dr. Hinshaw?

Her disembodied voice glossed over the fact that they have nothing to say about schools. So much for the 800,000 kids and students who went back today.

She is repeating the same stats about vaccines that Kenney and Shandro just said, plus a few details about 7 adverse reactions to the vaccine. 3 were allergic reactions.

Dr. Hinshaw says we must ‘keep up the momentum’ of bending the curve. Good luck with that with schools open. Reporter says we should get 700,000 doses (for 350,000 people) by the end of March. Kenney says its 677,000 doses. Our capacity by then will ‘far, far outstrip’ supply.

Kenney mansplains to the reporter that the doses is only half the number that can be vaccinated with two doses (which the reporter had actually said in his question already).

Reporter asks what, if anything, can we do to get more supply from the feds. Kenney loves this question. “If there was ever an emergency, this is it,” he proclaims, in his leaderly way. Kenney asked his legal folks if we can get other vaccines Health Canada hasn’t approved yet.

Rick Bell with a question about “because of the way Ottawa has handled this” if Albertans will be lined up and there will be no vaccines to give them. Rick got the memo about the vibe of today’s update!

Kenney says “All I see is red on the schedule between next week and March” (meaning no supply of vaccine).
“I want to be clear, this is not a blame game. Alberta has stepped up in a big way, and we need more doses.”

Chris Varcoe asks about companies in personal services industry threatening to reopen right away (hair salons, gyms, nails, etc.) Kenney says he knows it’s a ‘brutally difficult time’ for those businesses. 5 wks ago, he says, we were in the midst of frightening exponential growth

Kenney says many want ‘quite obviously and quite rationally’ to have their area open up. They need to look at the data when they get the testing back up to speed. (Apparently that doesn’t matter for schools, though).

Dr. Hinshaw says there are 2 things we don’t know from November and December during the rapid growth of cases: no contact tracing and no follow up, and whether there would have been transmission in those personal services as a result. Who cares about schools though.

Kenney says our goal is to have the ‘least stringent restrictions in the country’.

Reporter asks about polling that shows Albertans are the most vaccine hesitant. What are they going to do about it? Kenney says that’s what they’re doing today. Kenney says there are always hard core anti-vaxxers and they are impossible to persuade.

He says there is a large group in the middle who are going to wait and see and take some time to get their confidence. Are these the people Rick Bell said would be lining up outside waiting for vaccines that the feds. won’t send?

Kenney is saying that we have a bunch of people who will wait quite a while to decide to be vaccinated, but at the same time, we’re going to run out right away because everyone wants it?

Kevin Nimmock asks about the AB Trace together app and how many times it’s been used? Dr. Hinshaw hasn’t seen recent data. She says it will work better if many people download it and use it. They’ve been ‘working closely with Singapore’ who developed it and find it effective.

Kenney says they updated it in December and will again in January, so it’s ‘increasing in effectiveness’ and ‘more people join every day and every week’. Second question about Stoney Nakota community and covid outbreaks there.

Kenney hasn’t spoken to their chief and doesn’t know, but still fills up a lot of time talking about their challenges to isolate and supports available.

French reporter asks again about why Albertans don’t want to be vaccinated and what % age of the doses we have is the 46,000 that have been administered. Dr. Hinshaw says it’s about 80%. In French, Kenney repeats what he said earlier about anti-vaxxers and people waiting to see.

Just before they cut the mic, Kenney seemed to be asking the sign language interpreter, “You guys don’t do French?”