TUTORIAL #1 (SHORT): How to read official Government of Canada “Cases following vaccination“ data

This tutorial demonstrates a simple yet very powerful data reporting technique used by the Government of Canada to support its claims regarding the efficacy of vaccines. In sports, such technique is known as “handicap betting“ and in politics, it is sometimes referred to as “winning communication strategy“. To determine the number of cases among vaccinated versus unvaccinated individuals from the time a particular dose was administered, rather than from the time when vaccines were approved, follow these steps: Step 1: Search for “Cases following vaccination Canada“ on Google. This will lead you to the Public Health Agency of Canada website () which reports the _total_ number of cases for each vaccination status group since the date vaccines have been approved in Canada, which is December 14, 2020. Step 2: To obtain the number of cases since the start of administering a particular vaccine dose, subtract the numbers reported in the first week of administering this dose (i.e., December 2021 for first booster, April 2022 for second booster ) from the numbers of consecutive reports. Step 3: Record the obtained numbers, observe which vaccination group has the largest and the smallest number of hospitalizations and deaths. Step 4 (optional): Share your findings with other people. In doing so, you can use the analogy of “handicap betting“ used in sports, which is a way to level the playing field between teams of unequal strength by giving the weaker team a head start or the stronger team a disadvantage in terms of goals or points. Notes: This tutorial was created in January 2023. Since then, the Government of Canada has stopped reporting “Cases following vaccination“ data. To retrieve the PHAC reports for a particular week of interest, you can use the Wayback Machine (). To learn more: