Fact Check: Trudeau Did NOT Drop Vaccine Mandate Because 9 In Every 10 COVID-19 Deaths Have Been Among the Vaccinated

Myriad Factors

Did Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau drop Canada’s vaccine mandate because nine in every 10 COVID-19 deaths have been among the vaccinated? No, that’s not true: The Canadian government made no such claim in the announcement of its plan to end the vaccine mandate for people entering the country. It did cite several other factors, however, including Canada’s high vaccination rates and lower hospitalization and death rates.

The claim appeared in an article (archived here) published on September 27, 2022, by The Exposé, a British website critical of COVID-19 vaccination. Titled “Trudeau drops COVID Vaccine Mandate because 9 in every 10 Covid-19 Deaths have been among the Triple/Quadruple Vaccinated in the past 3 months,” the article opened:

Back in June, Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister of Canada, tested positive for Covid-19 for a second time despite allegedly being triple vaccinated. But despite this personal and clear evidence the that Covid-19 injections are useless, Trudeau refused to remove the Covid vaccine mandates he had enforced across Canada.

This is what the article looked like on The Exposé at the time of writing:

(Source: Screenshot taken on The Exposé website on Fri Sep 30 20:45:03 UTC)

The article covered the Canadian government’s announcement on September 26, 2022, that it will remove COVID-19 border and travel restrictions. Starting October 1, 2022, all travelers, regardless of citizenship, will no longer have to provide proof of vaccination. The government cited multiple factors for the move; none echoed in the claim published by The Exposé.

In the statement, the government said:

The removal of border measures has been facilitated by a number of factors, including modelling that indicates that Canada has largely passed the peak of the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 fuelled wave, Canada’s high vaccination rates, lower hospitalization and death rates, as well as the availability and use of vaccine boosters (including new bivalent formulation), rapid tests, and treatments for COVID-19.

Similarly, Jean-Yves Duclos, the Canadian minister of health, said:

Thanks largely to Canadians who have rolled up their sleeves to get vaccinated, we have reached the point where we can safely lift the sanitary measures at the border.

Within North America, Canada currently has the highest rate of vaccination — 85.41% of the population has received at least one dose, according to official data (that compares with 79% in the United States and 76.57% in Mexico.) Nearly 90% of all Canadians 5 years old and up have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, government statistics show.

Canadian and other researchers argue that COVID-19 cases are statistically more probable among vaccinated individuals since vaccinated people far outnumber the unvaccinated. Though the vaccines are not 100% effective, that does not mean the vaccines are not effective at all, they stress.

In fact, the Canadian government states:

People who were diagnosed with COVID-19 after completing their primary vaccine series were significantly less likely to be hospitalized or to die, particularly if they received an additional dose(s).

Between August 1, 2022 and August 28, 2022, unvaccinated cases were 5 times more likely to be hospitalized and 7 times more likely to die from their illness, compared to cases with a completed primary vaccine series. During the same 4-week period, unvaccinated cases were 7 times more likely to be hospitalized and 8 times more likely to die from their illness, compared to cases with a completed primary vaccine series and 1 or more additional doses.

A final, important factor to consider is that older adults and people more at risk for severe disease have been prioritized for vaccination. Close to 95% of people ages 60 and up in Canada have completed their primary vaccination series.

Lead Stories has debunked several other COVID-related claims made by The Exposé. You can read those stories here.